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Review: The Other Lamb (2019), a Mind-Bending Cult Movie

The Other Lamb (2019)

&NewLine;<p><strong><em>The Other Lamb &lpar;2019&rpar; is full of symbolism and jarring visuals depicting a deranged cult leader and the women under his control&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As strange as it may sound&comma; I always thought that people judged polygamy too harshly&period; As long as consenting adults agree that they want to be in a polyamorous relationship or marriage&comma; who are we to say no&quest; When looking at polygamy in this way&comma; it doesn’t seem to cause any harm&period; However&comma; the devil is always in the details&period; The issue arises from the blurred line between consent and coerced consent&period; There’s a reason that polygamy is often associated with sectarian religions and cults&semi; people &lpar;almost always men&rpar; abuse their power as religious &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;leaders” to lure young women and men into polygamist relationships&period; The heroine of Ma&lstrok;gorzata Szumowska’s <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar; finds herself in a similar predicament&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; it’s important to point out that I am conflating terms&comma; to one degree or another&period; The cult at the center of the film is not&comma; by definition&comma; polygamist&period; Instead&comma; it’s an &lpar;almost&rpar; all-female cult with a male leader&comma; known only as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the Shephard&comma;” who raises the women to become his wives&period; The women are divided into two groups&colon; the younger sisters and the older wives&period; Eventually&comma; the younger sisters can grow to become wives&comma; creating an incestuous cycle driven by the desires of the messianic leader&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Our protagonist&comma; Selah &lpar;Raffey Cassidy&rpar;&comma; is a younger sister who starts to see cracks in the life the Shephard has built for them&period; She dreams of her mother&comma; who died giving birth to her&comma; as well as the possibility of leaving the cult and living a normal life&period; However&comma; she still struggles with her desire to believe the Shephard’s teachings and accept a seemingly inescapable lifestyle&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>Our protagonist&comma; Selah&comma; is a younger sister who starts to see cracks in the life the Shephard has built for them&period;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;04&sol;the-other-lamb-main-2-1024x575&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Other Lamb Selah" class&equals;"wp-image-2257"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The group lives in abandoned cabins in an isolated forest&period; The women tend to the sheep and abide by the Shephard’s strict religious dogma&period; Once Selah has grown into a young woman&comma; the Shephard begins to show her special attention&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>One night&comma; Selah awakens to hear a police officer telling the Shephard that they cannot stay there any longer&period; The next day&comma; the Shephard announces that he will be leading them to their next home&period; The journey is long and difficult&period; During the trek&comma; Selah befriends one of the wives&comma; Sarah&comma; who has been shunned and punished for her sins&period; Sarah admits to Selah that she has lost all faith in the Shephard&period; She also reveals a secret about Selah’s mother that plants more seeds of doubt and frustration in Selah’s mind&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>At its core&comma; <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar; is a surreal horror film about a young woman trapped in a cult&period; Since we’re viewing everything from Selah’s perspective&comma; it’s not always clear when we’re seeing a vision or an event that actually happened&period; This allows the filmmakers to sprinkle in plenty of symbolism&comma; particularly drawing comparisons between the feeble&comma; helpless sheep and the women of the cult&period; By the final act&comma; the filmmakers turn this juxtaposition on its head&period; However&comma; for the majority of the film&comma; the women simply have to put up with the Shephard and his self-serving religion&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">By the time <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> limps across the finish line&comma; viewers are more than ready for the women to kick things up a notch&period; <&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film does well building toward a momentous finale&period; However&comma; there are times when it feels as though the story doesn’t justify a feature-length film&period; The same concept could have easily been condensed into a 30-minute short film&period; We really don&&num;8217&semi;t need endless shots of the heroine staring listlessly into the distance&period; So&comma; there are times when this &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;slow burn” feels more like a painful crawl&period; In fact&comma; by the time <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> limps toward the finale&comma; viewers are more than ready for the action to start&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2021&sol;04&sol;ca-times&period;brightspotcdn-1024x626&period;jpg" alt&equals;"cult movie death scene" class&equals;"wp-image-2258"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In the film&&num;8217&semi;s defense&comma; slow pacing forces viewers to really evaluate the contrived visualizations of Selah’s inner turmoil&period; Consequently&comma; we &lpar;as viewers&rpar; can come to identify with her and feel the pain&comma; confusion&comma; and doubt that she experiences&period; This also helps strengthen the evolution of Selah’s character from a weak and feeble teenager to a powerful force of destruction&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>That said&comma; I hesitate to discuss the finale too much for several reasons&period; First&comma; it represents the crescendo of the film&comma; in which all of Selah&&num;8217&semi;s doubt&comma; fear&comma; and anger reach a fever pitch&period; I don’t want to spoil it for others&period; Second&comma; the third act of the film also serves as its weakest link&period; What starts as a mind-bending cult film devolves into an uninspired rape-revenge story&period; Rather than addressing the complexity of Selah’s emotions or trauma&comma; we get a clean&comma; predictable&comma; albeit violent ending&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>What started as a mind-bending cult film devolves into an uninspired rape-revenge story&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;em><&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In closing&comma; I’d like to reiterate that <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar; is by no means a bad film&period; The sinister atmosphere&comma; beautiful visuals&comma; and believable performances all help create an engaging&comma; thought-provoking&comma; and frightening viewing experience&period; It’s just a shame that the filmmakers chose to venture into such familiar territory&period; As soon as the group sets out to find their &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;new Eden&comma;” we have a pretty good idea of what’s to come&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The symbolism in <em>The Other Lamb <&sol;em>also falls flat as the story progresses&period; In fact&comma; it comes across as amateurish and too broad to extract any profound meaning&period; Moreover&comma; it would have served the film well to draw more of the women of the cult into the story&period; Instead&comma; the filmmakers just focus on Selah and a few ancillary characters&period; In any case&comma; <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> still stands as one of the best cult horror movies in recent memory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading"><em>The Other Lamb <&sol;em>&lpar;2019&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&half; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>The Other Lamb<&sol;em> &lpar;2019&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B086K4CMP8&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B086K4CMP8&amp&semi;linkId&equals;49b6dfc8745614ecbf5bd8ad26d616f4">rent or purchase via Amazon<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; be sure to check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film<&sol;a> homepage&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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