Father knows best…
The H-Bomb: Patrick (Kentucker Audley), a fashion photographer from New York, travels to Eden Parish, a commune located somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in order to find his sister, Caroline (Amy Seimetz), a recovering drug addict. Patrick is accompanied on the trip by two colleagues, journalist Sam (AJ Bowen) and video cameraman Jake (Joe Swanberg). When the trio first arrives at the isolated commune, they are greeted at the gates by some less-than-welcoming individuals armed with AK-47s, which they find a tad disconcerting. But before anything too terrible happens, Caroline appears, all smiles and hugs, and reassures them that they are perfectly welcome at the commune.
At first, Eden Parish seems hospitable, as Sam and Jake wander about and talk with its various residents, who call it Heaven on Earth and sing the praises of its founder and leader, Father (Gene Jones). Despite the people sounding content and the place looking peaceful, Sam and Jake sense that there’s something not quite right with this little slice of paradise. This feeling is only amplified when they conduct a sit down interview with Father, who is charismatic but noticeably evasive during their talk. Soon after, the visitors have a strange encounter with a young girl that reaffirms their suspicions that Eden Parish is not the serene retreat that they’ve been led to believe, and that it would be in their best interest to get the hell out of there, ASAP. Trouble is, it may already be too late…
Before I go any further, I should state for the record that I am a fan of Ti West. Between House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, and his segment of V/H/S, I think he is second only to James Wan as being the best director working in the horror genre today. For many, his films are too much of a slow burn, taking too long to get to the scary stuff, with not enough happening in the meantime. I beg to differ, I think he is so good at developing his characters, and letting the audience grow attached to them, that when the horror finally does hit, it’s all the more effective. The characters in West’s films come off as actual people, not just stock horror movie victims waiting to be slaughtered, and that makes all the difference.
My appreciation for West’s past work aside, I approached his latest, The Sacrament, with some apprehension because, well, it’s a found footage film, and I don’t think I’m alone in feeling that this sub-genre has been done to fucking death. When the trailer hit the net some months back, I thought, “Sweet, a new Ti West film,” then I watched it, and was instantly deflated, “Shit, it’s fucking found footage.” Now, having seen The Sacrament, I can say that my misgivings were very much misguided, as it is, in spite of the tired found footage angle, a damn solid horror movie.
From the outset, The Sacrament creates a sense of unease. Much like our protagonists, we know that there is something very wrong about this little man made utopia. That despite the promise of being free from greed, hate, violence, and all other forms of societal ills, there is something very sinister lurking underneath the smiling faces and the gentle orations of Father. Like with West’s previous movies, it takes its time to get rolling, as it slowly but surely builds an intense sense of dread. We know things are going to go bad, we know the cultists are going to turn bat shit bonkers, it’s simply a matter of when.
If anything, that’s something I could knock the film for, if I felt so inclined, that it is pretty obvious from the outset that this commune is bad news, so when things do take an inevitable turn for the worst, it’s not exactly surprising. Perhaps a more novel twist would have been to make the commune benevolent, after all, but I suppose then there wouldn’t have been much of a movie. Nevertheless, when this thing gets going, it turns so relentlessly brutal that it is positively shocking, no matter how predictable the general plot may be. Not to spoil anything, but if you have any issues with violence against children in movies, you may just want to pass this one up.
Acting wise, the whole cast, many of whom are holdovers from last year’s You’re Next, are terrific down the line. Bowen and Swanberg, in particular, give likable, naturalistic performances that go a long way in selling the reality of this faux-documentary. The main standout of the cast, however, is Jones, who is positively chilling as Father. He seems like the friendly old grandfatherly type, but we know better, and every time he showed up on camera, he made my skin crawl. He reminded me a bit of Michael Parks in Red State, he was that utterly creepy. Hands down, Jones’ unnerving performance made this movie.
While the performances are certainly a cut above most found footage horror flicks, The Sacrament does suffer from a key problem that plagues many films in this sub-genre, that being, why the hell are the characters still filming after the shit has hit the fan and their lives are in danger? As usual, this really becomes problematic in the final third of the film. I kept wondering, “People are chasing you! People are shooting at you! People are being set on fire! Why the fuck are you filming all this?” It’s an issue that plagues this breed of horror movie, and I can get over it, but still, it needs to be addressed.
Another thing I mentioned earlier, this, like West’s previous films, gets off to a rather slow start. Not snail pace slow, but fairly slow, with characters doing little more than talking and casually looking around, and the real story takes a while to emerge. Again, I’m perfectly fine with this. Others, however, may find it more than a little dull. If you’re a detractor of Ti West, and were bored to tears by his earlier movies, this one is not likely to win you over.
Those who can make it through the slow start up, however, will find it worth the wait, as The Sacrament does turn pretty damn gruesome, sparing absolutely no one; man, woman, or child. It is the single most disturbing film West has made, because, as anyone who remembers Heaven’s Gate or any other death cult can attest to, the threat is all too human, and the horror is all too real.
