Sacrilege

Director - David Creed (Special Delivery)

Starring - Tamaryn Payne (Vikings, One More Lie), Emily Wyatt (Spring Heeled Jack, 100 Streets), and Sian Abrahams (Tales of Modern Witchery: Darla's Vegetarian Magic Pies, Aylesbury Dead)

Release Date - 2020

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Face your fears"

Format - DVD (Personal Collection) 

Rating (out of 5):

     Several months ago I received the press release for a British pagan horror film titled Sacrilege.  The artwork turned me off of the film but the title and synopsis sounded extremely fun.  A few weeks had passed and I completely forgot about the film until I was at a Walmart that I don't typically visit when I noticed a few horror titles on the shelf.  I Am Lisa really caught my eye but beside it was Sacrilege.  I was excited to finally have some horror titles to pick up so I snagged them.  After I gave I Am Lisa a spin I decided to follow it up with Sacrilege.  

     The film follows four young women who decide to get away for a weekend and rent a cabin deep in the woods.  The locals are celebrating their history by hosting a pagan festival and invite the ladies.  They arrive and enjoy some drinks before writing down their fears and tossing the paper in the fire.  Soon they are faced with their worst fears imaginable and discover that the pagan celebration was real and they are the sacrifices.

     After watching I Am Lisa and enjoying it I was excited to dig into another new release that I had never seen.  Sadly, the movie was extremely dull and the part of the film that was the most interesting takes the backseat.  I'm a sucker for cult and pagan horror tales but they always put that part of the film on the backburner.  Sacrilege is no different.  The acting in this one is pretty solid.  I was apprehensive when I saw that the film followed a group of young women.  In the past when I watched a film with a similar plot I found the interactions among the cast to be extremely cringy.  However, I really liked the cast and the characters here.  Everyone had their own personality and they worked very well together.  The supporting cast is done just as well.  I loved the wide range of characters and though they were somewhat generic and cliched the cast still did a fantastic job with them.  The story for this one is where the movie lost me.  The film had a fantastic set up.  Sure, it's got that Wicker Man vibe where people are tricked into attending and becoming the sacrifice but it could have still worked.  Sadly, most of the film is based around the four ladies which doesn't start out wrong.  It does help with creating character backstories but the movie continues to focus on them and their living arrangements for far too long without letting the rest of the story develop.  The movie did not need an hour to establish who is who, who slept with who, and who is the most shallow.  This was already established BEFORE they arrived at the house.  The movie really needed to make the pagan cult a bigger part of the story.   Finally, the film has a few deaths scenes.  They had blood with a little practical effects but nothing that made them stand out or leave a lasting impression.  Overall, Sacrilege is like so many movies that I've seen over the years.  It has an interesting story on paper but is unable to pull it all together in front of the camera.  This is one I would skip.