The latest horror film from Christopher Smith, "Consecration," opens with a voiceover by Grace (Jena Malone) who is skeptical about the existence of guardian angels. However, her beliefs are tested when a nun aims a gun directly at the camera. Despite this promising start, the film falls short of expectations as it fails to add any new insight or originality to the well-trodden Catholic-themed horror subgenre.
Grace travels to Scotland's Mount Saviour Convent after her brother, a priest, dies under mysterious circumstances. She is accompanied by DCI Harris (Thoren Ferguson) and the kooky Mother Superior (Janet Suzman), who believes that her brother was possessed by a demon, which led to the killing of another priest and his own suicide. Father Romero (Danny Huston) has come from the Vatican to re-consecrate the grounds, which are said to be cursed.
The film quickly devolves into a confusing mess with numerous flashbacks and possible hallucinations of Grace's troubled childhood. The creepy religious ceremonies and visions of nuns and priests flinging themselves off cliffs fail to weave together successfully, leaving the story muddled and the final reveal preposterous and obvious.
Malone struggles to find emotional truth in Grace's journey, leaving her performance unconvincing. Supporting characters like Father Romero and Mother Superior lack depth, while the imagery of the film is lazy and cliched. The verdant hills and ancient buildings are shot without much panache, often favoring murky darkness, which blends the timelines together and further confuses the plot.
The film's preposterous ending fails to deliver any sense of logic or structure, leaving the audience without any meaningful resolution. "Consecration" is a frustrating horror film that relies heavily on visual cliches and fails to explore the tension between devotion and hysteria, which is necessary for a more profound examination of the film's spiritual themes
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