Of the extremely few Sundance items that are receiving their international premiere in Cannes this year we find Sean Durkin’s Mary Last Seen — a visually descriptive exploration of a man with a hidden agenda played by Brady Corbet. To be featured in the Director’s Fortnight section, the short film gave me the creeps…not in a horror film related kind of way, but in a queasy, I’m not sure I really want to know what comes next or go there manner. The reason I’m stoked about seeing it for a possible second time is because I’m under the assumption that there “May” be a tie-in of sorts with the project Durkin will be workshopping this June at the Sundance lab. Martha Marcy May Marlene “a damaged woman struggles to reassimilate with her family after fleeing an abusive cult”, which in itself doesn’t sound like much, but if Durkin brands his feature with the same unease we find in the short, then we might be talking about Martha Marcy May Marlene has a rare sequel born from an established short film.
