The Sacrament (2014)
Directed by Ti West
Two journalists set out to document their friend's journey to reunite with his estranged sister. They track her to an undisclosed location where they are welcomed into the remote world of "Eden Parish," a self-sustained rural utopia composed of nearly two hundred members and overseen by a mysterious leader known only as "Father." It quickly becomes evident to the newcomers that this paradise may not be as it seems. Eden Parish harbors a twisted secret. What started as just another documentary shoot soon becomes a fight for survival.
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What critics compared The Sacrament to
You might remember Gene Jones from the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men during the famous coin-toss scene, which, for me, was the performance in that movie that set the bar and proved the old adage: ‘There are no small parts…’ Here, though, West has given Gene Jones the role of a lifetime.
Audley’s sister, Amy Seimetz (Upstream Color) is a former addict who has taken up with a religious leader known as Father (Gene Jones, No Country for Old Men).
Once seen, Gene Jones' (2007's " No Country for Old Men ") performance as Father is not easy to forget, his affable personality sharply contrasting with his commanding presence and sickening deviance.
Playing the role as part Strother Martin, part game-show host, Jones--Gene Jones, that is--hits a home run in his big scene with the comically-outmatched Bowen; if anything comes out of this movie, I expect it will be the career rebirth of Jones, whose handful of memorable appearances prior to this include the gas-station attendant in No Country for Old Men.
He’s played by Gene Jones, previously only recognizable as the lucky gas station clerk from No Country for Old Men.
Like Ti West’s Jonestown-inspired The Sacrament , Benson and Moorhead’s film first shows the appeal of commune living—everyone eats healthy, follows their blisses, and drinks copious craft beer (an on-site brewery bankrolls the camp’s operation)—so that it’s all the more unnerving when the amiable façade falls away.
The initial buildup is reminiscent of West’s last horror offering, 2013’s found-footage chiller The Sacrament .
Now, after many years away from the genre (since 2013’s “The Sacrament”), West is back in that malevolently playful mindset with “X,” a slasher homage to the sex-begets-death days of young, beautiful libertines in remote settings, well and truly screwed.
Far from the slow burn storytelling of his last three horror features, House of the Devil, The Innkeepers, and The Sacrament; X is a balls-out sexy slasher that recalls his earliest work and proves that the much-maligned subgenre still has potential to surprise after over forty years of exploitation.
Returning to feature length filmmaking for the first time since 2013’s The Sacrament, West delivers his best Tobe Hooper impression with this loving pastiche of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Eaten Alive.
His previous films, like “The House of the Devil” and “The Sacrament,” could have easily been released the year “X” takes place, 1979.
It’s been almost an entire decade since writer/director Ti West‘s last horror feature, The Sacrament .
With 2014's Blue Ruin (and his less well-known but equally entertaining 2007 debut, Murder Party), writer-director Jeremy Saulnier established himself as a fresh voice within horror/suspense, one of a growing horde of indie filmmakers -- including Ti West ( The House of the Devil , The Sacrament ), Adam Wingard (You're Next, The Guest), Lucky McKee (May, The Woman ), Jim Mickle ( Stake Land , We Are What We Are) and more -- making a push to legitimize the genre with critically acclaimed fare that bucks the polished, regurgitated nature of studio fright flicks.
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The choreography of Deakins’ steadicam is as dextrous and precise as that of Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire, with each placement and movement clearly planned for maximum impact (in this respect, it somewhat resembles the showier entries in the found-footage horror cycle, such as Cloverfield and Ti West’s The Sacrament).
It’s a category that could encompass features as diverse as Martyrs (2008), Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), Sound of My Voice (2011), The Sacrament (2013), and The Invitation (2016).
While the high bar for reunions gone wrong is “The Celebration,” Kusama’s abstract approach suggests Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games” by way of Harold Pinter’s “The Birthday Party” (with a touch of Ti West’s Jonestown-inspired “The Sacrament”).
There’s a lurking sense of cultish behavior that permeates a safer sensibility of friendly ice-breakers, and while properly executed explorations into religiously-influenced groups of this nature are thought provoking (The Sacrament), a subtle veil of suspense never overtakes us.
Other films, such as The Wicker Man or The Sacrament , introduce audiences to organizations that feel more like cults than traditional organized religions, depicting the dangers of outlying beliefs.
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The idea of religion being used to poison and kill isn’t particularly subtle but, like The Sacrament before it, makes for the perfect backdrop for a horror film.