From the first frame, American Sweatshop positions itself as a tightly wound psychological thriller centered on the unseen mechanics of online content moderation. Uta Briesewitz makes a confident leap from television—where she honed her eye on shows like Stranger Things—into her feature debut, guiding each scene with the precision of a TV director accustomed to rhythm and restraint. Lili Reinhart anchors the film as Daisy, a newly minted moderator at Paladin Control whose daily task is heartbreakingly simple: watch flagged clips, then click “accept” or “reject.”

The story takes its cues from real-world moderation hubs, marrying newsroom efficiency with horror‑film unease. Rows of workstations stretch into shadowy corners, where fluorescent lights hum and keyboard clicks fall like a metronome marking sanity’s decline. Reinhart’s Daisy emerges as a vessel for our own digital anxiety—she scans titles like “Woman Jumps Off Building” or “Nail in Her,...