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The isolation, anxiety, and loneliness of extended human spaceflight, recently explored in films like Netflix's "Spaceman" and the Apple TV+ series "Constellation," can be a debilitating side effect, and it's one that's examined in disorienting detail in Swedish director Mikael Håfström's new sci-fi thriller "Slingshot."

Starring Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, and Tomer Capone, "Slingshot" opened in theaters on Aug. 30 from Bleecker Street. It revolves around three distinguished astronauts aboard the Odyssey 1 spacecraft en route to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn. The long voyage requires a gravity-assist maneuver around Jupiter, and as the astronauts prepare for this dangerous move, one of them begins to have hallucinations caused by hypersleep drugs that make him question reality. These unsettling visions increase in intensity, threatening the mission's goals.

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"It's relative to '1408' in the way that it's a contained space and a psychological drama in an environment where you can't really get out from, because you're in the room or in the spaceship in complete isolation in space," Håfström told Space.com.

"I've always been drawn to that kind of story," he added. "There's something challenging making something in such a contained area. It's very interesting to work with actors in that sense. There's very little physical room to maneuver, so you need to work in a different way. I had the script for quite some time before we actually got the chance to make it. But I always carried it with me for all these reasons. It could be on a deserted island or anywhere, but now it happens to be in space. It's not 'Star Wars' or anything like that. When people see the film, they'll understand more about what I'm talking about. You need actors that can bring it home, and we were lucky."