Review by
Eric Hillis
Directed by: Christopher Smith
Starring: Jena Malone, Danny Huston, Dame Janet Suzman, Thoren Ferguson
In 2022 Scotland issued a formal apology to the more than 4,000 people,
predominantly women, accused of practicing witchcraft, over 2,500 of
whom were executed for the crime. The news was met with derision by
many, but if other crimes from centuries past require formal apologies
then why not this one? Perhaps it's because horror fiction has
perpetuated the myth of the evil witch, the cackling hag with a black
cat, broomstick and cauldron in which she boils good Christian children.
Of course, witches never really existed, at least not in that form.
Director Christopher Smith's Scottish-set horror
Consecration is the latest movie that asks us to believe
in witchcraft, but there's little in the way of magic on display.
On-the-nose named London-based eye doctor Grace (Jena Malone)
has a creepy experience in her apartment one night when the lights go
out and a mysterious figure appears to be lurking in the hallway. It's
at the same moment that she receives a phone call from Scotland
informing her that her brother has died following a murder-suicide at
the remote convent where he's been practicing the priesthood. Unwilling
to believe her brother capable of such a thing, Grace travels to
Scotland where she finds a cult of nuns that make Opus Dei look like
Anglicans in their hardcore interpretation of Catholicism.
Initially the film seems to take the side of the vehemently atheistic
Grace. This is largely achieved by how dodgy the nuns are painted, along
with an outwardly kindly but not quite right priest played by
Danny Huston, an actor you don’t hire if you don’t wish to make
the audience suspect he's up to no good. As the narrative progresses we
behin to doubt just who is the antagonist here as flashbacks reveal
Grace's murky backstory, which somehow seems to relate to an incident
from the middle ages.
Consecration is part of a growing trend of horror movies
that seem more concerned with laying the ground for a final act reveal
than in building suspense and springing scares on the viewer. The plot
here is so muddled that I'm not entirely sure I came away from the movie
with the correct interpretation of a resolution that I'm still
struggling to make sense of. There's an awful lot of plot and very
little atmosphere, despite the film's great Isle of Skye location and
some beautiful production design (the convent wouldn't be out of place
in a classic Universal horror). Attempts to generate scares too often
fall back on tired tropes like the figure glimpsed in the mirror and
shocks revealed to simply be products of Grace's potentially damaged
psyche. Much of the narrative follows that of a police procedural, with
Grace burying her nose in crusty old books and snooping around the
darkest corners of the convent (despite their mistrust of Grace,
the nuns don’t seem all that bothered by her wandering
around).
Malone is one of the most watchable American actresses of her
generation, but her performance here wavers between two modes – confused
and angry. With so much about Grace concealed throughout the film,
Malone struggles to make the character three dimensional, resulting in
an unappealing and unengaging protagonist. Still, anyone who attended
Catholic school may find enough relatable creepiness in the setting, but
for a convent-based horror it's nun too scary.
