Consecration is a supernatural thriller that lasts 90 minutes, but it feels like purgatory. This is another religious horror movie that suffers from an idiotic story, shallow characters, and batty theology that makes you want to go to confession just for seeing it.
Jena Malone stars as a British doctor whose summoned to Scotland after her priest brother is murdered. Once she arrives at the church where he was a priest, she’s assisted by another priest (Danny Huston) and a series of nuns. The priest is all too willing to acquiesce to help her find out who killed her brother, but the nuns are skeptical and some are even reluctant to get involved.
Malone continues to dig deeper into the investigation with the help of a local detective, but she gets more than she bargained for when she finds out that the brother may have been a murder suspect.
She also finds out that some of the nuns participate in a series of bizarre rituals and this is when the movie turns into an inexplicable mess because we don’t know if the nuns are responsible for the murder as part of the rituals or if they’re being controlled by a demonic force. As the Church Lady on Saturday Night Live used to say, could it be…Satan?!
Consecration lacks any sense of originality or plausibility despite its supernatural premise. It has incomprehensible plot points, characters who are befuddled by the circumstances, and, of course, moments of violence that are designed to be frightening but instead come off as comically absurd.
I don’t even think I can describe some of the plot points due to their ridiculous setups, and some scenes throughout are random and clunky without even bothering to try to establish motivation.
My penance is three Hail Marys, three Our Father’s and placing this atrocity on my ten worst list of the year.
Grade: D
(Rated R for bloody violent content and some language.)
