The Other Lamb
The Other Lamb is a 2019 horror film directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and written by C.S. McMullen. It stars Raffey Cassidy, Michiel Huisman and Denise Gough. Plot summary. Selah is a teenage girl who is living in a remote forest compound belonging to a polygamist cult. The cult's messianic leader, the Shepherd, is the only male in the group. The women are divided into two groups: the younger Sisters, who are dressed in blue, and the older Wives, who are dressed in red. As she matures, Selah has become more of a focus of the Shepherd 's attention. She frequently wonders about her mother, who died giving birth to her. One night, Selah overhears a police officer telling the Shepherd that the group must leave. The Shepherd announces that he will be leading the women on a journey to a new home. During the arduous journey, Selah begins to doubt his judgement. When she sees a car driving on a road, she has a fantasy of herself inside it, dressed as a normal teenager. During the walk, she befriends Sarah, one of the Wives, who is under punishment for an unspecified sin. Sarah tells Selah that  her mother did not die in childbirth, but rather caught an infection and died because the Shepherd would not let her seek medical attention. Sarah admits that she has no faith in the Shepherd but stays because she has no place else to go. When Selah has her first period, she must stay in isolation with Sarah because menstruation makes her "unclean". The strenuous hike causes one of the Wives to go into premature labor, and she dies in childbirth. After the funeral, Sarah tells Selah that she is leaving with the baby, which the Shepherd had wanted to abandon  in the wilderness because it was "born wrong". Sarah reveals that the Shepherd wanted to abandon the baby because "there can only be one ram in a flock". Meanwhile, the Shepherd gets angry at Tamar, one of the Sisters, and beats her, further eroding Selah's regard for him. The group arrives at a valley with a large lake, which the Shepherd declares will be their new Eden. The Sisters’ faith has been shaken by the journey, but the Shepherd rebaptizes everyone. That night, he calls Selah to his tent and rapes her. She fantasizes about the Sisters killing the  Shepherd. The next morning, the Sisters awake to find the Wives missing. They go to the lake to find the Shepherd kneeling near the Wives' robes. He tells them that the Wives have ascended into a new life and the Sisters must replace them. Selah confronts him, telling him, "You are not our shepherd!" He smacks her and she hits him back. Some time later, police officers discover the bodies of the Wives washed up on the shore of the lake. They also discover the Shepherd's dead body suspended between two trees, a pair of ram's horns placed  on his head like a faun. The Sisters, led by Selah, congregate at a waterfall. Production. In February 2019, it was announced Raffey Cassidy, Michiel Huisman and Denise Gough had joined the cast of the film, with Małgorzata Szumowska directing from a screenplay by C.S. McMullen. Principal photography began that same month in County Wicklow, Ireland. Release. The film had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2019. Shortly after, IFC Midnight and Mubi acquired US and UK distribution rights to the film, respectively. It was released in the United States on 3 April 2020  and was released in the United Kingdom on 16 October 2020. Reception. Box office. By the third week of its release, it was the third-highest grossing film in the United States with box office returns of $265 and $4,825 total. Critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads "Smartly directed by Malgorzata Szumowska, "The Other Lamb" uses a young woman's coming-of-age story to explore the powerful hold cults can have on their followers." On  Metacritic it has weighted average score of 65 out of 100, based on reviews from 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".