Travis (Mark Leonard Winter) is a young psychiatrist at an institution. When a female patient he had a close relationship with dies, he has a tough time recovering. When he meets a girl named Grace (Tilda Cobham-Hervey), his life begins to look up until he joins a religious group she is part of with a radical preacher. Bad things begin to happen to people in the group and Travis finds himself struggling to find where he truly belongs.
After the death of a patient that Travis was obviously in love with, he struggles to get through daily life. He quits his job, drinks too much and attempts suicide via pills. The attempts fails, however, when, in his stupor, Travis calls a preacher, Father Jay (Steve Le Marquand) he learned about on the subway and that preacher comes to save him. He wakes up to find himself locked in a room on a farm where he is forced to detox and face his demons.
Travis is forced through some intense trials to join this preacher and his flock and they seem to genuinely help him through his struggle. This is, of course, until Travis sees Father Jay rape a young member just trying to improve his life. Travis has a new clarity and works to free himself, and the others, from Father Jay’s lying grasp.
I spent a good chunk of One Eyed Girl with this uneasy feeling like the bottom was going to drop out at any moment. I blame most of this on Father Jay, who is not nearly as good of a person as you are led to believe. That’s actually a lie. I never really thought he was a good person. There was always something off about him, like you knew something horrible was going to happen. Maybe it is that fear instilled in us by stories of cult leaders like Charles Manson and Jim Jones that makes it impossible to trust leaders of groups like this one, but you could just tell that there was something dark behind his friendly exterior.
One Eyed Girl is a dark story that will genuinely haunt you. It may seem like nothing good comes from this film but really, despite the horror at the farm, Travis comes out a better person. It was the horror he was put through and how close he came to death that showed Travis how to really be alive. In the end, no matter how it ended, Travis was a happier, more whole person.
I wouldn’t recommend this film to the faint of heart. It is a dark and heavy film that will most certainly not leave you with a good feeling but, if you really pay attention, you may learn something about life and what is really important about it.
One Eyed Girl is now available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital from Dark Sky Films
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Ann Hale is the horror editor for Pop-Break.com and a senior contributing writer, reviewing horror movies and television shows. Ann attended East Carolina University, majoring in English Literature. She is a collector of Halloween (the film) memorabilia and is a self-admitted opinionated horror nerd. You can follow her, her collection and her cat, Edward Kittyhands on Twitter and Instagram @Scarletjupiter
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