Faults is an enjoyably tense brain-control drama, anchored by two great leading roles from Leland Orser and the underrated Mary Elizabeth Winston. Ansel Roth (Leland Orser) is a broke specialist on cults and mind-control living from selling his book. Claire (Mary Elizabeth Winston) is the daughter of an older couple played by Beth Grant and Chris Ellis, who are afraid for their daughter’s safety due to her involvement in a cult called Faults.

The film is supposed to have black comedy elements, but the laughs are minimal - the tension, as the film burns to the end of it’s rope, is well-crafted. An interesting supporting role by Jon Gries livens the story up with an oddball character who is Ansel’s agent. The number of characters in this film in total is essentially six, giving it a focus that it probably wouldn’t have on a larger scale and budget.

There are twists and turns in the film, none particularly revelatory but they are executed well. The main plus to this film is that it is cinematic. There are very few handheld shots, many slow dolly-ins and good lighting. This seems to be indicative of a certain group of contemporary independent filmmakers working in America like David Robert Mitchell (It Follows), Adam Winged (The Guest and You’re Next) as well as Zal Batmanglij (Sound Of My Voice). After the influx of cheaper DSLR’s leading to a constantly hand-held aesthetic in independent cinema, a more formal approach to camera movement is returning to the newer generation of directors - but I digress.

This is a film which is an enjoyable 90-minute watch, but fairly easy to forget apart from some memorable moments and memorable performances. It could have used it’s premise to go even further than it did, to shock the audience more and to even make them laugh more, but the path this film takes is one of a perfectly good film. Not bad, not great, just good.