Killing Faith

Set in the equally bleak surroundings of mid-19th Century Arizona, Killing Faith follows the unlikely group of a freed slave (DeWanda Wise), her passing daughter (Emily Katherine Ford), a drug-abusing doctor (Guy Pearce), and a half-wit (Jack Alcott) on a five day journey from the town they are no longer accepted to a neighboring one which they hope will lead to salvation.

At the center of the film, although without any lines of her own, is the young girl who is a carrier of the plague ravaging the area. Some, including her mother, believe the child has been infected by the Devil leading to the supernatural overtones of the movie (which are more subtle than you would expect, accepting only by the poorly educated and fearful of the Western territory) and the religious conversations between the mother and the doctor (haunted by the loss of his own daughter to the same disease).

The performances are solid, especially from Pearce and Wise, and we get more than a few odd characters thrown in along the way from the likes of Bill Pullman, Raoul Max Trujillo, Jamie Neumann, and Joanna Cassidy. The young girl is hardly the only danger to be dealt with. Although there's a hope that permeates Wise's character for a time, coming in conflict with the doctor's common sense, there's a foreboding and hopelessness baked into the story even if the supernatural aspects of a child infected by evil is only briefly explored as an actual possibility by someone other than the supernaturally fearful locals who make up most of the characters in the film.

It's easy to appreciate the filmmaking of writer/director Ned Crowley and the story he wants to share, although given its tone I don't know that I actually enjoyed Killing Faith and am unlikely to ever seek it out again. Despite the blood and struggle, it's a film that doesn't leave the viewer with much to mull over or discuss. Ultimately, the best way to sum up Killing Faith is that the movie sounds better on paper than on-screen, despite what flourishes Crowley attempts to add along the way.

• Title: Killing Faith
• IMDb: link