Lesbian movie Healed is definitely a nail biter
Original lesbian thriller Healed on Amazon Prime is highly recommended!
Independent movies often have a tough road ahead when trying to find an audience. Not only do they have to compete with big-budget blockbusters, who can spend money hiring Tom Cruise, getting John Williams to score their film or turning to ILM for their special effects, but they need monies to get their films out there — far beyond the film festival circuits.
It’s often film festivals that help these movies find a bigger audience. A lot of little films find national distributors at film festivals, giving them the backing and support to get their films to a wider audience. Even the advertising and promotion of a film release is also a big expense.
One of these quality movies, Healed, has recently found a home with Amazon. I wish it had a theatrical run, but it seems the filmmakers’ plans were always to follow the festival circuit with an Amazon Prime premiere.
Healed has all of the qualities of a major studio film — from its acting to production values, it’s of the highest caliber. The script is taut and full of surprises and twists and even features a great line towards the end that should become as popular as “Go ahead, make my day” or “I’ll be back.”
This is a story of a lesbian couple who go on a retreat and one of them realizes from the beginning something isn’t right…maybe she’s right or maybe she’s paranoid. The more she goes along, the more her intuition says there is something that lies beneath, the more this could be true.
Writer/star Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera is definitely a filmmaker that we need to pay attention to. Not only has she crafted a suspenseful tale but she is quite believable as the lead character who is a singer/songwriter on a healing therapeutic trip with her partner, innocently played by Emily Goss. And — get this — Abeydeera also wrote and sings the songs that are also exemplary. In fact, one song has Oscar nomination written all over it but alas it never played at theaters to quality — maybe Emmy time?
Director Meghan Weinstein deserves applause for drawing out more suspense even in what seems like the most innocent of places – from a therapy session to a trip to a vineyard, the tension grows with every scene until it explodes at just the right moment.
For a movie with a modest budget, it seems nothing suffers from not having a big studio behind it. It’s photographed well and the sound quality is amazing. On all fronts, Healed is a winner.
Check it on Amazon Prime — a few dollars to rent a few more to own. (I’d own it because you find more clues in the mystery on a second viewing).
