Despite the disclaimer that should help the viewer navigate, the series resembles a maze in which it is impossible not to get lost. Little Sarah notices how Amy, an old girl with dazzling white hair, has carved her own name into an old tree. “The trees are hurting,” Sarah interrupts, not indifferent. “How do you know?” The blonde responds. “Just imagine yourself in the place of a tree,” Sarah replies, and in the next second she is smuggled away from her home in a white van.
In the following years, the child learns enough about pain and torture. Against her will, Sarah finds a new “Family”, a hair color and a horrific experience of abuse that will confront all the young wards of a mysterious cult led by a woman named Adrian (Miranda Otto). Bruce (Guy Pearce) and a few teachers help him with this. And that’s not counting a dozen residents living in the suburbs of Melbourne, where a dangerous cult has arisen and flourished.
In parallel with the events taking place in the huge mansion at the edge of the forest, where the “Family” lives, another story unfolds in the present. Single mother Freya (an actress with a beautiful name for all Twin Peaks fans, Teresa Palmer) raises her son, lives in the same secluded wilderness, and is in a state of constant stress. Freya is frightened by the news of another kidnapping of a child, cars passing by (especially if it’s a white van reminiscent of the truck from which little Sarah was abducted) and has nightmares.
At the end of the pilot episode, it is revealed that Freya is the grown Amy, the same girl who carved her name into a tree and dragged little Sarah into the clutches of cult members. Freya, who has been through hell and tormented by a mixture of guilt and personal trauma, now tries to find a way out of the past.
For all its mystical atmosphere, “Purification” is more about the dramatic detective story genre. Because it’s not extraterrestrials who are responsible for the unnatural here (although the burning whitish children of the cult are terribly reminiscent of the grotesque alien children from the ‘Village of the Damned’ movie), but ordinary heroes, so cleverly manipulated by the character Miranda Otto. .
In fact, the Family sect, also known as the Great White Brotherhood (that’s where all the sect’s children have scorched blond hair), existed in the mid-60s under the leadership of yoga teacher Ann Hamilton-Burn. The character, whose prototype Bern became in the series, does not look so voluminous and lacks credibility in life. Although Miranda Otto tries hard: from the she-wolf appearance, the blood in the veins really freezes, and the peaceful half-whisper makes her heart beat faster. But the way he and his accomplices are presented in the series does not refer to living people, but to operetta villains: exaggerated, unnecessary and unconvincing. Especially when it’s based on the painful experiences of real people, not fictional ones.
Because of this, and also because of the structural confusion in the early chapters (a torn cut seems to call for an immediate drop of hope for any viewer), the project resembles an obelisk – a monument tapering upwards, higher and farther inside, becoming a hostage of its own complex structure. less living space for the authors of the incoming series.
Tragic tales of true religious cults are explored by filmmakers with enviable continuity. The Manson phenomenon alone, who also had his own “Family”, was understood by both masters like Fincher and Tarantino and smaller-caliber directors.
Of the less popular stories, last year’s serials come to mind “Under the Flag of Heaven” With Andrew Garfield. The project talked about the horrific crimes that took place in the lands of the Mormon community, rejecting not only worldly laws (they literally rejected taxes and fines for administrative violations), but also those who did not obey God’s law – its permissiveness. cult leaders turned into a series of bloody murders. Combining Fincher’s “Seven” aesthetic with the “True Detective” rhythm, the project seemed to be its worthy representative, if not a new word in the genre. Because in the presence of a recognizable form, he managed to find the handwriting and voice of some special author.
In Purification, by contrast, predictably there are too many dusty clichés you’re prepared to discover, and the tiredness of the plot that seems to want to tell a true story but also strenuously denies any intersection with reality.
The authors’ attempt to engage in a high-profile conspiracy and at the same time avoid the potential scandal that often accompanies true crime stories (actual witnesses and participants in the events may not sharply accept the series’ creators’ vision) makes it a grueling viewing experience. You seem to be running around in the dark thickets of the forest with a frightened Freya, but it’s unclear why. And the most terrible thing for history – I don’t even want to investigate it.