Consecration

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog. For those who know me you know about my love for horror films so once a month, I’m going to review and discuss a scary flick. We’ll look at the classics, and some new films, and I want your suggestions on what I should review. I’ll do my best to cover all the different genres within the genre – slashers, ghosts, monsters, etc. 

SPOILER ALERT! – These will be reviews so if you haven’t seen the movie you’ll want to watch it first before you read this. Let’s do this.

CONSECRATION

Religious horror! 2023's Consecration tells the tale of a woman’s investigation into the death of her bother under mysterious circumstances. Grace, a woman living in London learns that her brother, a priest, has apparently killed another priest and committed suicide. The film stars Jena Malone – she of a film I thoroughly enjoyed called Saved! as well as appearances in the Hunger Games films – and Danny Huston who is the Axe man from American Horror Story as well as The Aviator and Children of Men.

Grace doesn't believe this would happen, so she travels to Scotland to investigate. After visiting the morgue to see the body, she passes out and wakes up in the care of the nuns at the remote religious establishment where her brother had been stationed. Cue the spooky nuns and religious horror elements we've come to expect from this subgenre.

Strange occurrences begin immediately. There's the Mother Superior, a nun with an eye patch, mysterious nuns playing peek a boo while Grace wanders the grounds, and an overall atmosphere of dread. Enter Father Romero (played by Danny Huston) Romero claims he's been sent by the Vatican to consecrate the place and make everything right. Of course!

This is a slow burn where Grace gradually learns what's really happening at the covenant. Interwoven throughout are flashback scenes revealing that Grace and her brother were adopted after their father – essentially a monster – kept them in cages and killed their mother. These flashbacks show the children being transferred in a car after their father's capture, then being dropped off on the side of the road where something inexplicably kills the adults. Meanwhile, nuns at the covenant start dying from unseen forces.

Grace visits her imprisoned father seeking answers, but he's clearly insane and provides nothing useful – just another unsettling scene in an already disturbing narrative. The climax reveals that Grace is essentially a relic of the church, causing all these terrible events to occur. She appears to have been sent back in time, though this plot point remains somewhat unclear. The ending is open to interpretation as she heals someone's eye problems, the Mother Superior tries to kill her, but the nun is struck by a car instead.

British Director Christopher Smith, whose work I'm not particularly familiar with but does have a decent resume directs this piece. The film has that exploitative religious horror we've seen before – and I just love using the term "nunsploitation." I've always maintained that The Exorcist is the beginning and end of possession or religious films for me, but these movies keep appearing. Consecration reminds me of last year's Immaculate, with similar themes of strange, spooky occurrences at religious institutions and the dark underbelly of faith-based communities.

One of the great things about the film is the stunning locations. Shot in London and Scotland on beautiful cliffs near the water, the gray, cloudy days and gorgeous scenery create an atmospheric backdrop. The churches feature stark white architecture that contrasts beautifully with the dark clothing and occasional blood. This is the kind of setting you associate with dark, stormy, wind-swept areas of Cornwall and the western United Kingdom – places that have that spooky folk horror association, maybe even reminiscent of The Wicker Man. There is a great scene where Grace believes she is seeing individuals jumping to their deaths from the cliffs that took me back to Midsommar.

Unfortunately, the beautiful cinematography isn’t enough. There's simply too much happening at once. While I really like Jena Malone and think she delivers a strong performance – probably the best part of the movie – that alone isn't enough. The spooky religious horror concept has been done extensively, and while this isn't a complete swing and a miss, it's also not something I'd recommend breaking your plans to watch.

Many thanks to Strike Media for the review request. Consecration is available for your viewing pleasure on almost any digital platform of your choosing.

Enjoy the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRjG65M6L2c