The Sisterhood of Night (FILM REVIEW)
The Sisterhood of Night
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Sinister Sorority Suspected of Satanism in Compelling Cautionary Tale
Mary Warren
(Georgie Henley) was once a popular straight-C student voted most likely to
become famous by the student body at Kingston High in upstate New York. But everything changed the day a
jealous competitor stole her phone while she was auditioning for a role in a
school play.
For, that classmate, Emily
Parris (Kara Hayward), proceeded to humiliate Mary by posting some of her very intimate
text messages online. Although the cruel ploy did draw a lot of traffic to a
blog which nobody had been reading, the victim responded in a way no one could
have predicted.
Instead of
retaliating in kind, Mary resorted to calling Emily a whore in chalk on the
schoolyard wall. Sick of the internet entirely, she also came up with the idea
of forming The Sisterhood, a secret society which meets in the woods in the
middle of the night. The idea was that instead of behaving like bitchy backstabbers,
the members would promise to respect each other’s privacy while providing a
shoulder to cry on as they share their personal problems.
The first two
recruits are social zeroes, homely Catherine Huang (Willa Cuthrell) and Lavinia
Hall (Olivia DeJonge), the troubled daughter of the school librarian (Laura
Fraser). Their swearing-in involves taking a vow of silence about what
transpires during their confessional sessions around the campfire.
The group’s numbers
gradually swell as word spreads about the safe space they’ve created for
females. This one admits to having had an abortion; that one says she’s afraid
she’ll never be kissed. Another wants to be in love with the boy she surrenders
her virginity to; while the next wants her chronically-ill mother to either
recover or die. And so forth.
Unfortunately, vicious
rumors circulating around campus suggesting that The Sisterhood might be a
coven of witches or a sex cult eventually reach the ears of the guidance
counselor (Kal Penn), the principal (Gary Wilmes) and even a reporter (Brian
Berrebbi) interested in writing sensational stories for the local tabloid. Will
the girls stick together when it seems like everyone in town comes down on it
like a ton of bricks?
Directed by Caryn
Waechter, The Sisterhood of Night is a compelling cautionary tale inspired by Steven
Millhauser’s short story of the same name. A daunting test of teen loyalty by an
Electronic Age equivalent of a Salem
witch hunt.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated PG-13
for mature themes, suicide, sexuality and prescription drug abuse
Running time: 103 minutes
Distributor: Freestyle
Digital Media
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