I’ll be honest, usually the words Mary Elizabeth Winstead are enough to get me interested in a movie, especially considering the genre stuff she’s churned out in the past – the enjoyably stupid Final Destination 3, the better-than-expected remake/reboot of The Thing, Tarantino flick Deathproof, the execrable remake of Black Christmas (OK, forget that last one…..).

So when Faults popped up on the list of films showing at this year’s Frightfest, naturally my interest was piqued.

Even more so when you look at the plot of the film, a psychologically disturbing black comedy that pokes around in the world of sinsiter, mysterious cults.

Winstead plays Claire, a young woman supposedly under the influence of one of said cults, known as ‘Faults’.

Naturally Claire’s parents are pretty upset by this turn of events, so they hire cult expert/brainwashing expert Ansel (Leland Orser) to get to the bottom of the mess and attempt to ‘de-programme’ their daughter.

But as events unfold, it becomes obvious that things may not run as smoothly as hoped…..

The film marks the debut of writer/director Riley Stearns, who just happens to also be Winstead’s real-life hubby, so some canny team-up work obviously went on there.

We haven’t actually been able to see a trailer for this one, but here’s a video with Stearns, Orser and Winstead chatting about the film when it screened at SXSW earlier this year.

Faults plays at Frightfest on Sunday, August 24.

 

 

About The Author

Avatar photo

Simon is a journalism tutor in London, who also just happens to be a movie fanatic, with a craving for the darker side of cinema. He has written three books - on the horror films of director Bob Clark (2014), the history of the character Norman Bates (2015) and the work of British exploitation director Pete Walker (2017). He is currently working with director Richard Loncraine to explore all avenues in a bid to orchestrate the re-release of 1978 Mia Farrow chiller Full Circle