The Sunderland Experiment

Reviews of this film are mostly favorable. Those viewers must have understood the film much better than I did.

The plot (sort of): Ten years ago, an alien came to Earth, and set up shop in the isolated town of Sunderland (get it? Sunderland; like it's sundered from the world), somewhere in the southwestern desert (hence the original title of the film, "The Sunderland Experiment"). The people of the town call it the Angel. The town is now fenced in with a keyed electric gate. All normal life has ended there. The Angel has taken over the minds and bodies of the adults, and now that the children are growing up, they face a choice: They can attend "school" to learn the teachings of the Angel, and "be blessed" or "evolve" like their parents, or they can "fall," meaning live their lives in the wasteland at the edge of town, where their small rebellions are tolerated as long as they remain within the confines of Sunderland. To be "blessed," the Angel feeds them something from its own body that joins the human's mind, and even the human's body, to its own, promising a life of transcendental bliss. Of course, don't you believe it: The adults are now zombielike drones, mentally linked to the Angel, who are raising their kids to suffer the same fate. When a person dies in Sunderland, they're "planted" - literally. They are reborn as plants, with the person's head at the top of the stalk.

The town is beyond squalid. That keyed gate is the only working electrical device in the area. It looks like the town has been without electricity, running water, or telephone service for the whole 10 years since the Angel arrived. Nobody ever changes their clothes. Ever. In fact, it's forbidden to take them off. But the clothes don't look nearly filthy enough. People sleep on worn-out mattresses on the floor. Someone from the town is allowed to go out and buy supplies for the townspeople. How do they cook? Do they now have outhouses in place of bathrooms? (You don't see any.) They have practically no possessions, but they DO have ammunition for their guns. Also, has no one on the outside, like the post office or the authorities, noticed that the town of Sunderland has fallen not just off the grid, but off the map? After 10 years, don't you think they'd be curious?

The special effects and the little bit of CGI are well done. But except for a handful of scenes, I found the film to be essentially incoherent. Some of this, I think, was the clumsy editing; but a good film starts with a good script, and this film either didn't have one, or it got fatally diluted on the way to the screen. I had trouble keeping track of who was who, of who'd been killed and then reanimated and who hadn't, of what was real and what a character hallucinated, and which characters had had little spidery things implanted by the Angel and which didn't. The behavior of some of the characters was completely illogical, even for an illogical imaginary world. The acting is quite amateurish, which isn't surprising in a low-low-budget film like this one, and you have to accept that.

This is an ambitious film with a great premise and a few good moments, but on the whole, "Exile" falls far short of its ambitions.

There's a lot that can be said about this film. It's not great, and definitely not without flaws - in some cases, you can poke a hole big enough to sink a small boat. But this is one of the few films that I can honestly say, by the end, I was left reveling in what the filmmakers got RIGHT, that what flaws were noticeable melted into back of my mind. If you want an indie low-budget sci-fi film that doesn't follow the mold, give it a shot. This has the makings of a cult classic. It pays homage to Cronenberg and Lovecraft - not to oversell it, but it's weird and not soon forgettable. You've come this far, so hit the play button.

I wasn't expecting much from this but was pleasantly surprised, this movie is quite a gem. It's very original and interesting, the pacing is good and the practical effects and CGI are quite competent. Unlike a lot of other indie films in the same budget range it's never boring, and it always shocks and intrigues you into wanting to see what happens next.

The characters are very well written and believable. There's a lot of bizarre and frightening things happening, but they seem to accept it all as normal because they don't know any different. They have no understanding of the outside world because they've been isolated and kept ignorant. You actually care what happens to them as their characters develop and they learn horrible truths about their existence.

If you like indie sci-fi or horror films you'll probably like this one. It's relentlessly weird and bleak, and it will keep you interested till the end. I will definitely be watching the next film these guys make.

Exile is such a strange little creature and the front cover is highly deceptive! Telling the tale of a small society governed by a being referred to as an angel the citizens reach a point of their studies where they have to choose whether to be "blessed" which will have them merge with an alien entity or "fall" which means they'll be exiled.

Following one young man as he makes his decision and the impact on those around him.

Truth be told it's not the simplest story to follow and there is little background given forcing heavy interpretation and assumption but regardless the concept is really quite good.

Flawed in several areas the movie certainly isn't without its faults but provides a unique tale that certainly got my attention.

The Good:

Brilliant concept

The Bad:

Could have been made a tad better

Story is riddled with holes

Finale was pretty weak

This ultra-low budget sci-fi horror has a lot of originality put into it and is experimental in the extreme, creating its own world in a very basic environment. Along with this the film leaves a lot of blanks for the audience to fill in about the state of the world and what caused it, but that all works to its credit.

One gripe viewers could have is with the editing as it comes across as sloppy and jarring, although this might have been by design, but in either case it takes away from the viewing experience. Also the story, while original, lacks focus and it is easy to get lost in all that is happening. The film also takes very little time to pause and let the audience get to know its characters and so they feel a bit disconnected.

Overall this is a film with a lot of good ideas and I hope the writer/director gets to go onto more things as they clearly have talent. With more money and scope this film could have been something akin to District 9, as it is there is a little too much confusion and limitations to be truly great, but it certainly has a lot of potential and for what it lacks it makes up for in originality.