The Cult

Middle-aged divorcée Nathan (Henry Czerny) ended things badly with his ex-wife Evelyn (Torri Higginson) and they are still at odds. One thing they can both agree on is that their daughter Rachel (Alexia Fast) turned out to be a very caring, intelligent and beautiful young woman. She is the kind of person that would make any father proud which is why he is so shocked to see her in a weird and very cryptic commercial on late-night TV.

Rachel is supposed to studying English Literature at the University of British Columbia. As far as her parents know she is up until Nathan sees the commercial and Evelyn can't reach her at her cell number. They find she has moved out of her place on campus.

Nathan discovers a darker truth: Rachel is not only in a religious cult, she is its central figure of worship. A terrifying wacko guru (John Ralston) insists scripture has told of her coming. A very brutal true believer (Ian Tracey) and the goon squad he leads keep non-believers away and suppress perceived enemies with extreme prejudice whilst herding in new converts.

Why this was good enough to be made into a compelling pilot for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation but not get picked up as a regular series is open to conjecture. My only guess would be that the network might have thought that Evangelical Christians would have taken offense at any direction they might have taken in the narrative.

Too bad. There is not a thing about this production that is anything less than top flight. If they shelled out the money to craft something so entertaining and with such terrific production value only to cast it aside because religious groups might get mad it would be a real shame.