Abigail Before Beatrice (2025)
Directed & Written by Cassie Keet
Starring Olivia Taylor Dudley, Riley Dandy, & Shayn Herndon.

Drama / Thriller

★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)

DISCLAIMER:
The following essay contains
MINOR SPOILERS.

Another dark, intense film out of 2025’s Brooklyn Horror Film Festival is Cassie Keet’s Abigail Before Beatrice, which follows one of the eponymous women, Beatrice (Olivia Taylor Dudley), when she returns to the farm where she used to live under the thumb of a patriarchal cult leader named Grayson (Shayn Herndon). Things really change after Beatrice is contacted by another former cult member, Abigail (Riley Dandy), who makes her aware that Grayson has been released from prison. While Beatrice seems to want to make a new life for herself and embrace her own identity, she’s dragged back into the past. But does she really want a new life? Or, is she shackled to her life on the farm? At times, even Beatrice is unsure of what she wants, or, better yet, what she needs.

There are many films about cults out there, and so many are the same. That’s why Abigail Before Beatrice is such an affecting cinematic experience because Keet focuses so closely on the human experience of those who’ve been lured into a cult leader’s embrace. Not everybody who leaves or escapes a cult can so easily discard the person they were within the cult, nor can they discard the person they were before the cult, and sometimes those two identities collide in uncomfortable, even dangerous ways. Beatrice’s struggle is that of someone who wanted to be loved, found a love that was unhealthy, and now finds herself adrift in the sea of life after losing what little love she was able to find. What starts as a story about Beatrice living a new life becomes a disturbing perspective on what happens when identity and autonomy are taken from a person—regaining control as an individual can be a difficult process that hurts far more than it heals.
We begin to see how deeply indoctrinated Beatrice was into the cult when she’s visibly a bit shaken by a man with his shirt off and the suggestion she might want something cooler to wear than a long-sleeved shirt while working in the sun. The reason for her discomfort only becomes obvious later once we start to see the insidious tactics used against her by her former cult leader, Grayson. He didn’t like certain behaviours in the women he claimed as his own. Even Abigail, who’s escaped the cult far more/differently than Beatrice, continues to be brainwashed on a certain level by Grayson’s divisive love. In one scene, Abigail uses Grayson’s love for her to hurt Beatrice when they fight about the destruction he’s left behind in both of their lives. Neither woman can ever truly escape Grayson; not physically, and certainly not psychologically.

Abigail plainly states “I want my old life back,” but it’s not so easy for Beatrice. While Abigail’s being more public about her cult past and re-embracing her identity prior to Grayson, Beatrice remains trapped in the identity that was given to her by Grayson. Someone calls Beatrice the “cult girl” at one point. This is her identity now, she might never outrun it. Both Abigail and Beatrice were wounded souls before they fell into Grayson’s hideous grip; however, it feels like Beatrice was more lost and wounded than Abigail, particularly judging by the scar on one of her wrists that speaks volumes about her history. And so it’s possible all Beatrice has ever had is the love Grayson gave her, which is why she’s so tethered to him and the identity he provided.

“That shit just gets in your bones . . . You‘re just not who you used to be.”

Abigail Before Beatrice starts as a dramatic thriller about a young woman living a new life after her cult leader went to jail, and eventually morphs into a psychological horror that takes the audience deep into the mental scars left on a young woman manipulated by a disgusting patriarchal, misogynistic creep. By the time the film’s finale comes around, Keet gets at the heart of how damaged people are hypnotised by men with a God complex, and how that hypnotism can lead people to dark places. Men like Grayson believe they were born to help others while they mostly do nothing except hurt others; sometimes they actually put themselves in a position to be hurt, too. Abigail Before Beatrice is a powerful portrayal of how nothing good or beautiful will ever come from a person having their identity and autonomy taken from them. The results will never be anything but ugly.