The Ancient Ones tell of a legend; a mortal who goes out into the abyss, risking life and limb in the attempt to find the fabled Helm of Marcus Starchild. They say that whomever wields the Helm will have the power to save our world…or enslave it. Many throughout our history have ventured out, all of them failing at this monumental task, but if the Ancients are to be believed the dawning of the New Age has arrived and the one who can find the Helm will finally set out on his odyssey. Yes, if the gods are good, the man or woman will set off soon, helping to shape the fate of all who dwell on this tiny outpost in a nigh forgotten solar system. I, on the other hand, got a little bit tipsy and watched something I found on Netflix. I’m not saying that I’m better than this fabled wanderer, just that we are both heroes in very different ways, but mine are the feats that you can read about right now, so Advantage: Dave.
This week on “Eh, What’s New On Netflix,” we’re taking a look at a 2014 film called The Sisterhood of Night. The blurb said that it was a modern retelling of the Salem witch trials and it looked like it had the potential to be a kinda creepy horror movie. I mean, what’s better than a bunch of kids in a cult doing cult-y things? I’ve seen Children of the Corn and Village of the Damned. This is obviously in the same vein as those, since the title has a [noun] of the [noun] structure, except the “the” is in the wrong place. This is a grievous oversight, but one that I can overlook if the scares are good enough.
What I wasn’t expecting was that this turned out to not be a horror film at all. When the blurb said “Salem witch trials,” what it should had probably said is “Arthur Miller’s The Crucible,” since that’s what they are going for here.* After getting into a fight with classmate Emily (Kara Hayward, Moonrise Kingdom), Mary (Georgie Henley, The Chronicles of Narnia) deletes her online presence and founds a group of friends who meet in secret and shun the internet. Emily desperately wants to join this Sisterhood, but when she discovers their meeting place, she claims that it is a lesbian sex cult and that they molested her. This leads to a whole media kerfuffle and divisions within the Sisterhood about whether or not to break their silence and violate the secrecy.
What The Sisterhood of Night ends up being is something you don’t see a whole lot: a female coming of age story. We tend to get inundated with movies about boys growing up and becoming men. There’s pretty much every war movie ever made, Stand By Me, Boyhood, etc. Its rare that young women take the forefront in these sorts of movies, and for that reason alone Sisterhood would be worth watching. Add in the fact that this is actually really fucking good and we have a legitimate gem on our hands.
It starts out with the relative star power. No one here is really huge (the closest person to that is probably Kal Penn as the school guidance counselor) but so many people are both recognizable and really good. I LOVED Hayward in Moonrise Kingdom and this movie only confirmed that I want to see her in all the movies from here on out. Henley has an amazing swagger to her. She makes a character that could be seen as bitchy or mean, into one that is very relatable. Also, Lydia and Gretchen Schwartz from Breaking Bad show up! How cool is that!
When it comes down to it, this is a movie that is all about women and their relationships to each other. Mothers to daughters, friends, enemies, everything. The few male characters who are here serve mostly to facilitate, advance, and sometimes complicate, the connections between the females. Part of me is a little bit sad to be so blown away by this movie since one of the reasons it stood out so much is that it is so girl centric. How is it possible that in 2015, a movie all about women is capable of being bold and unexpected just because women are at the center of it? I hope that this is a sign of things to come and that as our culture continues to advance we will see more movies like this and the casting can take a back seat to the actual elements of film. Until then, I guess all I can say is to watch this and remember what it is like to be a 15 year old girl. I know that for me, those were the best 3 and a half months of my life.
*It should be noted that I haven’t read The Crucible in a LONG time, and it’s entirely possible that I am completely off point here.
