3.5 stars (out of 5)
This feature début from co-writer/director Nick Matthews (after a prolific career as writer, editor, producer and especially cinematographer) almost has the feel of a ‘Nordic Noir’ Scandinavian character thriller, and yet it was shot in and around Adelaide, even though that word is (naturally?) never used.
Mark Leonard Winter is strong as Dr Travis Bell, a psychiatrist haunted by his culpability in the death of a patient (Katy Cheel) and almost at the point of a breakdown – and worse. Moved and intrigued by an encounter with Grace (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), a young woman he meets on a train as she hands out pamphlets detailing the seemingly benign philosophy of Father Jay (Steve Le Marquand), Travis eventually allows Grace, Jay and their group into his life in a moment of drunken weakness. And we know that Travis believes that the movement is a sham, but he doesn’t realise quite how dangerous Jay and his followers are until he, of course, winds up being psychologically conditioned in a countryside compound somewhere in the Adelaide Hills.
With fine technical credentials on a low budget (particularly Michael Darren’s unnerving score and Jody Muston’s cinematography) and impressive playing all round, from Winter and Le Marquand to co-writer/co-producer/co-star Craig Behenna and Cobham-Hervey (of 52 Tuesdays and now the face of Myer), Matthews’ movie is certainly worth seeking out (and should prove a welcome antidote to chronic blockbusteritis). And let’s hope that this cult movie (in both senses of the word?) finds its audience well before Doomsday.
I Wake Up Screening 