Friday, June 13, 2014

The Sacrament: Movie Review


 by: Gabriel Serrano Denis

Well, I got something to say
I killed your baby today
And it doesn't matter much to me
As long as it's dead

    -Misfits, Last Caress

     Economic crisis, religious fundamentalism, political corruption and social unrest have always been the source from which the deformed manifestations of horror cinema feed and nourish themselves. From Don Siegel’s “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1956), through George A. Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), to David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” (1986), paranoia and fear (of communism, counterculture, and AIDS) acted as the catalysts for the iconic creatures that still haunt and remind us of the political and emotional turmoil of their times. These “real” horrors, like the teenagers running from the monsters with chainsaws and knives of the 1980s, have forced American citizens to make terrifying decisions at their own peril decade after decade. Most recently, in 2011, a man called Richard Beasley posted a job advert on Craigslist in search for a watchman for his Ohio farm, offering $300 a week and a trailer home for free. Dozens of desperate workers suddenly stripped of their comfortable middle-class status applied for the job, only to be shot dead upon arrival by Beasley and 16-year-old Brogan Rafferty. An American Dream shattered, characters in search of betterment, a flash of hope, and the sudden, arbitrary destruction of life in the guise of salvation; the fundamentals of horror filmmaking.

     Following this tradition, contemporary horror auteur Ti West has successfully bred horror narratives from the initial conflicts of economic struggle and social detachment. In both “The House of the Devil” (2009) and “The Innkeepers” (2011), it’s the phantom of capitalism that leads the way into an inescapable menace, slowly building to a supernatural explosion of terror and hopelessness. The former presents a penniless college student accepting the eerie request to babysit an old couple’s ailing mother for $400 only to be sucked into a satanic ritual at the end of the night. The latter takes us into the Yankee Pedlar Inn, a haunted hotel at the end of its run, and its two remaining employees (about to be made redundant, futureless) who are desperate to capture some actual paranormal phenomena before the hotel closes.


     As with the classics of horror mentioned before, West taps into basic social and economic distress to pit his characters against oppressive forces all too familiar to the working class people (a wealthy couple taking advantage of a poor college student; the inability to escape from the confines of financial crisis). However, West is not interested in making larger points about American society with these films, despite the pertinence of his characters’ inciting conflicts. Though forced to act within such culturally significant situations, West’s characters experience their horrifying ordeals on a more personal and emotional level. With his new film, “The Sacrament” (2013), West not only delves into a fact-based narrative, but he grounds the horror in reality, directly addressing everything wrong with the current cultural zeitgeist in the process. Unfortunately, the biting social consciousness and the hollow characters through which it’s supposed to materialize don’t seem to have much of a point.

     In “The Sacrament”, produced by horror filmmaker Eli Roth, a Vice magazine journalist and his cameraman (AJ Bowen and Joe Swanberg) travel with fashion photographer and co-worker Patrick (Kentucker Audley) to an undisclosed country in search of his sister (Amy Seimetz), now living in a commune known as Eden Parish and run by a mysterious figure only referred to as “Father”. Based largely on the Jonestown Massacre of 1978, the film follows the newsteam as they are welcomed into Eden Parish, despite some minor altercations with armed guards at first, and slowly discover the true nature of “Father’s” paradise.

     The first miscalculation on behalf of the filmmakers comes in the form of its found footage aesthetic. Though more a “faux documentary” than an actual found footage film, the approach to the material nonetheless feels wrong and distracting. By striving for an extreme sense of reality, the film does well to justify its beautiful cinematography through its suggestion that an actual, professional journalistic photographer is at the helm. However, this does not justify the fact that the footage is so calculated and logically edited. With films like “Rec” and “Cloverfield”, though obviously constructed to a point where the narrative makes sense, the jumbled and chaotic nature of capturing live footage remains intact, and thus adds immediacy to an already tense situation. With “The Sacrament”, one can’t help but feel that it should’ve been shot conventionally. In a scene where Sam (AJ Bowen) sits down to interview “Father” (Gene Jones, ironically), his cameraman Jake frames up on Father and then goes to Patrick (with his handy DSLR hanging by his neck) and asks him to film Sam’s reactions from the opposite side. This totally unnecessary scene only serves to distance us from the sense of reality the film has worked so hard to achieve. It merely justifies the opportunity for West to play with the shot/reverse shot in the edit and thus only stays in the mind as a necessity of the filmmakers rather than a natural occurrence within the world of the film.
  

