Cults as a phenomenon have always drawn me in. I like to examine why people join cults, what they’re looking for, what need they’re trying to fill. Due to this fascination, I’ve done a lot of research on the Heaven’s Gate cult, which was a group of people who believed aliens would come and take them to another world, a better world. To achieve this, they committed a mass suicide on March 26th of 1997. Jefferson Moneo’s Cosmic Dawn seems to channel the beliefs and themes of Heaven’s Gate, blended with an almost X-Files-esque design and execution. The film even takes place between 1997 and 2001, seeming to implicitly say that when Heaven’s Gate ceased to exist, the fictional cult of the film took its place.
The story centers on Aurora (Camille Rowe), a woman whose mother disappeared under mysterious ― and seemingly extraterrestrial ― circumstances when she was a young girl. As Aurora gets older, she feels like a part of her is missing, and is constantly looking for her mother. When she meets a warm and charismatic woman named Natalie (Emmanuelle Chriqui), she’s invited to a “meeting” with Natalie’s friends. As the film goes on, Aurora becomes more and more entrenched in a group she realizes she doesn’t want to be a part of as more and more odd things occur.
Stylistically, Cosmic Dawn is reminiscent of 80’s sci-fi, with dreamlike sequences that almost feel hallucinogenic. Glitter is a recurring theme in the film’s style, especially in scenes where something extraterrestrial makes contact with the characters in the film. The night Aurora’s mother goes missing, the world seems to be soaked in purple glitter. The score is purely electronic, using synths and keyboards to create a feeling of unease and strange curiosity.
At its heart, Cosmic Dawn is about looking for answers, and the lengths we go to find them. Aurora has been searching her whole life for her mother, growing more and more desperate as time went on. The idea of a cult plays well into this theme; the things people ignore in favor of perhaps finding out why bad things happened to them is a strikingly human experience that is explored delicately, yet with a critical eye. Aurora knows she should be wary of the situation she finds herself in, but her desire to feel closer to her mother wins out over caution. If I had a criticism, it would be that the film seems to feel quite slow in some parts. I seemed to be waiting for something to happen, and then it ended. Paradoxically, despite the feeling of it being slow, I was always intrigued. I felt for Aurora, desperate to find answers and see what truly happened.
The idea of space, a vast unknown that we cannot comprehend, is an extremely lonely feeling. Searching for community and belonging often feels futile, and Cosmic Dawn understands this feeling better than most. Exploring this idea through science fiction and horror, Moneo challenges the ideas of loneliness and the human experience with a story that is far-fetched, yet so easy to relate to. Sometimes, people are taken from us, and we always want to know why. Moneo’s film explores the idea that perhaps we are better off not knowing.
