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Martha Marcy May Marlene
After several years of living with a cult, Martha finally escapes and calls her estranged sister, Lucy, for help. Martha finds herself at the quiet Connecticut home Lucy shares with her new husband, Ted, but the memories of what she experienced in the cult make peace hard to find. As flashbacks continue to torment her, Martha fails to shake a terrible sense of dread, especially in regard to the cult's manipulative leader.
2011 · Directed by Sean Durkin · 101 min · Drama · Thriller · Screenplay in the scene database · 19 frames
Tagline
You can get away, but you can never escape.
Plot
A 22-year-old woman named Martha has been abused by a cult in the Catskill Mountains for two years. The patriarch, Patrick, named her Marcy May. She escapes into the woods, arriving at a nearby town. In a diner, she is confronted by Watts, a cult member, who attempts to persuade her to return, but when she refuses, he lets her leave. Martha calls her sister, Lucy, who picks her up and takes her to the vacation lake house in Connecticut that she shares with her husband, a successful architect named Ted.
Martha exhibits strange behavior by skinny dipping in public, sleeping all the time, not eating, and arguing with Lucy and Ted about how to live, specifically arguing over the need for career and possessions. Lucy reveals she abandoned Martha and is now attempting to get her back into her life, while she and Ted are also trying to have their own child. One night, Martha climbs into bed with Ted and Lucy while they are having sex, angering Ted and Lucy. Martha attempts to phone the cult because she misses them, accidentally finds out her friend Zoe is not on the farm with the cult, and hangs up when cult matriarch Katie answers using the code name "Marlene Miller."
In flashbacks, Martha recalls a series of disturbing events that led to her escape from the cult. She was originally recruited into the cult by Zoe. Martha was initially receptive but somewhat wary of Patrick, Katie, and Zoe. She was later convinced by Zoe and Patrick to let her guard down and "share herself", only to end up being drugged by Katie and brutally raped by Patrick; Katie and Zoe later explained to her that the rape was a cleansing ritual and told her she should be happy. Martha later "prepared" new initiate Sarah to be abused in the same way Katie had. Patrick urged Martha to kill a cat, which Martha refused. Her refusal prompted him to berate her for failing to follow the cult's ideals. Patrick constantly attempted to impregnate Martha to spread his genes, despite her resistance. Martha subsequently began participating in burglaries with the other cultists, including one where they murdered a homeowner who walked in on them. After witnessing the murder, Martha had a mental breakdown, to which Patrick responded by forcefully subduing her and berating her again; he then shifted to telling her that she was his favorite person and that he would never let her go.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Written by: Sean Durkin
- Cinematography: Jody Lee Lipes
- Edited by: Zachary Stuart-Pontier
- Music: Saunder Jurriaans, Danny Bensi
- Production design: Chad Keith
- Produced by: Josh Mond, Antonio Campos, Patrick Cunningham, Chris Maybach
Cast
- Elizabeth Olsen as Martha
- Sarah Paulson as Lucy
- Hugh Dancy as Ted
- John Hawkes as Patrick
- Brady Corbet as Watts
- Louisa Krause as Zoe
- Christopher Abbott as Max
- Maria Dizzia as Katie
- Julia Garner as Sarah
- Adam David Thompson as Bartender
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: BorderLine Films, This is that
- Budget: $1,000,000
- Box office: $3,500,000
- Themes: mind control, rape, sexual abuse, sibling relationship, post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd), paranoia, group sex, cult, patriarchy, polygamy
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