SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Majorthebys Charming and brutal

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Fulke Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Michael Ledo PLOT SPOILERSJake goes to visit his sister in a remote area as she has joined a cult, you know the type that looks like they drink Kool-Aid. Oops sorry about that. He takes with him two friends so they can make this look like a hand held camera documentary.This wasn't a real documentary. Did they have to end it the way I expected it to end from 5 minutes into the film? Ti West ever hear of a twist? Now having said that, the film did hold my interest. Even the boring interviews were well done. Then when they ended it all with orange flavor Koo-Aid, I had to groan...surely there is more....a twist...please!!! I need. I want.Apparently this was done for a whole new generation that knows nada about the Jonestown fiasco which inspired this film.Parental Guide: F-bomb. Implied sex. No nudity. No twist.

Nick Walker Shot well, great cinematography. Steady, solid story, though it can get a bit wonky at times (as a found footage film, there were sometimes more camera angles than cameras).So that's the good out of the way. The problem lies in the "scary" part of the film. It's essentially the Jonestown Massacre. About half the film or so consists of the mass suicide, showing the effects of cyanide poisoning from start to finish, with some gory gunshot suicides for effect. The other half is literally a VICE- style documentary which gives us the back story.(As a side note, this adequately satisfies two FF requirements: why the camera is there, and why the people are still filming as dangerous events transpire.)But the deaths feel voyeuristic, and it left me uncomfortable. The way it was treated was almost... gleeful, at times. You cannot shake the fact that this stuff actually happened. The filmmakers (Ti West, who I usually adore, and Eli Roth, torture porn peddler) expect us to flop around in the death with them. It made me feel queasy. The movie makes a point to tell us the victims are the downtrodden, and they have nothing to live for outside the commune. Why spend a good twenty minutes on closeups of them realizing they've been tricked into dying?Ugh. Still. Shot well, clever premise for FF, and a great performance from everyone (except the lead VICE guys, I just didn't feel it with them). Just a little too gleeful about real-life tragedy. This kind of stuff, I thought, was supposed to be fantasy. When it gets too real... I guess gore/horror has an uncanny valley of its own.

Michael O'Keefe This thrilling drama will remind you of the Jim Jones Massacre at Jonestown in the mid 1970s. Using "found footage" genre. Patrick(Kentucker Audley) works for a company proud of covering bizarre newsworthy subjects. He receives an invitation from his sister Caroline(Amy Siemetz)to visit her at a compound called Eden Parish for exiled Christians. This cult-like community is ran by a man simply called Father(Gene Jones), who is very paranoid when it comes to the so-called outside world. Patrick and two of his friends Jake(Joe Swanberg) and Sam(AJ Bowen), photographer and journalist, travel to Eden Parish. Patrick realizes quickly that his sister is acting differently and even more so, Father is obviously wanting to cover something up. A few "citizens" are secretly wanting to leave when the journalists do. Father is very content in not letting a living sole leave his man-made Utopian community.Be advised of disturbing violence, graphic and bloody images and situations earning an R rating. Cast members include: Shirley Jones Byrd, Derek Roberts, Kate Forbes, Dale Neal and Donna Biscoe.

Claudio Carvalho The journalist Patrick (Kentucker Audley) works at the VICE, a company dedicated to cover bizarre news. When his sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz) joins a community, she travels abroad with her new family. Out of the blue, Caroline invites her brother to visit her in an undefined country and Patrick travels by helicopter with his friends Jake (Joe Swanberg) and Sam (AJ Bowen) that work with him at VICE.They find weird that the men that have come to guide them to the Eden Parish have guns. On the arrival to the camp, Patrick, Sam and Jake find a community of happy people that worship Father (Gene Jones). They interview Father but soon they realize that people are not as happy as they seem to be. Further, they find that they are trapped in the Parish Eden and they want to leave the place with the newcomers. But the Father does not have intention to let them go."The Sacrament" is a suspenseful horror movie with a music score in the beginning that recalls "The Twilight Zone". However this awful "found- footage" genre spoils the creepy story. The Dogma 95 has only 77 recognized movies, but this rip-off of the genre seems to be the easiest means to produce cheap low-budget movies in the present days. My vote is five.Title (Brazil): "O Sacramento" ("The Sacrament")