If it seems like the walls are closing in as the relationship drama of Fair Play heats up that’s because they are. After all, director Chloe Domont actually altered the film’s sets throughout production to enhance the story’s sense of mounting claustrophobia. “Starting at the beginning of the second act, when the cracks of their relationship start to form, we started to bring in the walls 10 percent each time we were in the apartment until the end,” Domont told Tudum. “So the hallways were getting increasingly more narrow and we start to feel like the world is closing in on them. I love when you can manipulate physical spaces to reflect the emotional states of the characters and just have fun with those choices.”

In the new trailer for Domont’s vise-tightening thriller (which you can check out above), the central couple can feel the almost suffocating nature of a once idyllic romance that competitiveness and professional jealousy turns toxic. The walls aren’t just closing in, they are about to crumble altogether. “This job,” Emily (Phoebe Dynevor) intones over the closing images of the trailer, “it’s killing us.” 

The job in question is the coveted title of portfolio manager at the high-powered hedge fund One Crest Capital, where they both work. Both Emily and her boyfriend Luke (Alden Ehrenreich) fully expect that it will go to him. But instead, their cold-blooded boss Campbell (Eddie Marsan) passes the torch to Emily, and the couple’s relationship — already tested by One Crest Capital’s ban on office relationships — is shaken to the core. 

As Emily quickly rises through the ranks of the fund’s powerful leadership, Luke, once an attentive and understanding partner, begins to display signs of envy and resentment. The film’s music and use of sound even subtly echo the tension between the pair. “We created a score of dissonance, putting notes that don’t belong together to create this anxiety-induced feeling that keeps you on the edge,” said Domont. “Since the film is a pressure-cooker thriller, if we used notes that resolved, then it would give the idea that the story is resolving and deflate that balloon of tension.”

The director continued: “In terms of the sound design, there are layers and layers that we created to build this ticking time bomb feel throughout the film, some of which [we] hear clearly but can’t necessarily single out, and some of which you don’t hear at all, you just feel. We played with certain horror tropes, like floor creaks and pipe creaks in their apartment, when the conflict increases and their trust with each other starts to break. I wanted to use the sound of heat and the way in which it comes through pipes in old New York buildings, which can be incredibly unsettling.”

Meanwhile, outside the windows of their cramped apartment, the New York City skyline begins to resemble a row of daggers. In actuality, Domont filmed Fair Play in Belgrade — a convincing stand-in for the Big Apple that nonetheless adds to the film’s heightened sense of overpowering, otherworldly wrongness. “We built all the interiors on a stage,” Domont added. “Our production designer, Steve Summersgill, is an absolute ninja when it comes to building sets. And the two of us were equally meticulous in making sure these spaces feel authentic and lived-in and that the details reflected reality as much as possible — from the way the paint chipped around the radiator to the way the backdrops looked outside the window — everything within the frame was important in selling it.”

Fair Play is now streaming on Netflix.