Year: 2013 (U.K. Release 2014)
Director: Ti West
Screenplay: Ti West
Starring: Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz, Kate Lyn Sheil
Synopsis is here
I didn’t give The Sacrament further thought after watching
it and there lies the problem. The idea is a strong. Something that I usually
enjoy pursuing. The writer/director behind the film is one I admire and
generally enjoy his work. The problem I found is that the main influence of the
movie, was much more terrifying in real life than anything The Sacrament throws
at us. If you’ve seen the terrifying documentary Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006), then this may
seem like an unnecessary appendix.
Ti West is a curious filmmaker. I enjoy the genuine
affection he has given to his previous, vintage tinged horror. I’m also a big fan
of the unhurried pace of his storytelling. Allowing the unease to creep into
the frame. In both The Innkeepers (2011)
and The House of the Devil (2009), West pulls off the difficult task of making
the mundane feel macabre and does so by giving his scenes a touch more
breathing space. He once again tests the
attention spans of some of the more easily distracted patrons, but giving The
Sacrament a similar pace. The length has been never my issue with this film, however as
the films other elements never seemed to gel.
Despite being a “found footage” horror, the film’s smooth camera
work does little to instill the fear of god. Add to this the film’s flat
dialogue, awkward performances and the films wish to try and recreate the
Jonestown massacre like an overtly polished crime re-enactment more than a film
in its own right. Unlike Kevin Smith’s grim and grubby Red State (2011), which
holds the right balance between its influences and Smith’s fictional aspects,
The Sacrament feels too much like mimicry to stand out on its own.
Whereas Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple manage to startle with its small inserts of grainy VHS footage,
allowing the survivors recounting of the story to fill in the gaps. The
Sacrament explicitness only ever feels forced. Small moments are effective.
Reaction shots of children obliviously sucking down Kool-Aid are unsettling,
while Gene Jones’ “father” has a distinct sleaziness to his charming speeches.
The film, however, never gets really gets under the skin as
it should. Strangely, it feels slightly too close to the material, it’s
influenced by, yet holds none of the power. It’s a shame the film never reaches
the same woozy feeling that the likes of Gus Van Sant’s Elephant (2003) creates,
although that movie is more intelligent with its usage of points of view. The
Sacarament stumbles over simpler aspects. West’s found footage movie suffers
from the tropes which annoy others when they watch similar films. A camera is
dropped when a character tries to evade gunman. The solders fine the camera a
leave it (after dropping typical explanatory dialogue) and then leave the
camera, despite being extremely wary of the filming near the beginning of the
film. Other cameras clearly get destroyed while filming, yet have footage that
blend seamlessly with the rest of the film. The found footage is an interesting
angle, but awkwardly utilised. That said, the film’s opening segments lend a
certain web 2.0 authority to them.
The Sacarment never feels like it cracks the veneer of
civility in the way that one would like. Certain parts feel too manufactured,
while other aspects have a clumsiness about them I just wouldn’t expect. The Sacrament
won’t put me off the next Ti West film, but this entry feels all very surface
level. Particularly where other flawed yet provocative films about cults have been
released recently. The Sacrament has a competency that raises it above a few
one or two found footage films, but it never manages to capture the spirit
of the time like it could. Better luck next time.
