The latest from IFC Midnight, Shudder, and writer/director Christopher Smith, Consecration, is a religious-based horror story that struggles to engage viewers and comes off clumsy.
The film follows Grace (Jena Malone), a woman living in America who travels back to Scotland after receiving news that her brother, who is a priest, committed suicide and is being accused of murder. Upon arriving at the convent, Grace notices that things are not as they seem since the convent’s Mother Superior (Janet Suzman) cryptically taunts her and displays some eerie behavior. Now, with the help of Father Romero (Danny Huston), an investigator for the Church, and a local detective (Thoren Ferguson), Grace must uncover the truth about her brother’s death.
Consecration is exactly the kind of slow-burning horror experience that’s usually a turn-off for most audiences. The central premise feels clear, with Grace being sucked into an unsettling mystery that sees her confronting her past while also dealing with a cult-like presence that seems to have other plans for her. It’s something akin to The Wicker Man in some ways—especially with the behavior of the nuns and Mother Superior. Yet, there’s something about the execution of this film that keeps viewers distant and makes it tough to stay invested.
Part of the issue come from the film being overly shrouded in mystery and featuring so much cryptic text that it rarely feels like the film is moving forward. It often stays stuck circling the same ideas of Grace being slowly ensnared into a dark subplot that brings out her “greater purpose” and Mother Superior being foreboding and creepy. By the time the film reaches some interesting narrative points like Grace’s traumatic backstory and the truth behind Mother Superior’s interest in her, you’re totally over the film.
There could’ve been some potential with its final act twist, but it comes far too late and is marred by terrible scares preceding it. Often, the film splices in bland jump scares or recycled ideas that have been beaten to death in the religious supernatural subgenre. Worst of all is that Consecration has a problem maintaining the power of its scares and comes off unintentionally funny at times. There are some moments with jarring imagery, bizarre behavior, and ridiculously bad effects that create more laughter than fear. The ending scene has a moment so bafflingly dumb that it’s kind of hilarious and it’s tough to take the the performances seriously because the film will suddenly cut to something that looks or comes off silly. Try as the solid performances of the main cast may, their seriousness can’t overshadow some of the dumb stuff in Consecration.
The film also severely lacks ambition, and there’s some rough editing and pacing that really botch the storytelling. There’s no creativity behind scare sequences so the use of dreamlike sequences and visions becomes overbearing and results in some standard sudden cuts for scares that don’t work. The flashbacks used throughout often come off random and their importance isn’t felt in the moment so the impact is minimal. The film even sort of recognizes that its weird supernatural moments that see other characters seemingly being controlled or manipulated are so wild and inexplicable that it goes out of its way to explain it all. There’s literally a full montage that goes through every moment in the film during the big final act swing and it’s incredibly redundant to watch.
Consecration is really a disappointment that under-utilizes its talent and can’t pull itself together to be anything more than just a sluggish supernatural horror flick whose narrative is shaky and delivers some unintended “so bad its good” moments. There was definitely potential for its story to hit at least standard quality of engagement, but it never gets there.
