Compliance
Written and Directed
By: Craig Zobel
Starring: Ann
Dowd, Dreama Walker, Pat Healy, Bill Camp, Philip Ettinger, and Ashlie
Atkinson.
Director of Photography: Adam Stone, Editor: Jane Rizzo,
Production Designer: Matthew Munn, Original Music: Heather McIntosh.
When
the words “Based on a True Story” flash right at the start of the independent
horror film Compliance, it’s not just
informing us we’re into something ripped from the headlines. The text fills the
screen in jarring type font and larger-than-life letters. This isn’t just a
note; it’s a shield against criticism. One which allows the filmmakers to
exploit and milk their story for all it's worth.
Compliance isn’t the worst movie of the
year by any standards—it’s too competently made and well-performed by its
cast—but it’s easily the most enragingly misguided in its portrayal of working
class society. It’s a film that plays out a horror scenario to its fullest,
based on the premise that those who live in small town America are simply too
stupid, too scared, and too lacking in self-worth to question authority. And
further than that, it’s narrative structure is so poorly conceived that for
writer/director Craig Zobel to make this film from what clearly seems like a
perspective of privilege speaks to his moral turpitude.
