PLOT: A fashion photographer and a VICE film crew head to a secluded commune to interview the leader of a religious group.
I like Ti West and Adam Wingard, for the most part. I really liked The House of the Devil, The Guest, You’re Next, and most of V/H/S. On the other hand, though, I don’t get The Innkeepers at all. With The Sacrament, I could’ve really liked this movie, because it’s all pretty decent, but there’s just not enough time between when everything is normal and when shit hits the fan. It all happens too quickly and would’ve been great if they had just given everything a little more time to breathe.
The film revolves around a crew from VICE, which is sort of a weird collaboration for this movie. A fashion photographer that has a relationship with them has a sister that recently went to a commune to get clean and better herself and they decide to tag along his trip to visit her. As they delve deeper into the isolated community of Eden Prairie, it becomes more and more clear that the whole operation isn’t as innocent as first impressions would make it seem.
This is an interesting movie, but it’s sort of missing an impactful inciting incident that turns up the dial of the tension. The situation just sort of devolves on its own and it all comes to a deadly end rather quickly. I wouldn’t ordinarily say that a movie should be longer, but I could’ve used a little more rising tension in this film.
Lots of death, but not much blood or gore. There’s self-immolation and a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but rather goreless.
Gore Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Cults are pretty fascinating to me; A person that manages to talk people into following him and, spoiler alert, putting an end to their own lives is a pretty scary concept, but it’s not an overtly chilling film.
Scare Rating: 1.5 out of 5
Nothing. There’s some talk about a threesome, but nothing is ever seen.
Sex/Nudity Rating: 0 out of 5
OVERALL
I liked this movie, for the most part, but things go from 0 to 100 way too fast for my liking. The acting performance of Gene Jones as The Father was pretty good and I always enjoy Amy Seimetz, but one thing that really kind of annoyed me was how much they cheated the found footage aesthetic. There are plenty of scenes that have angles that they shouldn’t have, which is a nitpicky gripe, I guess, but if you’re going to use the gimmick, you’re kind of stuck to their rules. Additionally, I would’ve loved to see a different conclusion, other than the standard Jonestown ending; cannibalism would’ve been a surprise, for example, but otherwise a pretty interesting watch. I honestly just wish the scope was widened a little.
The Main Damie 