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| Film vitals |
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· Year: 1999
· Director: Dante Tomaselli
· Writer: Dante Tomaselli
· Cast: Irma St. Paule, Danny Lopes
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| Purchase |
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Amazon.com
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| Synopsis |
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A boy raised in a Catholic boarding school begins to question his sanity when a nun's accidental death begins a chain of horrific events.
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RATING
Out of 100 |
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65
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| COLD ANALYSIS |
| 3.25 -ATMOSPHERE |
| 2.25 -GORE |
| 0.5 -HUMOR |
| 2.0 -SCARES |
| 2.75 -TENSION |
It's a good argument that when it comes to horror movies, less is more. A forced, but slight, alteration in perception--the sense that something is inarguably wrong--is much more disturbing than gallons of blood and tons of gore. A good horror filmmaker knows how to alter reality just enough to violate our sense of the world while also not providing us with the comfort of abandoning that very sense. A masked murderer blatantly slashing through victim after victim? Not scary. Looking out your window and seeing a nun standing in the mist, her faceless head inclined toward you? That can be scary.
In Desecration, Dante Tomaselli takes advantage of that. In a way that reminded me strongly of William Peter Blatty's work in the underrated Exorcist III, Tomaselli presents us with imagery that is all the more disturbing because it's just slightly wrong. Many of us adhere to religion because of the comfort it provides, and by using imagery and storytelling to undermine that guarantee of solace, Tomaselli has created a movie powerful in atmospheric undertone and tension. This movie shows a good command of telling stories through images and pacing, without the excesses that mark most low-budget horror films. Even the gore is restrained; it's kept to a level that is visceral but not overdone, and is therefore all the more impactful.
When a film relies so heavily on a twisted sense of reality, it's tough to keep the narrative grounded, and Desecration is hardly the first film of its kind to fall short in this area. Like Jacob's Ladder, Desecration skips around a little too much and is probably too esoteric in some of its content for the audience's good. The original Carnival of Souls succeeded in terms of narrative because it provided, through character interactions, an effective subtext of sexual repression and fear of human connection. For example, according to the back of the DVD case, the main character in Desecration was raised in a repressive Catholic school. However, I didn't get that idea from the movie. Even so, the influence of such an upbringing should have had a severe effect on the events in the film, but I wasn't able to see that effect as much as I would have liked. The protatonist's religious beliefs, which should be paramount, aren't really dealt with--he seems to be a spectator to the horrifying events that are unfolding before him.
I intend to watch Desecration again, though I have a feeling a second viewing won't help me to figure out the backstory and the characters' motivations. Instead, I'll watch it for the deadened winter setting, for the acting, which is refreshingly good for a low budget film, and for the atmosphere: cloying and unsettling.
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