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View Full Version : The Sacrament (Ti West)



Ezee E
09-20-2014, 02:13 PM
http://static.rogerebert.com/uploads/movie/movie_poster/the-sacrament-2014/large_sacrament.jpg

IMDB (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2383068/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)

Ezee E
09-20-2014, 02:22 PM
I'm really the first to see this?

It's pretty good, brimming on something fantastic but never quite gets there. It kind of seems to have an obvious beginning, middle, and end, taking a while to get to the obvious fact that the civilization isn't quite what it seems. However, it's so well done that I enjoyed it the entire way through. Gene Jones is convincing as Father, but also just seems a beat or two away from being something truly iconic.

Spun Lepton
09-20-2014, 04:14 PM
I'm really the first to see this?

It's pretty good, brimming on something fantastic but never quite gets there.

So ... a Ti West film. Is it also relatively uneventful until the last 10 minutes when all hell breaks loose?

Dead & Messed Up
09-20-2014, 09:25 PM
So ... a Ti West film. Is it also relatively uneventful until the last 10 minutes when all hell breaks loose?

The last half hour or so is balls-to-the-wall Jonestown stuff. This is probably the most forward-moving of West's films since The Roost.

Anyway, I liked it, West's suspense-craft continues to be impeccable, and I dig the decision to make it a more "finished" documentary (as opposed to a Cloverfield thing), but I really wish more time was spent with the members of the cult, who they are and why they came, and how they're living now. The events of the film are pretty much inevitable, but they could've felt more tragic. Part of the problem is you're always stuck in the filmmakers' perspective, and they're by nature outsiders. There are hints of more exploration with one scene where Bowen and Swanberg discuss the merits of Eden Parish (a nice name, since Eden's most famous for being corrupted).

In fact, if you take this film with "Safe Haven" from VHS 2 and Red State, you see a general lack of interest in exploring the psychological circumstances of cult members, outside of given them avuncular, charismatic speechifying leaders. They all generally offer victims with the glassy-eyed daze we'd expect of simple-minded dupes. This isn't a big deal with "Safe Haven," which telescopes into into nightmare fantasy, but it's a bit more troubling with the two features.

Hopefully there will be a film on this subject someday that takes the time to really move out of exploitation and into a more sober and sympathetic presentation of faith-gone-wrong. This film is good for what it is, and I'd recommend it on that basis, but what it is just wasn't as satisfying as what it could've been.

Skitch
09-20-2014, 10:26 PM
I was stoked this got added. Heard lots of good things. Can't wait to see it.

dreamdead
09-27-2014, 02:58 AM
Meh. Such a step down from West's last two films--this lacks any real engagement with a lead character that his prior films could all claim. Neither Swanberg nor Bowen can penetrate the air of obviousness that exists across the board here. Though Father has a little bit of charisma, it's still too understated and avoids getting into his perspective (echoing D&MU's comments), which keeps the whole film as a surface experience.

Intermittently interesting, but characters just sort of disappear and reappear without any real purpose, especially Bowen.

Russ
09-27-2014, 04:13 AM
Loved the whole interview sequence with "Father" (Gene Jones, menacingly effective). Wish it had been featured in a much better film.

Bosco B Thug
09-27-2014, 11:51 PM
West does his duty as a young, brazen filmmaker, plunders the Jonestown story verbatim in order to, with surprising intelligence, evoke the contemporary social landscape he surely notices around him, being young and living in America. The result is invigorating, and at least the first half of the film is the indie film the world deserves right now. Its two biggest flaws are really transparent horror antics (creepy little girl, stationary-camera murders) and the fact every single thing you see is stripped straight from the true story.

Ezee E
09-29-2014, 10:03 PM
The better ending would've been if the directors were convinced and joined the cult.

Dead & Messed Up
10-02-2014, 04:15 AM
The better ending would've been if the directors were convinced and joined the cult.

This would be interesting. Bowen's character showed glimmers of this.

In fact, a film that devotes itself to the systematic psychological breaking down and re-forging of one of the mains would do a lot more credit to the idea of a "cult" film, as there is something horrific about how such manipulations can work so easily.

Dukefrukem
10-04-2014, 01:33 AM
The best found footage movie I've ever seen.

Dead & Messed Up
10-04-2014, 01:55 AM
Bold, Duke. Bold.

Ezee E
10-04-2014, 05:11 AM
Bold, Duke. Bold.

Other contenders?

Cloverfield?

Dead & Messed Up
10-04-2014, 05:43 AM
Other contenders?

Cloverfield?

Rec would be my pick. And if it qualified, Lake Mungo, although that's more fake documentary that "found footage."

Ezee E
10-04-2014, 06:07 AM
Ah yeah, [REC] would be my pick still.

Pop Trash
10-04-2014, 07:34 AM
Motherfuckin' Blair Witch ya'll.

Cloverfield would be 2nd.

Dead & Messed Up
10-04-2014, 08:51 AM
Motherfuckin' Blair Witch ya'll.

Cloverfield would be 2nd.

Rewatched Blair Witch again a week or so ago. Never loved it, don't hate it, never got why those asshats didn't just follow the creek.

Skitch
10-04-2014, 12:04 PM
And if it qualified, Lake Mungo, although that's more fake documentary that "found footage."

Its listed among found footage films on Wikipedia, so I say it makes the cut. Sweet flick.


Rewatched Blair Witch again a week or so ago. Never loved it, don't hate it, never got why those asshats didn't just follow the creek.

City folks be stupid, ya'll.

I'd throw Grave Encounters, The Last Horror Movie, Chronicle, The Bay, The Frankenstein Theory, and Europa Report in the honorable mentions pile.

Ezee E
10-04-2014, 05:21 PM
Does End of Watch qualify?

It basically abandons the found footage half-way in, despite still being "found footage."

number8
10-04-2014, 06:38 PM
I suppose from Ti West's previous work, I should've expected that he's more of a perfect technician than a reinventor. It's an impeccably tailored suspense film, but the fact that it's such a blatant reenactment of Jonestown left me underwhelmed by how unwilling it is to try anything new aside building to the inevitable. Still really impressive, though, and I'm sure the guys at Vice love the extended shoutout.