A therapist from New York finds himself in danger when he reluctantly crosses paths with a cult sweeping across Arizona. The cult's deity was an heir to a throne, Bryan, who was slain(..his throat was slashed from behind in his own castle)by a commoner dealt harshly by his community, named Tanzi. The cult dress like Mormons and often wear a plain white mask with black marks which carry the appearance of cracks. This group brainwashes the unadorned, taking innocent outsiders unacquainted with this spooky religion, running them through a psychiatric institute until they are essentially zombies, as if their humanity were stripped, soulless to servitude for Bryan.
The film is completely told through hand-held cam-corders and hidden security cameras, nearly everyone snooping has one, whether it be our hero, his stalkers or an outside crusader working with a quiet few hoping to defeat the cult and their schemes at enlarging through their brainwashing tactics. Tony Todd is a very disturbed narrator who introduces us to the various recorded documents of the evolution in terror for Jonathan(Seth Landau, who also wrote & directed)who is kidnapped by the Bryan cult after making some inquiries into their worship practices. We see inside their secret society and how they slowly gnaw at those they wish to include within their religion. Jonathan represents a rare case of someone who somehow hangs on despite the rigorous degrees of manipulation and psychological warfare induced over a span of time. Someone is on his side, however, who wishes to bring to an end the Bryan cult which has become a cancer across this desert community, Frenchette(Tom Noga)who plans to somehow break him out of the mental torture factory before he's affected by their powerful methods of mind control.
The film features a cast of B-movie horror cult icons such as Lloyd Kaufman as a "helper" who attempts to motivate Jonathan's acceptance of a mental reject claimed by the cult to be his alcoholic father. Scream queen, Tiffany Shepis portrays a nasty "psychiatrist", Cindy, who mistreats Jonathan, often interrogating him while administering drugs into his system, with Brinke Stevens as a nurse who works for the cult. George Wendt has a strange role as a wacky patient of Jonathan's. The hand-held style services the paranoia theme where escape from a place overrun by diabolical extremists is quite difficult because eyes are all around watching your every move. The film grew tiresome to me over time, specifically the never-ending brainwashing portion of this film, and a stupid decision by our hero at the end robs this scary tale of a bit of it's power and realism. I do not think Jonathan would make such an incredibly asinine decision to risk his life in such an unnecessary way after such an exhausting exercise towards his mind and body by this unwavering cult trying every way to break his will. I did feel Landau produces a credible account, to a certain extent, of how spooky and terrifying such an ordeal could be when one is trapped within such an established cult willing to resort to drastic measures to seize one's soul and mind. It was amazing that he had the ability to round up so many familiar faces, also including Daniel Roebuck(The River's Edge)as a professor who informs us of Bryan's history and how it relates to the cult that would form in his name. To me, the pacing lags a bit, and I wasn't quite convinced that such a cult could completely unify an entire community, even conforming a pal of Jonathan's. The gimmick of "footage found and brought to us as a warning tool" wore itself thin to me, but others might find it rewarding.
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