Exile

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.

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

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.

An exploration of Western boredom, religion, drugs, and freedom.

There is an alien that attempts to make people conform via ritual, there is crime and fitting but arbitrary punishment, and there is exile and death all set in almost post-apocalyptic desert ruination. A little gross, but not too gross. The characters are as unreal as the place and just as disturbing, but they are all honest to the point of hurting through their interpellation, ignorance, and resulting quirks.

No tropes or overwritten moments in this one - I never knew what was going to happen next. It's not fun or pretty, but it's obvious that there was a real thinking human who made the movie.

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.