Directed by: Sean Durkin
Starring: Elizabeth Olsen, Sarah Paulson, John Hawkes
This incredible first feature from writer/director Sean Durkin tells the story of Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) who's story begins at the end of her ordeal as we watch Martha escaping from what looks to be a rural commune, which as the story unfolds is revealed to be an oppressive cult where young girls are brought in and then enslaved by the male leaders limited to one meal a day and sexually abused on regular bases this regressive cult has damaged our protagonist to an irreconcilable degree in desperation she seeks shelter and hopefully protection from her sister Lucy (Sarah Paulson) and we the viewers are asked to piece the past together.
The beauty of this film is that it goes about telling this very horrific story in such a quiet an understated way, so rather than hitting you in the face with the horror of it slowly peels away at it layer by layer showing you the grooming process in a believable context answering those question that we all ask ourselves when we read about these said same cults. How could they have been so gullible? This disquieting feel runs through the film played out most convincingly between the two sisters. Lucy's vapid border line obsessive compulsive, self analytical preening and her emotionally stunted materialistic career obsessed husband Ted (Hugh Dancy) clashes with Martha's ideology developed over her time in the cult as she constantly references ex-cult members and her experiences at the cult as if it were some kind of crutch to help her cope with life out side the cult. As she struggles to integrate into the outside world and her new life with her sister the slow release of her abuse at the hands cult starts to manifest its self in her behavior and her moods become more erratic from lying on the bed as her sisters bed while her sister and partner copulated beneath the sheets through to bouts of incontinence, as the story reveals how she became complicate in the grooming process showing the hunted becomes the hunter the film cleverly calls Martha's victim status into question as she herself begins to seem unsure of what is real and what is imagined it calls into question the validity of her recollections.
Patrick (John Hawkes) the cult leader is cleverly underplayed to a powerfully convincing degree as an abuser he comes across as seducer mesmerizing while in the same breath terrifying, controlled and restricting but still coming across as freeing. By crafting Patrick in such away the director makes it impossible for you completely make up your mind about him as the subtle abuse is mixed with the (the changing of her name to Marcy May) overt acts of sexual abuse and by doing so making for a very ambiguous ending.
Summing up the director took a difficult subject and humanized it reframing from hysterics in favour of strong character studies.
RATE: TWO THUMBS AND A FINGER.
Screenings at CORNERHOUSE, AMC, ODEON
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