Ticket to Heaven Movie Review

Most movies about cults fall into the realm of propaganda, as in, hey kids, don't try this at home with your friends. Ticket to Heaven digs deeper than that, and because it does, it's an intensely frightening film to watch. Nick Mancuso plays a young man who's at a turning point in his life. He's just broken up with someone, he's miserable, he could go one way or the other. At the exact moment of his greatest vulnerability, he becomes attracted to some women in a cult who make it seem as if it's perfectly safe and cozy to be with them. Initially hoping to get laid, he sticks around the cult long enough to get sucked in and then he can't leave. Saul Rubinek (as the best friend in the whole world) takes a leave from his job to get his buddy back. The cult members try to suck him in, too, and he escapes, determined to try another (illegal) strategy: hiring a deprogrammer and kidnapping Mancuso's character from the cult. Director Ralph L. Thomas wisely focuses on the central character's emotional landscape, which is so isolated that the claustrophobic togetherness of cult life seems appealing in comparison. Anne Cameron's perceptive script, too, reveals that cult members are made, not born; severe sleep deprivation, non-stop programming, and constant supervision might turn any strong personality into a compliant recruit under the wrong circumstances. Mancuso and Rubinek deservedly won Genie awards for their sensitive, driven performances, and the film itself won a Genie as well. The two leads went on to make dozens of films in the 1980s and 1990s, while Thomas’ next projects were 1983's Genie-winning The Terry Fox Story and 1988's Apprentice to Murder.

1981 (PG) 109m/C CA Nick Mancuso, Meg Foster, Kim Cattrall, Saul Rubinek, R.H. Thomson, Jennifer Dale, Guy Boyd, Paul Soles; D: Ralph L. Thomas; W: Anne Cameron; C: Richard Leiterman; M: Micky Erbe. Genie Awards ‘82: Best Actor (Mancuso), Best Film, Best Supporting Actor (Rubinek). VHS, DVD