Aaargh!
If there is something that drives me crazy about found footage movies/faux-docs it’s when they set up something really well but can’t figure out how the heck to end things. They build this great structure but forget to put a darn roof on and the whole thing gets flooded.
Aaaargh!
Anyway, hey, let’s talka bout an APOCALYPSE CULT!
APOCALYPSE CULT is the story of a cult. Two documentary filmmakers doing a story about addiction meet someone who insists he was part of a cult that he is now just free of after years and years. It was a cult that focused its attentions on a man who insisted he was a prophet and who forteold the end of the world. The two filmmakers decide to investigate the supposed cult and are able to track them down and make contact. Despite not trusting outsiders, the group lets the two in and gives them permission to interview the women that make up the group and even the prophet himself. What they find is that what they may have believed about the group, and its leader, the reality is far, far worse.
The set up here is really good. Cults are always interesting and it’s a fantastic faux-doc topic. The TROUBLE here though is that most folks, when they think of cults think of the obvious ones and this one does as well. GAH! The acting is really solid, the filmmaking is well done, and they don’t break the spell of the film. That is what is so infuriating, that they do such a great job of setting this up but choose a painfully obvious subject to ape and then completely blow the ending.
UGH!
The ending.
If you’re into found footage/faux-docs there’s a lot to like, and the movie has some creeps, but it really just falls apart at the end. The end came so quickly and suddenly I actually had to rewind to understand what actually happened.
Oof.
The most painful thing about this film is it’s not bad…it just has a bad ending, and that’s sorta worse than anything else.
2 out of 5
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