Isaac (Ludovic Hughes) and his heavily pregnant wife, Emma (Sophie Stevens), have travelled to rural Norway from their home in America to check out, and sell, a house left to Isaac by his recently deceased mother. Sacrifice has all the makings for some Northern Exposure-style hilarity but a heart-warming comedy this ain’t! Isaac was born into this isolated Norwegian community but was abruptly dragged away from it by his mum 25 years ago under a cloud of mystery that, thankfully, is more or less dealt with pretty early on. What remains is a psychological thriller with horror elements, gorgeous scenery, well constructed visuals and cinematography with an ongoing, pervasive, feeling of dread.
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Acting wise, we have Barbara Crampton – horror royalty – who does a fine turn as the local sheriff. Flitting from deadly serious to charmingly quirky, with a hint of weird, at the drop of a hat whilst wrestling with a Norwegian accent, Crampton does well with it most of the time. Brit actors Sophie Stevens and Ludovic Hughes played well off one another throughout. The supporting cast is made up of local Norwegian actors and they do a sterling job – Lukas Loughran in particular who, at one point, manages to turn a fairly innocent enough scene into something that some might view as pretty damned creepy but I don’t want to spoil the details. The gorgeous village of Bjørke in the Volda Municipality of Norway was where the film was shot and directors Andy Collier and Tor Mian certainly make good use of it, as well they should.
Sacrifice has an interesting mix of mythologies in play, too. Lovecraft and his Cthulhu mythos are the overriding obvious influence here, along with the themes of water, dreams, and nightmares. Often we’re not sure where the real world stops and the dreaming begins. Maybe it’s all a dream? There are also healthy sprinklings of Norse and Inuit beliefs in there, also, which certainly make an interesting mix.
The pacing is a tad slow at times. It’s not the sort of film to come to for jump scares aplenty. We mainly witness the relationship breaking down between the main couple as Isaac grabs hold of his heritage with both hands and begins to integrate into the community, staying out late at the pub with the locals and building tupilaq in the garden while Emma, who starts to get increasingly weird nightmares whilst feeling more and more isolated, just wants to get out of there and get back to America before her baby is born, being 6 weeks due at the start of the film. Rosemary’s Baby did spring to mind… It all gradually leads to a shocking, if not completely unexpected, crescendo.
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I’m familiar with the short story that influenced Sacrifice, “Men of the Cloth” by Paul Kane, so at times I was expecting things to develop a bit differently and I do think some opportunities were missed by moving so far away from that particular source material. However, coming into the film without that prior influence shouldn’t detract anyone. There is, also, one rather big plot hole that doesn’t make logical sense within the universe the writers/directors have created for themselves but discussing would be a major spoiler. It is glossed over somewhat, but I’m pedantic so it stuck out to me like a sore thumb by the end of the movie. Despite that, Sacrifice is a well put together watch that will especially appeal to those with an interest in Lovecraft and/or the Cthulhu mythos in particular. Good, not great.
Sacrifice is out now on VOD in the US and is released in the UK digitally on March 15th.
Dream well.
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