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SACRILEGE (2020)

Directed & written by David Creed.
Starring Tamaryn Payne, Emily Wyatt, Sian Abrahams, Naomi Willow, Ian Champion, Rory Wilton, Emma Spurgin Hussey, David English, Jon Glasgow, Conner Mckenzy
Find out more about this film here!

A group of sexy city gals decide to take a weekend vacation to the English countryside which happens to coincide with a solstice festival held by the locals. After attending the festival, the they begin experiencing nightmares and hallucinations that not only to threaten their friendship, but their lives.

The elevator pitch for SACRILEGE reads as following; the SEX & THE CITY gals went to MIDSOMMAR and encountered their worst fears a la A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET. That’s basically all SACRILEGE is and while it is as derivative as hell, even down to exact story beats from MIDSOMMAR and THE WICKER MAN, I still found myself entertained. The main reason why is that this is a well-made, well-acted, well done movie. Now there’s no cinematic ground broken here. But from the story to the actors to the direction, filmmaker David Creed does a rock-solid job with very familiar material.

Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a jaw-dropper. There are plenty of faults. The film is a bigger tease than my Junior High girlfriend as almost all of the very attractive cast lose their clothing, but nary a bit or piece is shown on camera. Not that I really look to my horror movies for nudity, but why have scenes where the cast get naked without showing some of the naughty stuff? Multiple scenes have the gals losing their clothes, yet there is nothing to see here. Still, the film delivers some decent characterization from our four party gals and gives each a deep dark fear to torment them with. Bugs, dogs, growing old, and stalkers all pop up in their nightmares and waking hours and the film capably peppers in the horror along with this character to keep things interesting. I will say that, after an opener death scene by fire, there really isn’t any kind of tension, suspense, or horror until the forty minute mark, which is a bit late in the film, in my opinion. Still, once the thrills do start thrilling, they turn out to be decently…thrilling.

Again, don’t expect new ideas, but SACRILEGE does some of the old tropes decently and has a capable cast of bringing these chills and thrills to life. It’s got ok CG, the gals are likable, and the director knows what he’s doing. Sure, the title and poster are as generic as it comes and the groundskeeper looks a little too much like Jack Black, but don’t hold that against this decent little low budgeter.

Check out the trailer here!!