The massacre in Waco, Texas has echoed through cinematic history since the tragic event in 1993. Just look at Kevin Smith’s Red State or the countless true crime series about the religious cult at the center of it all. Or Rob Cousineau and Chris Rosik‘s new lo-fi gun cult nightmare, So Fades The Light, a story of healing and trauma in the aftermath of surviving the mass execution of a cult. Anchored by a stellar performance from Kiley Lotz and deeply human story by Cousineau and Rosik (who direct under the name Get Super Rad), this take on the cult film takes a unique and heartbreaking look at processing a childhood full of trauma while giving a massive middle finger to Christian extremism’s prevailing grip on American life and politics.
Sun (Kiley Lotz) is a drifter who lives out of her van and ambles around the country, trying to find somewhere to call her own. You see, she was worshipped by a cult when she was a child. And it wasn’t just any cult. It was an extremist cult obsessed with guns to the point of crowning young Sun with a headpiece made entirely out of bullets. As a child, she was manipulated by their leader The Reverend (D. Duke Solomon), until their violent takedown via shoot-out with the feds.
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Now, 15 years later, Sun searches for closure. Even though she’s on her own, she still feels tethered to the cult and to the Reverend. So, she decides the best way to free herself is to drive to the abandoned cult compound, the place where her trauma all began. But, little does she know that the Reverend has been released from prison and is heading to the very same place. This is mumblegore at its finest: deeply human yet also inherently terrifying. Cousineau and Rosik craft something that feels like a road movie that ends in hell, which happens to be in the middle of the Michigan woods. Here, the road to hell is dotted with gas stations, fall foliage, and all the things that once made you happy but have since been soured with the passing of time.
This all creates a sense of dread and foreboding that hangs over every frame of So Fades The Light, casting Sun’s journey as more of a death March than a quest of self-discovery. That dread is amplified by the choice to splice in pieces of lo-fi propaganda filmed by the cult leader that give the audience a sense of just how strange and dangerous this man is. These moments are also presented almost like Sun’s own memories, reflections on the past where she was the center of a disastrous universe. Even when analog methods aren’t used, cinematographer John Anderson Beavers uses camera movement to create a question about the supernatural and if the influence Sun feels is more than just a nagging feeling in the back of her mind.
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Lotz shines as the exhausted yet determined Sun, a person who isn’t quite sure where she belongs in the world. Lotz imbues Sun with an anxious curiosity, one that drags her forward, even when she’s terrified. There’s a sense that Sun’s mind is constantly moving a million miles a minute and she’s constantly calculating the best way to approach a situation. Lotz’s performance is akin to that of a skittish dog: unsure of everything but still curious despite it all.
I’d be remiss to mention the killer soundtrack the filmmakers curated, the perfect cherry on top of this bizarre road movie. Music that can only be described as Midwest emo blasts from Sun’s old van as she wanders closer and closer into the belly of the beast. These songs create a sense of familiarity with Sun, while also help construct this false sense of security around her; if she can keep blasting tunes, everything should be OK.
So Fades The Light is a stellar example of the prevailing power of mumblegore filmmaking and the powerful stories being told in the subgenre. Low budgets don’t mean bad movies, and Cousineau and Rosik prove that in spades here. In fact, this is a film for the times, deeply queer and all about rejecting religious extremism in the name of bodily autonomy. And what’s more beautiful than that?
Summary
So Fades The Light is a unique and heartbreaking look at processing a childhood full of trauma while giving a massive middle finger to Christian extremism’s prevailing grip on American life and politics.
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