Cult films are difficult to make, meaning films that feature cults. It can however be done hauntingly and beautifully as seen in 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene. First-time feature director Nick Matthews tries his hand with One Eyed Girl, the newest gritty Australian drama.
The film finds disturbed psychiatrist Travis (Mark Leonard Winter) haunted by the death an ex-patient. As his life unravels, he encounters a mysterious group of people who are members of a cult run by an enigmatic leader (Steve Le Marquand). After attempting suicide, Travis is taken to the cult’s remote settlement to be healed, but is the cult all that it seems?
One Eyed Girl has many positives. Jody Muston’s cinematography elevates its look above the low budget; the sustained atmosphere throughout and most of the performances are fine, particularly Le Marquand’s leader and Tilda Cobham-Hervey as Grace, a complex cult member.
However, the film falls down in script and pacing. The blurred line between doctor and patient is an interesting idea, but proves unfocused and falls too far into cliché in the rushed, overblown third act. The protagonist Travis also proves a tad alienating, as well as other characters feeling too underdeveloped to be cared for.
It’s an average effort that had the potential and talent to achieve so much more.
