The Sacrament

I've got a softer spot for Ti West than many seem to, having real affection for his former chillers Cabin Fever 2, House of the Devil, and Innkeepers.  He seems to work mainly in TV nowadays (unfortunately) but concluding his horror movie run in 2013 was The Sacrament, a purportedly true tale of a woman who becomes embroiled in the activities of a secluded theistic cult.  After a few months of her absence, her brother and a couple of reporters head into the wilderness to see how she's doing, armed with shaky cam and little else.  Initially things seem a somewhat hostile at the gates, guarded as they are by armed men, but soon they are welcomed by the resident sister who assures them that all is well.  She has temporary accommodation set up for them, and arranges meetings with the patriarch of the community, appropriately referred to as Father.  As one might expect, there are a few more sinister goings-on than where I leave this synopsis, otherwise naturally there would be no film (or indeed perhaps only a very boring one).

This is essentially a POV/found-footage type of movie, so be warned if this is not your bag.  Admittedly I have little tolerance for this genre, reserving my interests for a very select few, and I only put up with viewing Sacrament because it's by West.  It isn't too bad an experience, however, and does manage to exude a disquieting aura as we realise Father and his camp are not the ideal destination to spend one's holiday.  Of course we get the usual tropes of the genre, notably the persistently wobbling camera and the odd desperation to hold on to the thing no matter what is happening in the cameraman's life.  And then there is the uber-natural pretence of the actors, basically saying, 'I'm not acting, really!'  The only person who I'd say pulls off a compelling performance is Gene Jones as Father.  Some of the others acting turns do kind of get on my nerves but Gene manages to save the show.  I think the main issue with Sacrament is that there's not a huge amount to entice audiences, even though it has some value, and it's most certainly not a bad film by any stretch.

A trend with releasing lesser considered films in the UK, one that constantly annoys me, is to put it out only on DVD.  Hell, they may as well bang it out on VHS if they think that little of it (actually that would be cooler).  And this laziness applies here, a Ti West film on DVD only (from some company called House).  So I picked that up a few years ago only because it was virtually no cost (I wouldn't buy a DVD otherwise).  More recently I was able to pick up the film on Blu-ray, albeit imported from Germany.  Both are quite lacklustre releases - cover design on the UK DVD is more colourful although quite generic (boasting the imaginative tagline 'Pray for Salvation'... who the hell came up with that?!), while the German Constantin Film Blu (aside from the usual reversible cover showing certification on one side and not the other) contains a chapter insert - remember those?  Audio on the UK DVD gives you a choice between Dolby Digital stereo or 5.1, whereas you get high resolution DTS surround audio English on the Blu, along with a couple of German language tracks.  The German dialogue subtitles are removable.  Incidentally the utterly rubbish new-look BBFC site lists this as a 15 certificate, whereas the disc clearly displays an 18 certificate!  Either way there are themes of suicide that some people might find upsetting, as well as a touch of gore in places.

Extras on both discs consist only of related and unrelated trailers - this is where the Americans as is often the case are far better treated.  The old Magnolia Blu that came out in the US featured a commentary and a number of featurettes.  The Blu-rays run at around 99 minutes whereas the UK DVD runs at 95 minutes, due to being sped up (a symptom of PAL).  Finally, with regard to image quality, both Blu and DVD are framed at 1.78:1 (the film itself was shot digitally in High Definition), the Blu yielding noticeably sharper and more colourful results, although the DVD is watchable.  There is one slight caveat with the German Blu (aside from lacking the extras of its US counterpart), in that there is an occasional German onscreen text reference (for example it refers to times as '14:00 Uhr' and the like).  They are few and far between and don't detract from the viewing experience in my opinion.  The main draw of the German Blu is that it can be bought for a fraction of the price of the US disc and not much more than the UK DVD (at time of writing).  If you really want extras though, there really is no competition, but just for raw image and sound quality the German Blu provides best value for UK buyers for this reasonable entry into the found footage sub-genre.  It's interesting that West has made one movie about devil-worship, and one movie about God-worship, neither leading to particularly pleasurable results!

The Girl in Room 2A

A woman is kidnapped, tortured, probably violated, then killed, and the opening credits have not even finished rolling yet.  Another woman, Margaret, is released from prison for a crime she says she had no involvement in, and rents a room in a strange little house.  It is the titular Room 2A of course.  A couple of the guests try to befriend her, whilst the landlady is a little too friendly.  Before long Margaret is plagued with prison-like hallucinations or dreams, and she has problems with a blood patch on the floor that she cannot seem to clean up no matter how many shots of Jif she gives it.  Soon she hitches up with a man who says his sister went missing in the very same house that Margaret is staying in.  On top of this bizarre activity there is the mysterious figure in red who likes to beat young women...

A sort of mystery horror thriller with hints of surrealism and possibly the supernatural, The Girl in Room 2A (directed by William Rose) is one of the underrated Italian (co-produced with the US) mystery chillers of the seventies.  The film is very much helped by the presence of its fetching leading lady, Daniela Giordano as Margaret - she also showed up in the Paul Naschy film Inquisition three years later (which you can at present pick up on Blu-ray courtesy of Mondo Macabro).  The beautifully shot ...Room 2A is certainly quite watchable, and indeed re-watchable even following delivery of its conclusive revelation that might have kept viewers guessing the first time around.

This appeared via Mondo Macabro on DVD many years ago, a fine disc for its time.  I recently picked up the Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray and was able to make a comparison.  Firstly, the VS disc runs the film just over a minute longer - they were able to dig up a couple of extra scenes (dubbed in English only, so if you're watching in Italian the language flips for a short while).  They are inconsequential sequences but certainly not unwelcome.  As they are from an inferior source the quality dips a little on each occasion, but as I say this is only for about a minute or so of the film.  The ratio is improved on the VS - 1.66:1 as opposed to 1.78:1 on the old DVD, providing more image information and most likely the accurate aspect ratio.  Both discs deliver English or Italian language soundtracks, with optional English language subtitles in each case.  There is one interesting difference between the discs here: the English track of the MM DVD features a different score over the opening credits, whereas the VS Blu has the same score for both the English and Italian tracks.  I'm not sure which was intended by the film-makers but they are certainly very different in tone, with the Italian score being oddly more upbeat (I say oddly because it's against a visual backdrop of a woman being tortured and murdered!).

The picture quality is significantly better on the VS Blu, being clearer, brighter and more detailed (aside from having more information as aforementioned).  This is an old mono movie so you don't get too much difference either way - the VS has a higher bitrate DTS-MA English track although, possibly in oversight, only Dolby Digital for the Italian track (there is also a lower bitrate English track).  Subtitles are clearer (and newly translated) on the Blu-ray, inherent to the format.  As far as the extras are concerned, the Blu is again better off.  Both discs contain an 11 minute interview with the lead actress and a trailer.  The DVD does have some digital text based notes to accompany the film, but the Blu has a 17 minute audio essay.  Finally, in terms of the packaging, they are both very different with the VS disc having a choice between two covers (both different to the DVD - see top picture).  The VS disc is available as part of the Forgotten Giallo boxed set volume 2, with two releases - one is a proper boxed set (three films in LE packaging, pictured above) whereas the standard edition is more cut down in terms of packaging although containing the same discs.  Regional coding is not an issue, however, you will need NTSC compatible equipment to play the DVD.  Overall the Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome wins out by quite a margin, but the DVD retains a couple of merits.  The film itself is definitely worth owning for collectors of less mainstream horror and cult cinema.