JP Nunez
Do you like aliens? Do you like cults? If you answered yes to both of those questions, then I’ve got just the movie for you. A new UFO cult film called Cosmic Dawn recently dropped a trailer, and it’s fantastic. Here’s what the story is going to be about:
“After witnessing an alien abduction as a child (and subsequently being told she’s crazy for most of her life) Aurora, now a young woman, joins the UFO cult The Cosmic Dawn after discovering a book written by the group’s leader, Elyse. Aurora’s time at the cult’s remote island compound is marked by miraculous revelations, consciousness expanding flowers, and a burgeoning friendship with Tom, the resident cook. When a fellow cult member starts to display increasingly bizarre behavior, Aurora begins to question Elyse’s sanity (and her own) and starts looking for a way out. Years later, after the dissolution of the cult, Aurora has moved on with her life. She leads a quiet and seemingly normal life. But when Elyse resurfaces in a mysterious video, Aurora is forced to confront her past. Together with Tom, she pursues the ultimate truth about The Cosmic Dawn. Does Elyse really have access to another dimension? Or do her prophesies truly point to mass suicide amongst the surviving cult members?”
I absolutely love the way this trailer seamlessly combines the cult and alien/cosmic subgenres to create something that looks like the best of both worlds. I’m a huge fan of cult movies, but I wish they would incorporate genuinely supernatural or paranormal elements a bit more often. I’m all for a grounded story about evil humans, but my greatest love will always be monsters and supernatural horror, so I want more films to go the route of The Endless and give us cults that tap into something genuinely paranormal.
And the Cosmic Dawn trailer does exactly that. While it has its fair share of typical human horrors, it also gives us a few substantial hints that there’s much more to it than just that. For example, there’s a shot where Aurora’s reflection moves on its own, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment when Elyse’s hand seems to be replaced by a monstrous claw. On top of that, there’s also a bunch of weird, psychedelic stuff that looks like it might be drug-induced, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it actually ends up being supernatural too.
In a nutshell, Cosmic Dawn looks like the perfect blend of two of my favorite subgenres, so while I have no idea how its seemingly disparate elements are all going to fit together, I absolutely can’t wait to find out.
Cosmic Dawn played at Nightstream earlier this year, and it hits theaters and VOD on February 11.
So what do you think of the trailer for Cosmic Dawn? Do you agree with JP that it looks like a great blend of the cult and alien subgenres? Let us know in the comments! And if you’re looking for more trailers we’ve got you covered!
