The Sacrament **
Dir: Ti West.
With: Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen, Amy Seimetz. 95 mins. Cert: 15
Following a run of notable
horror reproductions (The House of the
Devil, The Innkeepers), Ti West’s
latest feels both more expansive – choppering Vice reporters into a seemingly progressive tropical utopia raises
intriguing social themes – and yet a marked disappointment. For an hour, West’s
usual virtues – worked-over characterisation, solid performances, pacing that
prefers growing unease to cheap shocks – are to the fore. Then the cat emerges
from the bag, and drags the better ideas away: the finale’s limp hide-and-seek,
threaded around a very flat, uninflected replay of a major tragedy. Cackling
producer Eli Roth may be to blame; West has done and can do better.
The Sacrament opens at London's Prince Charles Cinema tonight.
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