With HBO’s True Detective currently winning over critics and audiences, along with Mitchell Altieri’s Holy Ghost People and Ti West’s The Sacrament's recent and upcoming releases, it’s clearly a popular time for religious cult thrillers. Jason Blum’s microbudget genre film mill Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures recently performed the ancient ritual to hop on that bandwagon with The Veil, and American Horror Story’s Lily Rabe is the latest to sign on, joining the previously cast Jessica Alba and Thomas Jane. This is excellent news, as Rabe was consistently one of the most enjoyable parts about these last two seasons of the FX anthology series.
Directed by Gridiron Gang filmmaker Phil Joanou, The Veil has a foundation in the religious cult called Heaven’s Veil, whose members all simultaneously committed suicide decades ago. In the present day, a documentarian (Alba) wants to discover the details behind what happened in that commune, and to do so she enlists the sole survivor of that self-induced massacre, who was five years old when it happened. That’s the role Rabe will taking, according to THR.
With a film crew, the two women head to the compound, but they find something far more horrifying than they could have imagined. Jane’s role hasn’t been revealed just yet, which means he could be a cameraman or the old spooky guy who lives near the compound. There’s some promise within this premise, as it isn’t clear yet whether the threat will be of a ghostly nature, or if it’s got more to do with real life secrets that make one uncomfortable. Another reason to be excited is it’s the second horror screenplay written by comedian Robert Ben Garant, who is more recognizable for his work with Thomas Lennon, such as writing Shawn Levy’s Night at the Museum and writing and performing Reno 911.
Rabe is turning her TV fame into meatier feature work, as she’s finished filming both parts of Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay adaptation as Commander Lyme. Last year she was in the little-seen dramas Aftermath and Redemption Trail, but she’s currently filming Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, the Bobby Fischer biopic in which she’ll play the chess champion’s older sister Joan. Rabe is also set to play silent film star and United Artists co-founder Mary Pickford in Jennifer DeLia’s upcoming drama The First.
On American Horror Story: Coven, she played a character named Misty Day, a boonies-living woman who was obsessed with Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks, which led to one of the coolest bits on TV ever as Nicks played an on-set piano version of the classic hit "Rhiannon," which Misty just swooned for. Check it out below.
