Savage Messiah

The subject matter of the film is pretty gritty, compelling stuff. It was very hard to watch at times. The main character, the commune leader is played perfectly by Luc Picard. He's EXTREMELY creepy, and gets creepier as his world starts to fall apart. The courtroom sequence where one of the little girls tells in explicit detail the kind of debauchery that's been passing for recreational activity at the commune is absolutely disgusting. The cult leader's final attempts to regain control of his commune are deeply disturbing.

There's something unique about Canadian films. The early Cronenberg films had it... like Rabid, Scanners and Videodrome. Strange Brew had it. This movie has bags of it. It's kind of a 16mm vibe. There are also scenes that are simple and yet brutally honest that are used to develop character, break the tension and probably fill out a lean script. For instance, there's a scene in a bar where a group of women are hanging out. One of the women begins to tell a story about going out to find a man for the night. She's pretty obnoxious about it, using a lot of colorful language to describe her sexual needs. This story goes on and on, much longer than it would in any Hollywood film, but therein lies the real entertainment here.