The Sacrament
Magnet Releasing | Release Date: June 6, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 21 Critic Reviews
Positive:
8
Mixed:
12
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
CineVueLeigh ClarkJun 5, 2014
The found footage format has been milked to death of late... but here it's used to fully immerse the viewer, ensuring that the characters speak directly to the audience and, with the removal of the third wall, throws them straight into the lion's den to create maximum discomfort. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeDec 10, 2013
It’s a film that purists might insist isn’t horror in the strictest sense, though this slow-burning investigation of unseemly goings-on at a rural Christian commune is frightening in any genre language. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 10, 2013
It makes savvy use of the well-worn found-footage format, modulating its creepy scenario with considerable skill. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJun 4, 2014
West is a talented director and knows how to build suspense. But here’s a case where the truth wasn’t only stranger than his fiction, it was scarier, too. Read full review
63
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJun 12, 2014
West’s film differs from the “Blair Witch” template in that the footage is never actually “found.” Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyJun 6, 2014
West is such a technically accomplished filmmaker, and his cast of semi-regulars so committed to the narrative, that the resultant movie gives enough unsettling atmosphere and upsetting gut-level shock that this viewer didn’t mind too much all the stuff he wasn’t getting, such as intellectual coherence, not to mention any kind of profound insight into the cult hive mind. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)John SemleyJun 5, 2014
The tension fizzles as The Sacrament narrows into predictability, indulging every cliché of found-footage filmmaking and Jonestown-styled cult apocalypticism. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 1, 2014
With The Sacrament, director Ti West has bitten off more of a premise than his classically modest barebones approach to horror movies can presently chew. Read full review
60
Village VoiceRob StaegerJun 3, 2014
Restaging the 1978 Jonestown massacre for a present-day suspense movie is by most definitions tasteless, although The Sacrament infuses the past with ghoulish immediacy. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonJun 3, 2014
As with all of West’s work this is a good-looking, well acted film shot through with moments of real power, but its conventionality is troubling. Read full review
58
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonDec 10, 2013
The tension really is beautifully ramped up in these early scenes and gets an audience well prepped to watch carnage unfold around people you've truly come to care about. Then, when the thing goes off, it's not with a bang but with something more like a a whimper. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleJun 12, 2014
The first half is a cautiously dread-inducing tour de force as the suspicious interlopers parse the shiny, happy members for signs of a darker version of paradise... The second half, however, when all hell breaks loose a little too quickly, is the disappointment. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd May 5, 2014
Because the film is meant to resemble documentary footage, West is forced to effectively “play dumb,” disguising his craftsmanship behind a lot of intentionally cruddy handheld camerawork. Still, that’d be less of a problem if the material he was gracelessly filming weren’t such run-of-the-mill claptrap. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasMay 5, 2014
Its skillful execution of a bad idea doesn’t make the bad idea any better; in fact, the scrupulousness with which West and his crew evoke the past make the film that much more unsavory. Read full review
42
IndieWireGreg CwikJun 5, 2014
The Sacrament is a missed opportunity to further expand West's pallet. Instead of twisting conventions and playing with expectations, West plays into expectations. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillSep 22, 2014
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. Read full review
40
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriJun 6, 2014
I found parts of The Sacrament more effective than anything else he’s done to date, as it’s probably the least genre of his movies. But don’t tell West that; I’m pretty sure he still thinks he’s made a horror flick. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisJun 5, 2014
Mr. West sets the scene reasonably well, ratcheting up a sense of unease with old-fashioned shadows and some nighttime scrambling, but he gets lost once he shifts from fooling around in the dark to recreating mass death. Read full review
40
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJun 5, 2014
This sometimes-taut little thriller is sullied by its unnecessary masquerade as a documentary presented by HBO’s gonzo news show “Vice.” Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichJun 3, 2014
Only Jones seems most at home, striking just the right note of low-key malevolence. You’d follow him anywhere — maybe even into a better movie. Read full review
15
Film.comJordan HoffmanDec 10, 2013
Ti West’s pointless new film The Sacrament, an exercise in talking loud and saying nothing, isn’t just bad, it’s infuriating. Read full review
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