The Daughters of Virtue, Repent for Your Sins

So precious. Housewives banding together for prayer. They pray for their families.  They pray for each other.  They pray for forgiveness of their sins. These dedicated housewives, what sins? You know...perhaps they don't tend to their families like they should.  Or they slack off on house cleaning. You know, those sins.  They are prayer warriors, however.  Let us take a look at an exciting and frightening horror short "The Daughters of Virtue," winner of the Best Horror Short Award at the 2017 Nightmares Film Festival.

Five housewives make up a prayer group. Betty (Maria Olsen) leads the group, and she is a classic church lady.  Uh oh...Alice (Sylvia Panacione) has arrived and she doesn't look like she is into prayer at the moment.  Double uh oh...Rhonda (Brittany Samson) tearfully tells the group that her husband is cheating on her.  This is a shock to the group...er...most of the group.  Alice doesn't look surprised and you can guess why.  Alice wonders if anyone knows of her cheating heart.  Betty then confronts  Alice as Alice hasn't really been confessing her sins like other group members have.  What follows is every mom's nightmare.  Alice's baby, asleep upstairs is abducted by the group as they coerce Alice to confess. 

Betty and her group are fanatical, true.  Religious fanatics are so unappealing and we feel for Alice despite her sinful nature.  We see Alice as a victim of the fanaticism.  The group claims Alice has a demon in her and intend to act on that presumption.  We see Alice as human, and someone we can relate to.  What began as a satire on prayer groups now is about to transition into a horrific nightmare. No spoilers here, but everything changes and in this 12 minute horror short, the final reveal will have you jumping across the room.

Is it right for us to see Alice as the victim? What horrors will result from the group's puritanical hatred of sin?  Are religious fanatics ever right, and if they are...well, never mind?  Michael Escobedo wrote and directed this compact horror tale which spirals from a soap opera drama into jarring horror. Mr. Escobedo, I'm told, will make a full length feature film based on this short...I can't wait! Kudos for this fine young director for creating a terrifying story based in a setting of apparent morality and safety.  For more information of "The Daughters of Virtue" click on the below links:
Daughters on Instagram
Daughters on Facebook