Rating: D
Dir: Sheldon Wilson
Star: Ella Ballentine, Lauren Lee Smith, Peter Mooney, Ilan O’Driscoll
Wilson got his start in low-budget horror with titles like SyFy Original Snowmageddon. Let’s not hold that against him. For I’d prefer to be watching a movie about [/checks notes] a magical snow globe which causes natural disasters, than this. There’s an interesting idea, and a beguiling trailer. Whoever edited it together should have been allowed to direct the film. We begin, in hindsight, not so much with the story in progress, as the fun stuff already over. Cult leader Marshall Grayson has just been found guilty of 53 murders. Technically, they were carried out by his followers who then each committed suicide. After #53, Grayson turned himself in, holding a box of enough evidence to guarantee his conviction.
What’s intriguing is his rationale. He says God told him these specific people needed to die to prevent the Apocalypse. During his sentencing, Grayson leaps out of the dock, and whispers a message to Kate (Ballentine), an author writing a book about him, before being shot dead. What did he tell her? That’s the obvious question, one everybody from the media to Detective Brener, the cop who arrested Grayson, wants answered. Kate claims she doesn’t know. The viewer knows that isn’t quite accurate, because it’d make for a boring movie if it were the case. Oh, hang on. It’s boring anyway, as we grind, very slowly, towards discovering what he said, the root of Kate’s interest in the cult leader, and his ties to her parents’ death.
Mostly, though, it’s Kate sitting around the house of her sister Michelle Moore (Smith), brother-in-law David (Mooney), and niece Ella (O’Driscoll). It is a lovely house in which to recuperate, deep in the woods, and I’m left wondering what David does for work. Not least because he never seem to do it. That allows him time to furrow his brow about Kate’s visions and increasingly odd behaviour. The family dog doesn’t like her at all. Not much of a spoiler to say, holding this opinion does not end well for the mutt. Meanwhile, we get repeats of the courtroom scene, Wilson dispensing additional information with an eye-dropper. Unfortunately, the audience is dying of thirst, and decides to see what’s in the fridge instead.
The interesting film would have focused on Grayson. A charismatic cult kingpin, capable of getting his disciples to kill on command, then unalive themselves? Far more compelling than the bland Moore family and Kate’s mental issues. That movie would also not have wasted time on shaky video footage of a college Psych 1.0.1. lecture, discussing the Trolley Problem. I did just go down an interesting rabbit-hole, about the relevance of that to self-driving cars. Should their rules compel them to act in a way to preserve most life, or allow them to prioritize their own passengers? I wish the movie had been half as thought-provoking, instead of crawling its way toward a final reveal, which doesn’t justify the time spent getting there.