REVIEW: ‘Trust’ (2025) Is An Unfortunately Messy Survival Thriller

Sometimes a film script needs a couple more passes, and with Trust (2025), directed by Carlson Young (Upgraded), that’s absolutely the case. There have been plenty of horror thrillers or thrillers involving women (companion bots) being in sticky situations. Films like Don’t Move, Strange Darling, Companion, Push, and more. But unlike those films, Trust fumbles in its writing and direction. Ultimately, to the point where this film isn’t worth that much of your time. 

Trust follows a famous actress named Lauren Lane (Sophie Turner) who has to escape to a secluded Airbnb after details of her private life are leaked online. When several threats tarnish her relaxing getaway, she must fight to survive for more than just herself. The film’s narrative steers away from its misleading plot, pivoting in numerous directions that it felt like writer Gigi Levangie was throwing ideas at a dartboard. Trust lacks cohesiveness and has bafflingly written characters.

The film’s present day kicks off with Lauren’s team trying to sort out the scandal and get to the bottom of how to recuperate her image. Considering Lauren is a major star in a hit television series, which seems more like it was a minimal two-season wonder on the Disney Channel, it’s somewhat of a head-scratcher that she’s as famous as she is. The script then tries to convince us that someone of her level of fame shouldn’t ask security or someone else from her team to accompany her, especially since she’s pregnant. This proves to be the worst thing she decides for herself. 

Trust bypasses the more interesting take on the story.

Instead of pivoting and having her be conflicted about the pregnancy, Lauren wants to keep the baby. A mild conversation regarding a different side of pro-choice would have made things a bit less obvious. But instead, her desperate fight for life is because she’s desperate to be a mother. Her survival story is mainly linked to the pregnancy, and if the script was trying to do something intriguing with that idea, it might not be so frustrating. 

Naturally, when Lauren’s house is broken into, she goes to hide in the worst place imaginable. The home invasion that does happen is made possible by the nephew of one of the home invaders. This is all due to him having camera access to the Airbnb location because he works for the manager of the service. And the break-in is poorly executed by a pair of extremely unintelligent individuals, and when the nephew arrives to stop them, all hell breaks loose. 

Mayhem ensues, accidental and intentional deaths happen, and from there it spirals out of control. It’s not a bad thing that Trust breaks the home invasion thriller formula by having Lauren in one spot during the break-in,. But the most exciting story would’ve been to allow her to have agency and fight back against her intruders. 

Sophie Turner does her best with a bad script. 

When Trust isn’t spending time with Lauren the audience is left to deal with the other characters, who are mostly all written with very little intelligence. If this were a slasher that’s meant to be schlocky and silly, it wouldn’t be puzzling to watch. But this is a survival thriller that becomes very tedious to finish, and people are sure to find themselves scratching their heads, especially when the film doesn’t offer fun twists for people to chew on. 

There are flashbacks, but we get no indication of when things are happening or how old Lauren or Peter are when they’re taking place. We don’t even get confirmation on how big the age gap is between them. Therefore, any conversation to be had about the dynamics of her prior and current relationship with Peter is surface level. 

Despite the opportunities to properly flesh things out, we’re stuck jumping around to what other people are doing. And when we’re not doing that, we’re with Lauren, who keeps talking down to her stomach and making reckless decisions in an indiscernible room. Sophie Turner does her best with the lines she has to deliver, but at a certain point, her lines become quite grating. Meanwhile, everyone else ranges in terms of their erratic behavior. 

The best elements are all technical achievements. 

The better aspects of Trust come in the way of the visuals, like the bloodier moments and the shifting in color palettes. Otherwise, there’s only so much to praise this film because it tries to do way too much and doesn’t properly juggle those components.

As soon as Lauren gets her moment to shine properly, it’s almost too late. And there’s very little reason to fully care about Lauren’s character, other than the fact that she was used by a pathetic man before. Nothing serious is fleshed out enough, and it does a disservice to the film. 

All in all, Trust (2025) is a film that you could check out if you want to support a female-led horror film both behind and in front of the camera. However, there are other thrillers to invest your time in that won’t frustrate you on a foundational level. If Sophie Turner in a thriller is enough for you, then you might not be as disappointed in the end result. 

Trust (2025) premieres in theaters August 22nd.