The Jonestown Massacre is the inspiration for the 2013 found footage thriller, THE SACRAMENT. In New York City, fashion photographer, Patrick (Kentucker Audley), receives a cryptic letter from his sister, Caroline (Amy Seimetz), a recovering drug addict. In the letter, she states she’s been living in an isolated commune in a remote part of the world for the last several months and wants Patrick to visit. Thinking this would make a great story, Patrick’s video journalist friend, Sam (AJ Bowen), joins Patrick and travel to his sister’s new home.
Upon arriving at Eden Parish, located in the middle of a vast forest, Patrick and friends are confronted by men with machine guns. Letting them enter the compound, Caroline tells Patrick that the guns are just for protection from the outside world. Caroline promptly shows them around, informing them the place is run by a man known simply as “Father.”
That night, Sam is granted an interview with Father (Gene Jones), a charismatic older gentleman who is greeted with overwhelming applause and admiration from his devoted followers. Taken aback by Father’s intellect and evasiveness, Sam questions Father’s motives, especially when a party thrown by the commune turns into a weird, transcendental meditation/prayer ceremony.
The next morning, the friends are shocked to discover a large group of community members desperately trying to leave. When shots are fired, a desperate Father holds everyone hostage and informs them that the end is near, revealing the horrifying truth to Patrick and his companions that Eden Parish is nothing more than a doomsday cult.
The Sacrament is an effective slow burn. Although we know from the start something is amiss, director Ti West (X) does a good job at momentarily fooling us into believing that Eden Parish is a peaceful sanctuary, filled with smiling faces and good intentions. With the introduction of Father, the film’s screws begin to tighten until the final minutes, delivering an intense and bleak journey into madness.
Managing to escape a doomsday cult, but suffering dire consequences, is Cynthia Weston in 1988’s BAD DREAMS. Back in 1975, teenage Cynthia was indoctrinated into Unity Fields, a suicide cult formed by a psychopath named Harris (Richard Lynch), who taught that death is only the next stage of evolution. When Harris sets the cult’s house on fire, killing everyone inside, Cynthia survives but is left comatose from her injuries.
13 years pass before Cynthia (Jennifer Rubin) awakens, only to be placed in a psychiatric clinic that specializes in people with borderline personality disorders. There, she begins group therapy with Dr. Alex Karmen (Bruce Abbott), who helps her to unlock memories of the tragedy. Cynthia eventually remembers the deranged Harris soaking all of the Unity members in gasoline and setting them ablaze, a memory that triggers something within Cynthia. Soon she begins seeing visions of a horribly scarred Harris in the hospital, pleading with her to kill herself. When Cynthia ignores him, the patients in her therapy group begin dying under mysterious circumstances, which are later declared as suicides.
Cynthia believes Harris has come back from the beyond, but Dr. Karmen thinks it’s just part of Cynthia’s broken mind. Karmen eventually discovers that his supervisor and mentor, Dr. Berrisford (Harris Yulin), is lacing the group’s medication with a psychotropic drug in the hopes they’ll commit suicide to corroborate Berrisford’s research. Is Berrisford’s diabolical plans responsible for the deaths, or has Harris actually achieved life after death?
There’s an interesting idea here, but it’s wrapped too tightly in an attempt to cash-in on Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. The film (directed by Andrew Fleming) has some good moments – the scene in which two patients are chopped up in a wind turbine, with the hospital’s hallways sprayed in their blood, is visually arresting and gruesome – but they never feel authentic or original. The characters are all transparent Dream Warriors clones, with the casting of Rubin a rather obvious ploy; Cynthia is essentially a less engrossing version of her character Taryn from Nightmare 3. To be fair, Rubin does the best she can with the role, while Abbott is wholly unconvincing.
A group of college graduates get more than they bargained for on a trip to Mexico in the 2007 flick BORDERLAND. After an all-night beach party in Galveston, Texas, buddies Henry (Jake Muxworthy) and Phil (Rider Strong) decide they want some extra fun before they become responsible adults. After dragging their friend, Ed (Brian Presley), along for the ride, the boys drive to a small Mexican border town, rampant with prostitution. When Ed meets local bartender, Valeria (Martha Higareda), she gives them all mushrooms, and the four spend the night at a carnival.
Leaving the carnival to go see a prostitute, Phil is abducted by several men and chained up in a strange house. He doesn’t return the next morning, so Ed and Henry turn to the police and meet ex-cop, Ulises (Damián Alcázar), who claims to have witnessed the murder of his partner by cultists a year earlier. With the help of Ulises, Henry, Ed, and Valeria try to find and rescue Phil from a voodoo cult. Ulises says the cult needs human sacrifices in order to bring power and wealth to its members – and Phil is their next victim.
The film’s by-the-numbers presentation doesn’t offer up much suspense. In many ways, the story unfolds more like a gangland-style crime thriller; the grainy, washed-out yellow and blue lighting seems to have been inspired by the cinematography of Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic. Yet the horror elements mix in rather well and create a somewhat intriguing movie, even when you’re not entirely invested in the characters. The gory make-up FX are good and the cast is competent. An unnecessarily long runtime and predictability keep Borderland from being truly good. Sean Astin, as an American cult member, is wasted. | The Sacrament: B+ Borderland: B– Bad Dreams: C