What’s a cult to do with somebody like Isaac?
The leaders have tried everything. They’ve punished him. They’ve slapped him around. They’ve forced him to swallow pills and glug vinegar. They’ve thrown him in a cell. He’s “acidic,” you see. And if he keeps this up, expounding impure thoughts, he won’t ascend in the Rapture with everybody else.
Worse still, he’s no breeder. Give him a comely female supplicant to impregnate, and Isaac can’t seal the deal.
When we first meet Isaac, he’s alone in a cell. The bare walls are festooned with primitive crucifixes. Isaac is dressed Amish style—collarless shirt, pants with suspenders—and is suffering terrible visions of ancient rites: people wearing animal masks performing a human sacrifice. He bolts awake, unsure if what he’s witnessed is real.
Soon he’s released from his dark cell into the sunshine. The location is a lavish mansion, surrounded by majestic mountains against a stunning blue sky. It’s an idyllic scene: maidens in similarly modest dress sing traditional songs and merrily cavort. They all serve at the pleasure of the Wentworths, a husband-and-wife team who command the cult. They work hard to keep their flock “clean” despite the immoral excesses of the outside world.
And so it goes in the new film Dirty Boy. Think of it as a stew of Midsomer seasoned with The Handmaid’s Tale and a dash of Wicker Man. It was shot in the ‘Ausseerland/ Saltzkammergut’ in Austria, the same location as The Sound of Music.
Dirty Boy writer/director Doug Rao is known mostly for TV work. Here he plays with an intriguing notion: is Isaac’s condition religious fervor or mental illness
Dirty Boy has an impressive cast. Graham McTavish (you’ll know him from Games of Thrones) plays Walter Wentworth, the patriarch. Walter’s done up in furs and very droll, and when not ravishing maidens has lines like “If God is always watching, the least we can do is be interesting.” Mr. McTavish could’ve been used to better effect; we see him either propped in his chair or unbuckling. Susie Porter plays Walter’s wife, Verity Wentworth, who sure loves her some baptizing. Her mission is to cleanse Isaac of the “acidic signs of Satan,” inclinations toward pornography, the internet, and hedonism.
Stan Steinbichler plays Isaac to the hilt. He’s gaunt and wired, resembling a young Anthony Perkins as Norman Bates. The women in the flock are named for virtues, and he’s ably aided by Hope (Honor Gillies, who looks like she’s stepped out of a Bouguereau painting) in his defiance of the order. Olivia Chenery is fashion-model legs and cheekbones as the sinister psychiatrist.
Mr. Rao and cinematographer Ross Yeandle make the most of their widescreen by mixing stunning panoramas (those mountains are the Alps) with sequences of sharp shadows and a limited color palette. All are well-blocked; particularly an expository scene midway through the runtime with Isaac and the maidens that perfectly sums up the stakes.
The scenario is divided into parts—Lamentations, Revelation, Genesis, and Exodus—though they don’t serve much purpose. Isaac confronts his demons, one in particular named Frankie, and tries to clear his name; he’s been accused of those ritual murders from his nightmares. Dirty Boy uses an ironic voiceover which may have been included to fill plot holes but actually puts a unique spin on the proceedings.
Dirty Boy combines my primary complaints about recent films: it has a misleading title—which in this case trivializes its themes—and a facile climax that results in carnage or deus ex machina. Poor Isaac has nowhere to go, narratively or story-structurally. The outside world isn’t a factor until the denouement (which further reinforces the Psycho connection). Isaac can’t escape. Where’s he going to go? He was born on the compound and has never left—so he deals predictably with his situation.
Too many good dystopias are wasted by ending them and neutering their allegorical sting. A climax commodifies; the tale is no longer cautionary. It’s a completed dramatic unit, so can be put away and ultimately forgotten.
Dirty Boy works itself into a corner and chooses to fight its way out. Too bad: when it works, Dirty Boy showcases some fine performances and raises some interesting questions about insanity and divinity.
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Dirty Boy. Directed by Doug Rao. 2024. From Mystic Dream/Stone Hill/Saint Halo. Runtime 97 minutes.