Sean Parker
Even though I was boots on the ground at the Chattanooga Film Festival this year, having a spectacular time watching one awesome film after another, the online edition of this year’s festival was just as good. There was some overlap with titles like The Misadventures of Vince and Hick, Hacked, and I Really Love My Husband all being available virtually as well, but there were some, such as Cassie Keet’s Abigail Before Beatrice, that you could only see with a virtual pass. And let me tell you, the virtual exclusives this year were of just as high a caliber.
Cult films seem to be on the rise again in the genre space (See: So Fades the Light, Pater Noster and the Mission of Light), mainly because they’re a good way to approach a relevant subject matter, such as religion, manipulations, and autonomy, subversively rather than directly pointing it out. Abigail Before Beatrice is one such film, telling the story of a woman whose devotion is still to her charismatic cult leader. Following in the footsteps of Sean Durkin’s powerhouse cult drama Martha Marcy May Marlene, Abigail Before Beatrice is a film worthy of comparison.
The film starts with Beatrice (Onyx the Fortuitous and the Talisman of Souls’ Olivia Taylor Dudley) creeping onto a farm property and stealing strawberries from the raised bed garden out front. Inside the house, Will (Jordan Lane Shappell) and his daughter take notice, causing Will to intervene. After speaking with Beatrice and seeing a downtrodden person in pain, Will reaches a deal with Beatrice, offering her time on the farm if she’s willing to follow some basic rules.
Abigail Before Beatrice sets up three acts from here. The first showing Beatrice in the aftermath of the cult disbanding, which leads to a reunion with her sister wife, Abigail (Things Will Be Different’s Riley Dandy). Abigail informs Beatrice of Grayson’s early release from prison and does her best to remind Beatrice of Grayson’s (Scream Therapy’s Shayn Herndon) failings. But as a true believer, Beatrice refuses to believe Abigail, taking the firm stance that Abigail, now Sarah, reverting to her given name, is aggrandizing the event for her true crime podcast. This sets up a second act that coincides with an episode of the podcast that plays out on screen like Abigail’s video diary of the toxic traumas she, Beatrice, and the rest of Grayson’s followers went through. The final act puts it all together, as a deeply troubled Beatrice struggles with the experience she doesn’t want to face and the people she doesn’t want to lose.
Cassie Keet shows a patient eye behind the camera, allowing the actors’ performances to shine while crafting an engrossing atmosphere. The cinematography of the countryside elicits calm at the start of the film, contrasting with progressively tighter shots as the film progresses. The film gets claustrophobic as Beatrice’s world closes in on her, creating poignancy through Beatrice’s gradual spiritual disenchantment. Beatrice sees Grayson as more than just a man who led a cult, devoted to the idea that death by his hand would also be to experience his love, while Grayson only sees Beatrice as his number two. The B-name bestowed upon the runner-up for his affections, supplying the title Abigail Before Beatrice.
Movies about cults can be extremely difficult to navigate during the writing process, but Keet succeeds in her story by presenting isolation as a main factor in how a person like Beatrice ends up in this situation. Keet uses the farm as a homestead for Beatrice, and though boundaries are set, there’s confusion as to her place there in the aftermath. That is neatly folded into concepts concerning manipulative men, giving rise to parallels and contrasts with Grayson, combined with Beatrice’s confusing identity crisis in the wake of the cult’s downfall. Keet’s ability to bring the audience into Beatrice’s headspace is worth marveling at because there’s never a time you’re not thinking about how it’s all going to shake out for the character.
To that end, I also have to commend Abigail Before Beatrice’s two lead actresses. Dudley and Dandy are phenomenal. For as enigmatic as Herndon’s cult leader is, the audience desperately wants to see these actresses antagonize and support each other on-screen. There’s a transcendent kind of love between them. One of intimacy that surpasses the idea of friends or lovers. The knowing of a person that comes from time, attention, and care, and a love that’s almost intrinsic to siblings with shared trauma. But there’s more bubbling under the surface, too, including the inference that Beatrice may be missing Abigail far more than Grayson. In this way, Abigail is a mother, sister, and romantic companion to Beatrice, and far more godlike in her benevolence to Grayson’s firm hand.
The only place Abigail Before Beatrice may falter is in the outline of the cult itself. Keet shows us how Grayson charms his way into these women’s lives but doesn’t necessarily provide us with an overview of what is happening there. Everything looks a little “Kumbaya,” as Grayson plays an acoustic guitar on the lawn, somehow making the audience hate him more in the process. But outside of Grayson’s sex appeal and his farm’s hippie-commune feel, I had trouble understanding the power he had over the others, failing to see what would make anyone want to follow him in the first place. Then again, the focus remains on why Beatrice can’t let go.
Abigail Before Beatrice is a bit of a slow-rolling film, but it’s among the most poetic films I’ve seen this year. Keet’s sophomore directorial endeavor is emotionally wrenching and deeply compelling, resulting in a beguiling exploration of identity that strongly captures your attention and doesn’t let go. Keet plays a sharp hand with Abigail Before Beatrice, and whatever may be on the horizon for the writer-director, her name will carry a lot of weight in future viewing decisions, essentially making it Keet’s movies before most others.
Abigail Before Beatrice played as part of the Chattanooga Film Festival’s virtual selections. The film is currently playing the film festival circuit.
Abigail Before Beatrice | Teaser Trailer
This is “Abigail Before Beatrice | Teaser Trailer” by Benjamin Dunn on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.
