“Sound of My Voice” is a very low-budget psychological thriller from 2011, and much like “Another Earth,” it is an admirable attempt at a genre picture, featuring some interesting ideas, but ultimately hollow due to insistence on ambiguity for the sake of being ambiguous. A great premise is introduced, some character drama happens in the interim, and then BAM! an ambiguous and unsupported ending, used in an unfortunate attempt at profundity and lacking any real dramatic punch because really the movie refuses to come out and say anything.

The movie starts with Peter and Lorna infiltrating a very small but elaborate cult, based on all the bathing and sanitizing and secrecy, and apparently by the time the movie begins they have already made significant headway into the cult, established by the fact that they know some ridiculous and elaborate secret handshake that allows them ultimate access to the cult leader, Maggie, a young woman who claims to be a time-traveler from the year 2054, and who has come back to gather disciples to form sort of army for some future civil war or something like that. She’s all quietly charismatic and is introduced with an oxygen tank, showing she is ill, and she guides her news disciples through a series of exercises, and the whole while Peter and Lorna are there trying to suss her out and see what’s up.Continue Reading …