‘Pendulum’ Poster Teases a New Age Nightmare With Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Phoebe Dynevor
Healing and manipulation may be separated by a dangerously thin line in Pendulum, the psychological thriller marking screenwriter Mark Heyman’s feature directorial debut.
A new poster has arrived for the film, which pairs Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Phoebe Dynevor as a married couple drawn into the increasingly uncertain world of a New Mexico new-age retreat. Heyman writes and directs the project, with Anna Deavere Smith, Jena Malone, Norman Reedus and Jacki Weaver rounding out the ensemble.
Gordon-Levitt stars as Patrick opposite Dynevor as his wife, Abigail. Following a traumatic event, the couple travels to the retreat hoping its unconventional practices might offer a path toward healing.
Patrick is prepared to do whatever he can to help his wife recover, but his faith in the process begins deteriorating as he becomes suspicious of the retreat’s enigmatic leader, played by Weaver.
Abigail, meanwhile, moves in the opposite direction.
As she falls increasingly under the leader’s influence, Patrick begins questioning whether the retreat’s spiritual practices represent genuine healing or something considerably more dangerous. With paranoia mounting, the couple must determine what is actually happening around them before the group threatens to consume them both.
The premise places Pendulum in fertile territory for psychological horror, using grief and vulnerability as entry points into a community promising answers at precisely the moment its visitors may be most susceptible to them. The central tension also creates a potentially unreliable divide between Patrick and Abigail: his growing distrust could represent legitimate danger, paranoia or some combination of the two.
That uncertainty appears positioned at the center of Heyman’s story.
Pendulum marks Heyman’s first feature as a director after establishing himself as a screenwriter. His writing credits include Black Swan, making the film’s intersection of psychological deterioration, obsession and uncertain perception familiar territory even as he moves behind the camera.
The cast gives the project considerable genre weight as well. Gordon-Levitt and Dynevor occupy the troubled relationship at its center, while Weaver takes on the pivotal role of a spiritual leader whose intentions become increasingly difficult to read. Deavere Smith, Malone and Reedus complete the principal ensemble.
Rather than building its threat around an immediately identifiable supernatural force or conventional antagonist, Pendulum appears prepared to exploit something more intimate: the desperation to believe someone can make the pain disappear.
For Patrick and Abigail, the retreat offers the possibility of putting their lives back together after trauma. Whether that promise represents salvation, exploitation or something much worse is the question waiting underneath it.
Pendulum is written and directed by Mark Heyman. Release details have not yet been announced.
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