The Sacrament (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Ti West (The Innkeepers, Cheap Thrills)
	Actors: Kate Lyn Sheil, Joe Swanberg, Amy Seimetz
	Country: USA
	Genre: Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 22.03.2014, CINEMA theater, MFFFN14
Synopsis: Two journalists set out to document their friend's search to find his missing sister who has joined a community.
Review:  Like in his last movie The Innkeepers (that I liked, see the review), Ti West takes his time to set the stage. In both movies he actually takes about one hour to do it! Meanwhile the actors chat and you learn to about their characters without really knowing where this is going. This could be boring if the dialogs were not so well written. In particular in The Tournament this introductory hour culminates with an interview of the leader of the community named "Father" and played by a charismatic Gene Jones. While we are tempted to think about a sect, the good sides of the community are shown, as to force us to think differently. The interview of the leader is also very well done to distort our thoughts. at some point the viewer doesn't know what to think, and whether the brother may end up joining the community, or one of the journalists. The ending, inspired by a true story, is all different. The Sacrament is shot as a found footage movie (i.e. all images are pretended to have been shot by the actors), and one think I didn't like is that on many occasions it can obviously not be the case. The angles and cuts could never have been done with the only two cameras they have. Note that Ti West also knows how to shoot fast and efficiently as he participated to both recent anthologies The ABCs of Death and V/H/S.
Rating: 7 /10