Netflix Ratched trailer shows Sarah Paulson using torture as a “cure”

Last Updated on August 2, 2021

I've never been more terrified of Sarah Paulson than I am right now after watching her become Nurse Mildred Ratched for Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST origin series RATCHED. For real. I can stomach just about anything, but there are images and scenes in this new trailer that have creeped me right out of my shivering skin.

Here's Netflix's official logline for RATCHED:

In 1947, Mildred (Paulson) arrives in Northern California to seek employment at a leading psychiatric hospital where new and unsettling experiments have begun on the human mind. On a clandestine mission, Mildred presents herself as the perfect image of what a dedicated nurse should be, but the wheels are always turning and as she begins to infiltrate the mental health care system and those within it, Mildred’s stylish exterior belies a growing darkness that has long been smoldering within, revealing that true monsters are made, not born.

While I'm not certain that RATCHED is for me, I do find the overall look of the show to be stylish and hypnotic. I also admire the malice that Paulson is channeling while depicting a young Nurse Ratched, whose time at war has clearly warped her in ways that have left her scarred and unhinged. I can only imagine the nightmare scenarios her patients will endure throughout the course of this series, and even though they're fictional characters, I feel for them all the same.

Joining Paulson for the unnerving origin story, created by Evan Romansky, are Sharon Stone, Cynthia Nixon, Finn Wittrock, Jon Jon Briones, Charlie Carver, Judy Davis, Harriet Harris, Hunter Parrish, Amanda Plummer, Corey Stoll, Sophie Okonedo, and Vincent D’Onofrio.

RATCHED, featuring the early exploits of one of cinema's most notorious villains, will clock into its shift on Netflix on September 18.