There’s an embarrassment of the weird in Night Nurse that clearly draws heavily on the likes of directors David Lynch and David Cronenberg. Georgia Bernstein’s directorial debut delves into a strange world of eroticism and scams, with faith in the oddness of the concept and lingering camera shots. And while the movie tends to stumble here and there, it’s remarkably rousing when it finds the surreal sweet spots.

The new nurse Eleni (Cemre Paksoy) is entering a different world as she prepares to care for Douglas (Bruce McKenzie). There’s so much to get used to, but her fellow nurse Mona (Eleonore Hendricks) is willing to show her the ropes. Eventually, Eleni is let in on the scam that Douglas is cooking up. He calls up older, less mindful elders and uses the nurses to pose as faux daughters who have gotten into a car accident. The unquestioning old folks send over their money to make the problem go away, making Douglas and his nurses live in the lap of luxury. So long as they evade the ethical questioning of unsuspecting nurses and the investigation of detectives, they’ve got a good thing going.

Much like Cronenberg’s Crash, there’s a sexual thrill in this highly specific act. Douglas treats the phone scam as a sexual act all its own, walking the women through putting on just the right words and tone of voice. The opening makes this sensual nature almost comically loud, with the camera getting close to take in all the curves and holes of a corded phone. There’s a beautiful scene in which Douglas, Eleni, and Mona celebrate their recent call with an easygoing day in the yard, sharing a cigarette as they pass the smoke between their mouths. It’s an intoxicating moment of the bizarre, and it only gets stranger from there as the scam gets harder to cover up and Douglas becomes less dependable.

I tend to bristle whenever a director wants to delve into Cronenberg and Lynch territory, mostly because they miss the appeal of their directing styles. Too many times have I seen films favor Lynch’s pauses with no pregnancy between the words, or settle on the concept of strange sexualities rather than do something unique with them. What makes Georgia Bernstein’s direction work is that it strikes the right tone within its idiosyncratic assembly. There are plenty of quiet moments that allow for the sexual allure to take hold and the oddness to be observed more from a distance than front and center in every conversation. Scenes of quiet meetings and drunken parties all make this scam feel more believable than fantastical, allowing the farcical nature to organically surface. Much of that charm is the result of the actors delivering wonderfully nuanced performances that never feel too restrained or too much, considering how easy it would be for a movie like this to trip into either being a tedious slog or an absurd cavalcade of the grotesque.

Night Nurses mostly gets the job done of being an erotic thriller more tonally alluring than thematically engrossing. It spins its wheels a little too long here and there, but the bulk of the film has an air of unpredictability and unhingedness. It challenges morality and dives deep into depravity, unafraid to get messy with the material. Here’s hoping Bernstein can go wilder with the next movie.

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