IHdb

ON THIS DAY IN HORROR - June 6th

"THE SACRAMENT" limited release in US in 2013

Horror movies have long been inspired by religious cults to deliver spine chilling films, and The Sacrament is exactly that. Produced by horror maestro Eli Roth, and helmed by The House of the Devil director Ti West, The Sacrament mixes the religious horror genre with found footage to create what The Hollywood Reporter called it "a bone-chilling genre piece".

Fashion photographer Patrick (Kentucker Audley) gets a letter from his sister Caroline, who is a recovering drug addict, to visit her at a reclusive religious commune Eden Parish, a utopian, drug-free community founded by a religious leader known only as Father (Gene Jones). Patrick's co-workers, reporter Sam (AJ Bowen ) and cameraman Jake (Joe Swanberg), suggest a feature documentary on the topic and come along. Once they arrive, they find a seemingly happy community, despite the appearance of guards armed with machine guns lurking in the background. After meeting with Father at a community meeting, things start to spiral out of control as a small group of dissidents in the commune decide they want to leave - but Father has other plans.

The film borrows heavily from the real life Jonestown Massacre, where on November 18, 1978 the so-called Peoples Temple cult leader, Rev. Jim Jones convinced his 900 or more followers, who were living in an isolated South American jungle community in the country of Guyana, to commit mass suicide by drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid once he felt that the commune would no longer stay isolated, just like in the film. Other similarities to the real life event include people being shot/injected when they would not drink the poison willingly, Father wearing Jim Jones' trademark sunglasses, people quietly sneaking notes to outsiders that they wanted to leave, and a shooting at an airstrip. When West cast Jones as cult leader Father, he wanted to make sure that Father seemed like a genuine, well-meaning person who nonetheless was driven to evil by his paranoia.

And according to the film commentary, in the originally conceived ending, the helicopter pilot was not shot. Once the helicopter got to altitude, the pilot proclaimed "We must follow Father's orders" and crashed the helicopter, killing everyone on board. Now that would have been a cool ending!

The Sacrament premiered at the Venice Film Festival before it's video on demand release in May 1st, the film got mainly positive reviews with Robert Abele of the Los Angeles Times describing the first half of the film a "dread-inducing tour de force" but wrote that the second half is a disappointment that adds no insight to the real-life tragedy.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 62%