- Title: The Sintern
- IMDb: link
Your basic low-budget TV-movie style thriller, The Sintern stars Evelyn Giovine as a woman with a checkered past, an 80s perm, and horrible taste in men looking into the sudden disappearance of her estranged mother which she ties back to a megachurch. Verity goes undercover as the church’s new marketing intern Charity, hoping to uncover the dark secrets the church holds (while completely missing the obvious truth she will need to have spelled out for her in the final 15 minutes of the film).
What Verity uncovers is a history of unwanted sexual advances by a returning pastor (Damon Dayoub) which, when she can’t get witnesses to come forward, attempts to bait him into choosing her as his next victim. There’s also as subplot involving her boyfriend (Greg Finley) owing money to the mob and Verity mistaking an interested cop (Daniel Link) for being her biological father, neither of which really ever pan out.
The mystery of what happened is all too easy to piece together, and a pretty detailed evidence trail that would seem more than enough for the police to start an investigation, leaving far too much empty time for filler and these unnecessary subplots which only serve to overcomplicate the ending. In what was the only real bright spot, I was impressed with Raquel Davies in the thankless role of Verity’s best friend who helps her learn just enough marketing for dummies to keep her cover in place long enough to learn the truth, have her plans fall apart, and confront the preacher in front of his congregation in a clusterfuck of an ending.
Watch the trailer
