2013
Directed By Ti West
This is the second found footage horror
film that I have seen in the last week and I loved both of them. I
had convinced myself that there was no life remaining in the found
footage concept but Bobcat Golthwait and Ti West have shown me that I
was way off. Before the opening scene of The Sacrament title cards
give a brief explanation of the Vice multimedia company. Vice is a
company that is known for “covering provocative & controversial
stories” that are normally “overlooked in the mainstream media”
and the type of journalism they practice is known as “immersionism.”
In the opening scene of The Sacrament we are introduced to Sam Turner
and Patrick Carter. Sam is a journalist from from Vice and Patrick is
a photographer whose sister Caroline disappeared after attending a
sober living facility in Mississippi. After months of no word from
Caroline, Patrick receives a letter in the mail from. In the letter
Caroline explains that she has been busy building a community where
she can live as God intended and that despite being happier than she
has ever been she misses Patrick. No forwarding address is included, just a phone number. Patrick calls the number and it
leads him to a man who explains that his sister has moved out of the
country with the rest of the community. The man will not give him the
exact location of the community, just the place where he can land
a plane to meet up with a helicopter who will take him the rest of
the way.
If you are familiar with The Peoples
Temple this sounds a bit familiar and you might have an idea of where
this story is heading. The brilliance of Ti West is how slowly he
ratchets up the tension. How he sprinkles in little touches that
create an increasing sense of anxiety. The film never slows down to
let you catch up or breathe, it just slowly builds on itself until it
has become complete chaos. Even though I had a good idea of exactly
where this film was taking me, it was still a powerful and draining
experience.
The roller coaster analogy is completely over used but
that is the first thing that comes to mind when I try to explain this
movie. Not really the experience of watching the movie but having
fore knowledge of what might happen. When you stand in line at an
amusement park and watch the ride, when you hear people screaming at
the same places over and over you think you have an idea of what the
ride will be like. But, you are not prepared for the the ride at all.
In fact having an idea of where it's going has built in more
anticipation and added to the thrill of getting in that seat and
giving yourself over to the experience. Sorry about the hacky analogy
but I just want to assure you that having an idea of where this film
is leading you will not prepare you for the experience of witnessing
it. Writing this and thinking about the events of the film has given
me sweaty palms and an ill at ease feeling all over again.
The Sacrament is a well made
thriller/horror about blind faith. I'm not sure that anything is
scarier than people who believe without question,
people who are so desperate for an answer that they will ignore all
warning signs because they refuse to live in a world where they have
not found the answer.