“Sound of My Voice” makes a comment on cult life

A long, hot shower and an elaborate handshake are all it takes to get into the… A long, hot shower and an elaborate handshake are all it takes to get into the basement.

“Sound of My Voice” takes a cinematic approach to exposing the obsessive and illogical nature of cults. Director Zal Batmanglij introduces Maggie (Brit Marling), an enigmatic woman who claims to be from the future and to have the power to save a select number of people that have joined the group.

In the film, elementary school teacher Peter Aitken (Christopher Denham) goes undercover to write a documentary exposé about the woman in the basement and her fictitious predictions of the future. Acting as investigative journalists, he and his girlfriend Lorna (Nicole Vicius) will do almost anything to reveal the truth behind the cult and how obviously unreal the charade is.

Peter and Lorna take the necessary precautions before finally going with the cult to a secluded location. They are later accepted as members of the select collection of devoted followers.

Cinematically, “Sound of My Voice” will not impress viewers. Broken up into multiple sections, the movie lacks certain elements that viewers expect. It leaves unanswered questions and unclear moments that hurt the better parts of the movie.

The film jumps back and forth between sections without demonstrating a clear reason behind the madness. Peter and Lorna desperately commit to the cause, but the movie doesn’t explain the motivation behind their interest.

Though “Sound of My Voice” might not hit every cinematic expectation, it does make a deeper cultural statement about society. It exemplifies the inability to reason when faced with faith and indoctrination, which can lead to harmful consequences.

Like historical accounts of cults, things tend to go awry once new members are inducted. Though “Sound of My Voice” remains solidly fiction, it replicates the intensity of cults that exist and those that have existed in the past.

Set in an undisclosed location, the film depicts the cult meeting in the middle of the night in an empty house “somewhere in the valley.” The group holds its meetings in the house’s elaborate basement that has been equipped with a sufficient amount of home-grown food and medical supplies to sustain Maggie in her fragile state as a woman from the future.

Claiming to have arrived from the year 2054, Maggie proves herself as a future being to the cult, but loses a few followers along the way because of the vagueness of her message. She has many characteristics in common with a con artist, causing some, such as Peter and Lorna, to doubt her message.

The couple, still committed to their mission, are forced to take part in various strange activities. From eating worms from Maggie’s hands to vomiting their food into a collected area of filth, the two continually delve deeper into cultic life.

They soon realize the intensity of their project, and as their level of duty to the documentary changes, their relationship becomes strained. The movie shows how a commitment to a cult can cause real-world relationships to change, making it difficult for cult members to connect with others.

The group expects nothing but sound devotion from its followers, and though Peter and Lorna originally enter the group as inactive participants, they soon get caught up with the message of the cult. Maggie promises the group salvation with the coming of the future.

Peter, the initial voice of reason, falls into a love-like trance with Maggie because of her ability to sway his emotions. He abandons his logic to become a devoted follower, and despite his best efforts to deny any affiliation, by the end of the movie, it’s clear where his loyalties lie.

Original roles change and diverge, and what the audience believes initially does not come to be in the end. The characters are hardly static. They change drastically over the course of the movie, exposing inner truths that would otherwise go unnoticed.

“Sound of My Voice” demonstrates the ways in which a cult can turn logical individuals into hopeful believers.