Excellent adaptation.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

While The Sacrament has no real reason to be a found footage film, it provides a grim re-telling of horrible true events. The movie may seem to take some time to get started, it is definitely worth it to see things get slightly more and more sinister. Once the movie seems to hit it's climax, and you think it's going to be other soon, there is another climax and another and another. The multiple points of view during the climaxes can be slightly confusing, but add to the atmosphere being created. From time to time, you get to see things from a farther away angle to show the mass carnage that took place. The acting in the Sacrament is also spot on with the evil characters seeming legitimately evil, and the good characters seeming like real heroes. My only real complains with this movie is the slow beginning and the unnecessary found footage aspect, but other than that, The Sacrament is a great movie.

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.

The Sacrament feels like the gathering of the independent filmmakers, which, on that basis alone, makes it sound like nothing more than a gaggle of pals, who had the urge to shoot something, getting together, making a film, and cherishing a few laughs. However, The Sacrament is a crafty slowburn horror film by the same man who made The Innkeepers, one of my favorite horror films from a few years back. He's Ti West and, for the last couple years, has directed several different films along with acting in various horror films as well. In a time when so many forget the craft to go straight for the scare, West knows it's all about articulation, suspense, and artistry when it comes to making horror films, which is why he takes the first forty minutes of The Sacrament to allow for dread to loom and almost engulf us on screen before allowing the insanity to flow.The film is loosely based on the real life murders in Jonestown in 1978, concerning two VICE reporters, Sam (AJ Bowen) and Jake (independent filmmaker Joe Swanberg), and their fashion photographer friend Patrick (Kentucker Audley, another independent filmmaker). One day, Patrick receives a letter from his drug addict sister Caroline (Amy Seimetz) who states she has been recovering for several months and is living in Eden Parish, a utopian commune boasting sober living and Christian values. She offers Patrick to spend a day in the commune, which he must access by helicopter, and, in a bout of uncertainty, agrees to let his pals Sam and Jake tag along to film the experience. Upon arrival, the gang is initially unsettled by the presence of guards with large assault rifles guarding the commune until Caroline appears and looks refreshed as ever. She apologizes for the alleged misunderstanding and invites them in, revealing a beautiful, open community of small homes, gardens, a medical center, and practically everything one would think a small, seceded society would need to thrive.Caroline speaks of a man by whom they call "Father" (Gene Jones), whose voice can be heard over the loud speaker quite frequently, initiating meetings or informing his community of events occurring in Eden Parish. "Father" is the godlike figure of the commune, with everyone praising him for his ability to create, sustain, and cherish the community he has built. While Patrick spends most of his time with his sister, Sam and Jake do what they do best, which is circle around the community and speak to various individuals living in the community, all of whom seem happier and more refreshed as they praise the nonjudgmental, connected community of Eden Parish while denouncing and criticizing America and their sensationalized, media-reliant culture.Ti West clearly has a great deal of fun shooting in the limitless, outdoor environment of Eden Parish, as most of his films up until this point (The House of the Devil and The Innkeepers) took place indoors). West moves his camera(s) liberally through the wide open meadows of the commune, with the commune itself evoking an eerily suburban feel, where everything seems carefully calculated and the positioning of homes and gardens seems meticulously micromanaged. The environment of Eden Parish plays a big part in why the film is so fun to watch, since you know never know where you're going to end up or what will be revealed.In addition, West has already established himself as a fan of slowburn horror filmmaking, and with The Sacrament, nothing changes with his approach; the first forty minutes of the film carefully set up Eden Parish, digging deep and asking questions about the commune's location, code of ethics, structure, and so on, much of which is covered during Sam's interview with "Father." During this time, a frightening sense of dread builds, which hovers over viewers throughout the entire film as we see what this location reveals and what its characters are doing for one another.West is a storyteller, above all, functioning in a genre that either negates the story lines it provides or projects them in a twisted web of confusion and ridiculousness. The Sacrament is where West can finally show that by creating a film in which no paranormal entities, a topic he has handled in the past, can be found and the evil at hand comes straight from the people. Thanks to a cast of champions, many of whom independent filmmakers - and a wickedly haunting Gene Davis - and a methodical approach to a rich story, West overwhelmingly succeeds, officially solidifying him in my book as one of the strongest men in horror working today.Starring: AJ Bowen, Joe Swanberg, Kentucker Audley, Amy Seimetz, and Gene Davis. Directed by: Ti West.

I got this from my local library as I do most of the films I watch so as not to blow 15 bucks at a theater for junk like this.As others have commented, this is s rip-off of the Jonestown story, in which actor Powers Booth was so good as Jim Jones. There are also documentaries on this story that are much better than this movie as well. I got the feeling the writer thought he could slip this one past a "new generation." I vividly recall the Time Magazine cover of the over 900 bodies lying dead in that remote region of Guyana and the moment the film reached the settlement, I knew it was a re-telling of Jonestown. Even the terminology and landscape used, eg. the pavilion, the layout of the settlement etc. are Jonestown to a tee.The players, who are supposed to be reporters, are annoying from the start. To me they epitomize the smart-ass, know-it-all and feel they have a right to know-it-all blogger-types so prevalent in today's media; the ones that believe they are too smart to believe in God, for example and seem dumbfounded by anyone who doesn't share their "enlightened" view.It was interesting to see how close they might come to the actual story but like the Titanic where the main character gets chance after chance to get on a life boat but doesn't or better yet, like the kids at a slasher summer camp flick, by the end you just hope they all die for their stupidity. And like those slasher flicks, inexplicably, the main character survives. Which brings me to spoiler number 1. The Sam character was seen being macheted in the pavilion but miraculously re-appears with the Father later with blood on his shirt but apparently fit enough to run for his life at the end. How? Was he just nicked or what? And how the helicopter pilot survived his gunshot wounds to be able to lie around for hours and then still fly the chopper out (and was conveniently waiting with the rotors spinning) is beyond me.I guess it never occurred to any of the three "heroes" to just get the hell out of there and send back help when they had opportunity after opportunity.The "Father" character was well-played too and like the original on which he is based, I was always struck by how he told everyone else to take the potion but didn't himself. That would have been enough to send me running, which, by the way,a few did in real life; there were a handful of survivors.I could go on but it would basically be a narrative on the Jonestown Story so I'll let you find that out for yourself. But as a last word, this film is no good.