   Tyler Bates’ score also works against the filmmakers’ intentions as it permeates the entire film, leaving no doubt that something terrible and ominous is lurking within the commune. Since the film is presenting itself as a fake documentary, it makes sense to have a score, but then what does constructing the film as a documentary add to the overall impact of the story? It seems to me like it detracts from the overall experience as it is pretending to document something so similar to an actual controversial event. As such, the filmmaker’s distinct vision and take on the subject remains lost in the attempt to comment on reality and horror. With a subject and approach like this, where the story unfolds in less than two days time and the veracity of the horror is central, a bolder approach would’ve perhaps been ideal. As I was viewing the film I couldn’t help but think how certain moments would’ve felt had the score been entirely removed, if the camera had not captured many of the horrific moments, if we had heard or imagined more than what we actually see, if the camera wasn’t always on and thus harder and more jagged cuts would’ve signaled the passage of time and would’ve created immediacy. But then, it’s obvious that West wanted to experiment with the found-footage aesthetic by blending it with his particular, dreadful approach to horror.

     West’s films unfold with the slow burn of a bad decision coming into the foreground of consciousness, and this ties neatly into his care and attention to character and context. His films’ elegant and composed unraveling emphasizes mood and tension, very different from the commercial horror fare of visceral scares and buckets of gore. This elegance and careful planning of camera and blocking are present in “The Sacrament”, but it lacks the characters to sustain it. With “The House of the Devil” and “The Innkeepers”, West can withhold on the terror and the emotional payoff because we are following engaging characters with real, grounded stakes. Even as he sets up the conflict, the sense of dread is already present and building: something very bad is going to happen, it’s only a matter of “how” and “when”. But the “who” is already well established even before the dread starts to sink in. With “The Sacrament” all we have to invest in is the fact that Sam is a journalist and he wants a story. As he arrives at the commune, he suspects and doubts the validity of Eden Parish, confounded by the people’s complete willingness to live in such stripped conditions. Not only is this clichéd and contrived, but it also brings attention to Sam’s lack of personality. We don’t know what kind of journalist he is or aspires to be, only that he is a journalist and it’s his job to expose or find a story. We know that he has a wife and that she is soon to give birth, but this is a mere plot device that never heightens the emotional stakes. One even wonders why the film wasn’t centered on his friend Patrick, who has greater stakes in the matter and a conflict to resolve with his sister. As it is, West’s slow and calculated build-up to terror is wasted in the film, as we have no one to fear for.

 
     Despite all its flaws, the film is a natural product of its time. However, this relevance comes through in the sense that it explores the dangers of blind faith and extreme religious fundamentalism, and the untrustworthy American society from which it stems. Thus, the subject matter and realistic approach bring forth a film that speaks to a contemporary audience asphyxiated with school shootings, racism, homophobia, unemployment, poverty, international turmoil, mass murders, etc. All in all, “real” horror, not dependent on monsters or otherworldly manifestations to instill fear and shock. Sadly, the film fails to sustain its intent due to the lack of a distinct and personal vision concerning the idiosyncrasies of its subject matter. Though horrifying and shocking, anyone with a vague knowledge of Jonestown knows what’s coming. West structures his film smartly, withholding information and creating an atmosphere of uncertainty that leaves the audience anxious to know what it’s all building up to. But as the story progresses and every predictable beat is reached, it’s clear that West did not intend to alter or defy our expectations but rather to expose us to a “real” horrific event. And though horrific it is once it hits the screen (and it allows for some striking imagery), one can’t help but feel the lack of original thought, of a new lens through which to view the horror.

     Ti West has always been interested in people stumbling into horrifying situations. His characters enter unknown spaces in the hopes of finding something and end up being part of a grander, more sinister scheme. As an extension of his aesthetic and thematic interests, “The Sacrament” feels, in parts, like a genuine Ti West film. However, as a meaningful and powerful piece of horror filmmaking, West undoubtedly lost his way. In “The House of the Devil”, West opens his film with text detailing the influence of Satanic cults in the 1980s, where the film is set, finishing off with: “The following is based on true unexplained events.” So, as we follow the main character as she hears strange sounds in the house and slowly realizes what she’s gotten herself into, we know she’s the prey of a Satanic cult. In a Ti West film, the “what” is always spelled out for the audience. The “how” and the “when” are prolonged, withheld, manipulated, built up until they can’t contain themselves much longer. What’s missing from “The Sacrament” is the relevance of this build-up, the reason why we stick until the orgasm of terror pops up, the point of it all. This is partly because the “how” is as obvious as the “what”. We know what the characters are dealing with, how it’s going to end, who is going to die and who is going to survive; there is nothing for West to play with. And without a strong central character for the ordeal to matter, we are left in the cold watching as the “reality” unfolds.