Cult Killer
“Cult Killer” is a thriller that poses the idea that a victim of profound sexual trauma would exact revenge against the perpetrators with a knife instead of through the legal system. It’s not unlike John Woo’s “Silent Night” in how it shows the way vigilante justice feels like the only recourse when the justice system is unable to do anything- in this case, because the people behind the acts are wealthy, powerful individuals. Imagine if one of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims tracked down and murdered he and his cohorts, and that’s essentially what “Cult Killer” is. If you like that sort of B-movie thriller, you might like this.
Cassie Holt (Alice Eve) is a private detective who works alongside her mentor (Antonio Banderas) learning the trade, and learning to take care of herself after a childhood of trauma. One day, her mentor is brutally murdered at a mansion owned by Victor Harrison (Matthew Tompkins), which is off-limits to the investigating officer. What she finds when Cassie makes her way into the premises, though, is evidence of something darker than even she imagined at the time…even more so when confronted by her mentor’s killer (Jamie Douglas, played by Shelley Hennig) who, we find out, has deeper axes to grind.
We get several flashbacks between Eve and Banderas’s character, charting his mentorship of her as we see why they gravitated towards one another. The most interesting aspect of the film, however, is the interaction between Cassie and Jamie. We learn more about both characters, and their shared traumas, and understand why Jamie is doing what she is doing. The character dynamics are compelling in this film, even if the film- directed by Jon Keeyes- feels relatively lifeless, especially as those dynamics deepen. Once we are introduced to Jamie properly, our perspective changes on the story, and it becomes less a police procedural and more a question of whether Cassie will intervene in Jamie’s righteous quest. That’s interesting to a point (thanks to Eve and Hennig’s performances), but the suspense is largely sucked out of the film. Both women have shown that they are more than capable fighters, even when up against the wall, so it’s just a matter of how things will get exposed. That’s mostly satisfactory. The film as a whole is predictable in form and structure, but having interesting characters at the center helps a lot.
