Taglines: Sects, cults, and mind control.
Stearns came up with the idea by being inspired and fascinated with the process of deprogramming that was introduced by Ted Patrick in mid-to-late 1970’s. He also stated that the interest came when he watched an episode of Cops when he was a child, in which “a girl called the police and was like,’I’m locked in this hotel room and they’re not letting me out.’ and the cops told her that her parents knew what was best and that she had to stay. And they left. And I was freaked out by that because even as a kid you realize there’s something weird about that – telling you that you have to stay in a place you don’t want to be.”
Stearns cited Paul Thomas Anderson’s works, namely Punch-Drunk Love, The Coen Brothers’ Fargo, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooth and Alps among the many works he was inspired by.
To prepare themselves for the role, Winstead and Orser read the book “Let Our Children Go” by Ted Patrick, as well as watching YouTube videos from that era of people in cults or people who had just gotten out of cults. They had both also created their own backstories for their characters based on Stearns’ script. Winstead has repeatedly mentioned that Claire is her most challenging role to date. “I have to play a few different characters over the course of the film [and] I had to sort of really keep track from scene to scene to remind myself of where she was,” Winstead says.
Faults is a drama film written and directed by Riley Stearns in his feature film debut. The film stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Leland Orser, Jon Gries, Beth Grant, Chris Ellis and Lance Reddick. The film premiered at the 2014 SXSW on March 9, 2014, and was picked up by Screen Media Films for theatrical release on March 6, 2015.
Faults
Directed by: Riley Stearns
Starring: Leland Orser, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Chris Ellis, Jon Gries, Suzan Averitt, Beth Grant, Amanda Saunders
Screenplay by: Riley Stearns
Production Design by: James Connelly
Cinematography by: Michael Ragen
Film Editing by: Sarah Beth Shapiro
Costume Design by: Emily Batson
Set Decoration by: Leah Mann
Studio: Screen Media Films
Release Date: March 13, 2015
Visits: 93
