The Collective, a 2008 independent "paranoid thriller".
The Collective has a list of credits that usually worries me. The cast is very small, 12 names in total, and most of those only have 1-2 speaking lines if they have any. The worrisome part is that most of the cast also have several other credited positions in the production. The 2 lead actors also wrote the movie, directed it, edited it, and helped score the soundtrack. Now, I'm not trying to imply that all indy movies like that are bad, it's just that it's often a red flag because of how just terrible Tommy Wiseau's The Room is. It can turn into the one person who's the protagonist, writer, director, producer, wall-paper artist just fellating themselves for the entire movie's runtime.
Thankfully, The Collective isn't one of those movies. It's actually very competent and everyone involved is a pretty decent actor. The soundtrack isn't particularly interesting, but it's serviceable. The writing isn't quite as taut as you'd want this sort of movie and there are a few scenes that don't add much and probably should've been left on the cutting room floor.
In the movie, Tyler gets a terse voicemail from her sister, Jessica, using someone else's phone asking for help. Tyler hops a red-eye flight to New York City immediately to try to find her sister. Everyone Tyler speaks to is secretive, evasive, and paranoid. Tyler eventually discovers her sister has become involved with a group of elite Manhattanites that have formed a secret society in an old cathedral, where they attempt to explore faith and the power of the spirit by mishmashing different cultures' religious ceremonies. Things go horribly wrong during one of these and a member dies. Naturally, this leads to a cover-up and the whodunnit is the central mystery of the plot.
Unfortunately the movie really failed hook me into caring about the mystery, and really doesn't offer clues or any explanation. By the end I didn't know if they had actually solved it correctly, and I really didn't care. The way the characters were reacting seems to imply they didn't care either. It just didn't seem like there was much at stake, and even the rescue of the sister seemed to just go perfectly even though there were problems along the way.
It's kindof like marketing a movie as a Police Drama, and then it's just a movie about a traffic cop writing tickets all day without any issues except one driver got a little angry but then backed down when the cop threatened to arrest him.
Next up is Steven King's Children of the Corn. This one is actually movie length, we checked.
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