The Sacrament (Ti West)

johnny_ultimate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H56dIU4h1cM

I'm a big Ti West fan - House of the Devil and (to a slightly lesser degree) The Innkeepers are fantastic horror films that understand the strength of a slow burn, allowing the audience to discover what's going on along with the characters. They're old fashioned in the nicest sense of the world.

The Sacrament is very much the product of Mr. West, although while it represents many of his strengths it also indicates his limits. He steps away from a direct emulation of old 1970s and 80s horror films, but in adapting a more modern style he doesn't manage to pull off quite as effective an end product.

The film is technically not found footage (there's nothing particularly 'found' about it), but it is presented as a fake documentary for Vice - it's not the worst decision in the world, although there were some scenes where there seemed to be about five camera people in attendance than the two present in the story. It's also contestable how much of a 'horror' film it is - while it shares many things in common with the genre and culminates in some horrific images, it plays out more like a thriller than a traditional slasher film or anything like that. Anyhow...

Two reporters tag along with a photographer when he visits his sister in a sort of isolated commune she's staying in. Suffice to say, things aren't quite what they seem.

The West formula is present and correct: there's a whole hour of slow and steady build up, with only a slowly escalating series of hints that things are maybe amiss. The film's biggest problem is its predictability - there's ultimately no real surprises, with everything leading precisely where you expect it to. While the extended climax is quite disturbing due to its matter-of-fact representation of an horrific event, some might argue it's also in ill-taste due to similarities to real-life events.

The film also suffers in comparison to Timo Tjahjanto and Gareth Evans' segment in VHS2. That tackles broadly similar subject matter in a shorter space of time, but goes down insane, visceral and fantastical roads West avoids in favour of a more grounded horror. Both approaches have their merits, but The Sacrament does miss the sheer aesthetic verve and shock & awe factor of Safe Haven's closing minutes.

Nonetheless, there's interesting things here, some of them surprisingly subtle. It's something of a satire of the whole Vice / 'new journalism' style: while the journalists claim to be 'honestly subjective' and simply trying to document proceedings, it seems that's not quite accurate, which is an interesting dynamic as their presence starts to effect the commune - which actually could be read as something of a comment on documentary filmmaking generally. The commune residents are also handled quite interestingly - while the group's 'Father' is a mysterious, charismatic figure that is very clearly a dangerous man, the rest of the residents are represented as more than brainwashed idiots and a more complex, varied group of individuals with very different perspectives on unfolding events. It helps that West has talented actors backing this all up, such as Upstream Colour's Amy Seimetz.

This is a very uneven film then, and sadly not the definitive breakthrough success a craftsman as talented as West almost definitely has in him. But it's an intriguing film that has divided opinion - which is the kind of material worth a gander at the very least.

The release pattern for the film has been quite unusual - it has already turned up on Irish iTunes despite not yet having received a theatrical release. It's not often I'd say this, but given the film's presentational style it might almost play better on TV or a computer screen than it would on a big one.

Sam Mac

I like Ti West but theres slow burn and then theres just plain boring, and unfortunately I found the Innkeepers to be the latter.

zombiepaw

The innkeepers was nonsense. I thought the Sacrament was very good.

whirlpool

I watched the Inkeepers on my Sky On Demand last year. I didn't find it interesting. I watched The Sacrament tonight and it has really unnerved me. When it comes to horror films, it takes an awful lot to unnerve me!