Maidgethma Wonderfully offbeat film!

Cortechba Overrated

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

The Movie Diorama I really didn't know too much going into this, a rather unknown film that is infrequently discussed. To my surprise, I found this to be a resonating and haunting experience that boasted great cinematography and acting. A young girl named Martha escapes an abusive cult and returns to her family. As a result of a brainwashed mind, she suffers from delusions and paranoia to which she must attempt to restore her mentality before she loses it entirely. When the word "cult" is sprung into a description, you automatically think witches or vampires where they commence blood rituals and sacrificing lambs. In actual fact, cults are more common than you might think. In this story, the cult manipulated women into thinking they are vital aspects to a "family" but are deceived into being sexually abused. The screenplay downplays the ideologies of this goal, not for political aspirations, but to create an experiential visceral depiction of abuse. Some of the scenes are not pleasant to watch, I would go as far as saying the whole narrative makes you feel uneasy. The spiky relationship between Martha and Lucy was just as edgy as the cult flashbacks. The chronological shifts embed the two together, however the film isn't intelligent enough to utilise this method and deliver a good payoff. It seemed forced. Elizabeth Olsen's lead debut was a poignant one, she was mesmerising and captured the fragility of Martha beautifully. Sarah Paulson also caught my interest, another understated performance from her. The cinematography was hypnotising and the confident one take scenes felt bold and really enhanced the experience. Any emotional gauge or connection just didn't exist unfortunately, I wanted to empathise with the characters but a cold barrier was preventing me from doing so. The ending, as ambiguous as it was, again felt rather cold and unfinished. A captivating story, just not an emotionally powerful one.

farts_vandelay I just finished watching this movie and felt compelled to write down my thoughts.Its been a while since I've watched a movie that made me feel this way. I'm not angry but I feel something close to it. This movie is a flaming pile of fecal matter. The only good thing about it is that you get to see Elizabeth Olsen naked and you know there's a problem if nudity is the only thing going for a movie.I watched this because I like Olsen and her other movie Silent House. Here, the acting and production quality are fine, but the story has absolutely nothing going for it. Having likable characters isn't a necessity, but there has to be at least one or more characters that have something about them that makes you want to keep watching. It isn't just the main character with this movie; none of these characters are likable or compelling in any way. At first, I felt sympathy for Martha but not for long.I get it, certain people can get brainwashed by these cult-like groups and it's an unfortunate situation but Olsen and her gang weren't just weak and ignorant; they were also pretentious, self-entitled, and so unlikable that I kept thinking, why am I watching this? They went well beyond the definition of sheeple. And the ending was the toilet clogging after pinching out this giant loaf. If it wasn't for Olsen, I would have turned this off well before the ending but I was definitely getting there.

Mike B If you like psychological films with no resolution this is for you.Our protagonist leaves a cult – and proceeds to live with (or more precisely - live off ) her sister and husband. There are unresolved issues between her and the older sister. They can never get to the point in their confrontations. Only once the sisters' husband asks if she will look for employment – but this issue is abandoned too. The film is interspersed with flashbacks to the cult she joined. I will admit that it is well acted which is the reason for the 4 stars.MAJOR SPOILERWhat was the point of showing the cult breaking-in and committing a murder - and no real resolution to this either? The cult was not violent-prone up until this stage. This was just cinematic titillation.

jill de schrijver The movie starts with Martha escaping a cult and managing to contact her sole real family left - her sister - who comes to pick her up and takes her in her grand house at a lake. But the aftermath process after escaping the cult still needs to start - the flashbacks of the abuse she lived through as well as the bonding she experienced, which typically belong to PTSD.For some viewers there may seem to be plot holes, like Martha eating openly at a diner in the village nearby the cult. But daylight and a public place seems instinctively the safest place for her, even though when confronted in the diner by the second hand of the cult's leader Patrick she does not have the courage to speak out to the server. While the second hand approaches her, talks to her, how the cult leader misses and worries about her, he leaves, nor forces her back. This seems weird on the surface when you know this cult burglarizes homes and murders people and the cult wouldn't want to have witnesses roaming free. However, cult leaders know the extent of the emotional and psychological impact they have. Abuse causes what's called a trauma bond within the target (and it doesn't have to be physical abuse), and it's stronger than any love bond and highly addictive. They know that soon enough she'll miss them more than she fears, distrusts or even hates them. And without proper psychological guidance she won't have the tools to quit the oxytocin addiction (bonding hormone) and the obsessive thoughts about them.This is what we witness with Martha. She has nightmares and memory flashes of events when she was with the cult: her loss of her name and it being changed into Marcy, her ritual drug-rape by the cult leader and the other women telling her how to feel about it ('it's a good thing', 'smile') and so negating her the right to feel how she really feels about it (awful, raped, betrayed); cult leader Patrick seemingly putting her on a pedestal by singing a song about her ('she's a picture') and at the same time devaluing her ('and nothing more'), and then later she doing the same thing to the next new recruited girl...In a way the flashbacks during the PTSD process are necessary in order to heal from the trauma and abuse. The victim has negated their feelings (the pain, the anger, the shock) about the traumatic events when they occur, and yet one cannot start the mourning and healing process of both the separation and trauma without first actually reconnecting with her or his feelings locked away of that time. It's not so much that victims forgot the events, but they push it away and forgot how they felt about it deep down at the time.The problem for Martha is that neither her sister nor her brother in law even know that she lived with a cult. Martha never tells them. To them she stopped calling her sister two years ago, and she lived with a boyfriend for two years. Her sister's husband wants to instill his version of a responsible person in her - think of a career, behave normal, don't live off your sister and me for such a long time. Her sister tries to give her space, patience, time and company, but naturally shows her frustration when she hits the wall around Martha. She suspects Martha has been abused, but makes the common mistake to suspect the ex-boyfriend hit her, not knowing that emotional and mental abuse has as damaging impact.As the flashbacks emerge of the community life and her sister and brother-in-law behave towards her as if they expect she should be 'normal' the addictive bond rears its head up and she calls the cult, her 'new family'. For the cult this is a sign that she is ready to return to the fold.While the remote lake house of her sister seems a great retreat to heal from the trauma, it actually only strengthens her fears and for good reasons. The cult lived in a remote area nearby similar grand lake houses. They burglarized and even murdered in such homes. Now she's living in such one. Together with the PSTD, the nightmares and a triggering environment, and her mistake to call the cult from her sister's home, it's not surprising that she increasingly starts to fear for the cult to come and seek her out and violently take her 'home' again. For outsiders it seems she's paranoid, but paranoia is an unreasonable fear. Martha's fear is not unreasonable, though the movie remains ambiguous about the fact whether the cult is truly trying to apprehend her again.