Gripping story with well-crafted characters

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Are you someone who has never seen a horror in his life and who just has decided to make the big step and it should remain fairly soft, then you should definitely watch "The Sacred". But if you want to start up already with something more heavy in this genre, then you better forget about this movie. I don't want to feel guilty about the fact that a new horror fan would drop out because they came to the conclusion that the horror genre isn't that special anyway after watching this film.Relating "The Sacred" to the horror genre is as ridiculous as claiming that the little snow man in "Frozen" is a real living snowman they have recruited in Lapland. Sheer nonsense! Indeed there is an evil spirit and you can see a ritual of an exorcism in the opening scene. But like one swallow does not make a summer, those elements won't make this film a horror. I'm sure the creators watched a lot of horror movies about cabins in the woods and possessed people, with their notebooks ready. Because virtually every conceivable cliché has been used. One follows after the other in such a pace that it looks like "Am laufenden Band" with Rudi Carell. But instead of a conveyor belt with prices, it's one with overused horror elements.Jessie (Heather Roop) is a writer who suddenly faces the well-known phenomenon of a writer's block. Not to worry. Jessie has a cabin inherited from her aunt, who obviously deceased under mysterious circumstances, and uses this opportunity to stay over there and confront herself with her past and so regain some inspiration. So she moves to this secluded cabin in the woods. Soon strange things start to happen etcetera etcetera etcetera .....First there is the ridiculous oversupply of used horror elements: self-opening doors, a clock that's always showing the wrong time, a falling vase, sudden appearances, a radio getting smashed, shadows in the mirror, a doll that appears somewhere all the time, the staring villagers, scary sounds and creaking floors, banging on the door, friends appear and eventually become victims ... You can even hear a priest doing an exorcism. The technique of filming in a way as if it appears that someone is spying on you from behind a bush or from the upper floor, has also been used infinite times. And something that starts getting on my nerves over and over again, is the fact that everyone knows nothing or they don't want to talk about it, and then suddenly they come up with some story about something that happened in the past.And of course Jessie responds to these phenomena as if nothing is going on and it's just kind of weird. Naive girl! About the performances we can brief : that was for me the greatest horror element. Totally unbelievable and amateurish. When Jessie started crying, I also almost started crying spontaneously myself. Not because it was so touching, but because it looked so miserably. Besides, it was also laughable how Jessie was portrayed. In the beginning, she looked like a frigid old aunt, and after wards when she starts cleaning in that cabin, she looked like a sexy pop artist with an ultra-short cut-off jeans and a translucent t-shirt swinging around with her ​​mop. My conclusion after seeing all these scenes (because she is shown regularly bra-less while wearing a see-through t-shirt) is that it was really cold in that forest. It looked like some Darts Tournament in London. "One Hundred and Eighty" times I've looked at those erect antennas.Anyway, it's also a bad omen when they throw in some lesbian sex scenes and some explicit images of Jessie taking a shower. Usually this is done to embellish things and to hide the fact that this is a terrible movie. The denouement is so incredibly far-fetched using terrible looking special effects. If this was a movie from the 70's, then I would understand. And you don't need to be clever to guess the open end. Is there anything good to say about this movie? Yes, the performance of Brighid Fleming as Leah, is admirable. But that couldn't save this disaster.More reviews at http://opinion-as-a-moviefreak.blogspot.be

Worst film ever !! Bad actors especially Heather Roop and Jeff Fahey. Its not a Horror movie. You don't get scared at all or ... well , you get chills by the film being so bad. The movie is obviously made cos the director seems to have problems to get it on with the opposite sex, so the film has more scenes of a softporn in it than some horror scenes. The movie is about lesbian threesome, a LOT of hard nipples in a see through top, a naked shower scene, Anna McCords sister, naked with a shaved pussy (this movie shows how bad it could be for someone to live in the shadows of a famous sister )a sex scene, and a "sexy dance"scene, Heather is wearing short pants /trousers more than half of the Movie and not to forget the camera is zooming in on Heathers tits and butt AAAAALLLL THE TIME. And no, the film is useless as a soft pornmovie too Heather has no sex appeal at all.

*yawn* Oh, you're here. And you're reading my review because you're wondering if this movie is worth watching. Well, if you're a horror fan, you've already seen this movie. The movie jumps from one cliché to the next every five minutes. You'll already be predicting what happens in the movie when you're 1/10th of the way through. You won't even need to read the screenplay.Synopsis: Basically, we have your clichéd horror flick where the yuppie chick has decided to move out to a house in a rural area to "get away from it all". This is one of those small town horrors where the townspeople are aware of the demonic entity. But instead of talking to the protagonist they act cryptic, standoffish, and frightened with the usual "I've said too much already" type of behavior you see in these movies. There's also the obligatory grizzled redneck who knows a lot about the demonic entity. He acts shifty, scared, and distant. And, instead of telling the woman from the get-go about the demonic being, he decides to wait until after she's been haunted to break the news to her. These rural horror demonic ghost type of horror movies always have these townspeople who know about the local demon. But it's never explained why they continue to live in a town possessed by a demonic being.What's equally perplexing is why these yuppie women continue to stay in these demonic houses after they experience strange things? The main chick hears noises she shouldn't hear; she sees the reflection of people walking behind her and catches ghostly visions staring at her but disappearing when she blinks; things crash and break abruptly; etc. And all she ever says to these occurrences is "Huh. That's funny." and then continues to live in the house as if nothing important is happening? There are also a plethora of other clichés that bombard the horror fan: newspaper clippings to tell the back story; character says, "Don't leave me" and other character says, "stay here. I'll be right back. Everything will be okay." after they hear something strange out in the dark woods; guy goes out to check after hearing strange noise; etc.Other clichés I didn't like: swaying cam, where the camera isn't shaking like the camera man has seizures but the camera isn't steady either (apparently, tripods are too expensive to buy these days); annoying "BOOM!" jump scares; and the inappropriate music at the wrong time. I'm really tired of this amateurish junk that gets passed for film-making in the indie community.By the end of the movie, I lost count at the number of clichés I saw. The only thing that made me stay awake was the scene with the chick who came out of the rain. That scene made me raise my eyes and say, "Whoa. That came out of nowhere. That was a pleasant surprise." I gave this movie 1-star because the filmmakers didn't flood the review section with phony shill reviews like you see on so many other indie film reviews on IMDb. So congratulations on that. Everything is was a waste. I've seen everything in this movie. It wasn't suspenseful for those who like atmospheric horror with little to no gore. Nor was it gory enough for the gore/exploitation fans. Without the nudity, this movie would be PG-13 horror.

This was billed as a horror. Really? So much of the story had been done before. Possessed doll. Cabin in the woods. Etc. Now if you are looking for topless women and some lesbian action, this is the movie.A poor attempt at horror, a mediocre attempt at soft core porn. I did give it a 3 because the camera work was pretty good. The story, acting and weak attempts at horror were all quite poor.If you get to watch this for free, go ahead, but don't pay hard earned money for it.We need some more creativity in horrors out of Hollywood.