It feels strange to loop back to this one since it’s been out for a while, but I recently talked myself into buying it and gave it a re-watch. I remember watching it the first time and being profoundly disappointed that it was telling the story it was, and while I still remain disappointed, I found myself liking the film more this time.
The marriage of the real and the unreal here makes this a very unique faux-documentary in that it brings in alternative news company VICE and pairs it with a fake story. It’s interesting because it lends the film a sense of realism that does have the viewer reminding themselves that this is fake.
It’s all fake.
Mostly.
SACRAMENT follows three journalists as they travel to a remote region of the world to check in on the sister of one of the team. She had been deep in substance abuse recovery when she discovered a new church that she fell in love with. She and a lot of other people moved to this remote location to build themselves a utopia. What the three journalists find on arrival is a compound guarded by armed men and a feeling that something isn’t as right as it appears. The sister is excited for the arrival of her brother and his friends and insists that everything there is perfect and wonderful, promising to introduce them all to the Father, who is the spiritual leader of the church. The Father has a wonderful idea and seems to have a nice ideology but there is something in the way he commands his flock, and way he wants to shape the narrative that solidifies the unease the three have and as the truth of what is going on is revealed it will be a miracle for all three of them to escape alive.
I still stand that it feels lazy to ape the Ghana incident with Jim Jones because the story resembles that one pretty closely. It’s interesting in that you can examine what happened through the lens of fiction and take liberties with things to reveal message but it still feels like they could have changed things up more.
As it stands, it’s a very, very well-acted film with an interesting story and some haunting images during the climax. Things feel unreasonable, how much the journalists see and then just remain for, without questioning things more. The filming stretches the “found footage” rules as, at times, it feels like it’s inching toward a cinematic style of shooting, and the reasoning for the shift in who is shooting at the end and why feels forced, but it works.
It all works.
It’s a well-made, chilling movie about blind devotion, trading one addiction for another, and how easy it is to gather a flock of followers if you know what lies to tell and how to exploit their trust.
Not a classic, but if you are a fan of cult movies, this one’s worth a look.
3 out of 5
The Spooky World of Chris Ringler 