WELCOME TO THE CIRCLE (2020) (Artsploitation Blu-ray Review)

WELCOME TO THE CIRCLE (2020) 

Label: Artsploitation Films

Region Code: 

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: October 27, 2020
Duration: 93 Minutes 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.77:1)
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1, Dolby 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles 
Director: David Fowler

Cast: Taylor Dianne Robinson, Matthew MacCaull, Heather Doerksen, Matt Bellefleur, Andrea Brooks, Cindy Busby, Ben Cotton, Spencer Drever, Hilary Jardine, Jordana Largy, Michael J Rogers, Christian Tessier

Welcome to The Circle (2020) begins with Greg (Matthew MacCaull camping with his daughter Samantha (Taylor Dianne Robinson) in the forest. At night they are attacked by what seems to be a bear, and in the aftermath the father is injured leaving his daughter to find help, which she does by way of three women,  who turn out to be members of an isolated cult called The Circle, which is seemingly run by a weird dude named Mathew (Michael J. Rogers, Beyond the Black Rainbow). The father picks up on the strange cult vibes early on but he knows things are fucked for sure when he encounters the cult attacking one of their own in a violent ritual. Realizing they need to leave and leave fast he attempts to escape with his daughter, but things don't go so well for him.  

The story then switches over to  a cult-deprogrammer named Grady (Ben Cotton, Slither) who arrives at the compound to free a cult-member he has been in contact with. There he runs into Samantha and then things get really weird with alternate realities involving a mysterious and reclusive cult leader named Percy, it is all a bit confusing and doesn't seem all that concerned with making things that are happening clear, and not in a cool ambiguous way, but in a sort of deflating why-do-I-even-care sort of way that made me wish I had watched another movie. If I am being generous this has a similiar vibe to The Endless (2017) with an disorienting bit of oddness about it, and then it has a tinge of Tourist Trap (1979) with some creepy mannequin action, but I didn't like it, those comparisons are generously superficial and this flick is a dud, this was the rare Artsploitation release that I absolutely did not like on any level whatsoever, it's got a kernel of good idea but poor execution in my opinion, not awful, but not impressive either.