Cults are defined as a group of people who have a misplaced, excessive, and unhealthy devotion to a particular person or ideology. The weak-minded people who fall into cults are taught that the individual means nothing, save for their leader. Jordan Scott’s A Sacrifice, is a new thriller that examines how it is the fragile spirit that opens themselves up to dangerous ideas from wolves in sheep’s clothing. 

Eric Bana stars as Ben Monroe, an American professor who found academic fame with his bestseller, The Science of Loneliness, now lecturing in Germany while writing a new book about group thinking. Separated from his wife, his teenage daughter Mazzy (Sadie Sink) has been sent to her dad for the summer, due to her recent acting out at home. The two hope to use the time to reconnect. 

Ben has begun a relationship with Nina (Sylvia Hoeks), a detective who is investigating the mass suicide of a suspected cult, while his daughter makes her own emotional connection. On the train to her father’s house, Mazzy meets a German man named Martin (Jonas Dassler). Martin seems kind and doesn’t appear to be a threat, as the two begin to see one other on a regular basis. It is through Martin that Mazzy meets Hilma (a creepy Sophie Ross), the leader of a supposed group dedicated to the preservation of the environment. In reality, she is just another cult maniac who keeps control by teaching her flock that self-sacrifice and death are the only way to save humanity and ourselves. 

As the story progresses, people, places, and things are not as they seem, while Mazzy and Ben find their lives in the gravest of dangers. 

Written and directed by Jordan Scott (Ridley’s daughter), A Sacrifice is adapted from the novel Tokyo by Nicholas Hogg. Scott’s screenplay does very well in its probing of how damaged people fall into cults disguised as do-gooders for human existence. Mazzy’s head is in a bad place and the resentment towards her parents’ uncoupling and a near tragedy involving her father still sting, leading the teen to fall under Hilda’s spell. Mazzy’s character is an example of the type of broken soul that is ripe for manipulation. The film works best when showing how those carrying personal pain are the easy prey of cults and their leaders. The director raises some profound dialogues about our relationship to society, the fragile mind, and how loneliness and depression can open one up to darkness. The real-world horrors of the cult mentality and those who seek power by feeding off the weak are scarily relevant today. For the most frightening example, one must only look at the tragedy that is 2024 America. 

As a thriller, A Sacrifice is less successful. Once the film unfolds its conspiratorially crafted plot, the reveals fail to land the intended punch and the actions of the well-drawn characters become questionable. It is quite unbelievable that Ben (a studied professor writing a book named The Power of GroupThink) wouldn’t be pounded with red flags because of the actions of a certain character. As the finale pieces it all together it makes Ben look less aware while leaving viewers underwhelmed. 

The picture is certainly watchable and interesting, but the lofty themes within Scott’s script do not come together with the picture’s suspenseful designs. Conceptually, Jordan Scott’s sophomore film promises something quite interesting but cannot reach the level of a film like Ted Kotcheff’s excellent 1982 “save someone from a cult” drama, Split Image, nor can it get to the deeper emotional experience of Ralph L. Thomas’ 1981 cult drama, Ticket to Heaven. Those films found balance in their drama and suspense. Scott is strong with her drama, but the thriller aspects are too formulaic. 

The entire cast does fine work. This type of character is tailor-made for Bana and Sadie Sink has impressed since her role in Netflix’s Stranger Things. Julie Kirkwood’s moody cinematography is (at times) Gordon Willis-dark and Volker Bertelmann’s score is properly unnerving.

A Sacrifice has many fine moments and works for a good deal of time. It fails only when trying too hard to give its audience a standard thriller. 

In theaters and On Demand this Friday, June 28 from Vertical

A Sacrifice

Written & Directed by Jordan Scott (Taken from the novel Tokyo by Nicholas Hogg)

Starring Eric Bana, Sadie Sink, Sylvia Hoeks, Jonas Dassler, Sophie Ross

R, 94 Minutes, Scott Free Productions, Logical Content Pictures, Protagonist Pictures