Review of Sacrifice (2016) by Jluis_001 — 06 Feb 2018

Sacrifice is a really bad film, a thriller that even fans of the genre will find boring. The film tries to build tension and suspense but its technique is disastrous.

The film focuses on Dr. Hamilton (Radha Mitchell) who moved to an island of Scotland to adopt a baby with her husband Duncan (Rupert Graves) This after suffering four miscarriages. One day she discovers a corpse marked with symbols and realizes that the woman died shortly after giving birth. The matter is being investigated, while the people of the island are trying to convince her that she's being paranoid about the issue. Later on a conspiracy involving missing women and a secret society appears trying to dwell into more sinister territories. Describing it sounds quite interesting, but it's not, the whole thing feels pressured and very unconvincing and any sort of tension is nonexistent.

The film has a very conventional style and looks really conventional too, nothing feels tense or even sinister and you'll begin to wonder if something truly exciting will ever happen. Even the score is humdrum and forces you to try to feel what apparently you must feel in the different sequences, but that is insufficient for us as spectators when we no longer are interested in what is happening on screen.

Radha Mitchell is barely convincing, but you should give her some credit because the script is too simplistic and devoid of true vision. The director's style is lacking of true quality and the way in which he develops the film makes it feel abrupt especially at the end and almost all the scenes are lifeless.

I do not recommend this whatsoever.