Sacrifice Movie Review

Sacrifice is about Isaac (Ludovic Hughes), who returns to a Norwegian island where his mother fled from when he was a child. He inherited his family’s house there, so he and his very pregnant wife, Emma (Sophie Stevens), decides to sell it before the baby arrives. However, while they are there, they realize there is something sinister afoot with the town, and Isaac descends into madness, leaving Emma to save herself and their unborn child.

Right off the bat, the visuals are stunning. They are colorful and mesmerizing. Especially the opening sequence with all the colorful dye in water (I am assuming that’s how they did it) and the scene with the egg in the dream, where it goes from a weird sequence with an egg that morphs into that same egg being hardboiled for breakfast. It is a really great transition. I wish they would’ve done something like that to the scenes with the tentacles underwater trying to pull Isaac down or grab Emma through the sink, which look so CGI’d, it took me out of the film for those moments when we see them. I get that it’s Lovecraft and you need tentacles but like, try the little bit harder to make them look cool. I have mad love for the Norwegians, who we meet early on in the movie, who basically make fun of Isaac for being American. Which is rightfully deserved. The actors playing the Norwegians have beautiful accents that sound so natural and I wish I could say the same about Barbara Crampton’s accents, but I truly cannot. She is great, I adore her, don’t get me wrong, but her accent is cartoonish and not believable and in some moments, she drops out of it. Thankfully, what she lacks in dialect she makes up for in her acting abilities. Her and Sophie are the actors that keep the movie together, they are strong and confident.

The dialogue could’ve used some work. Phrases like ‘Make it snappy’ when referring to getting food fast or ‘Ground control to Major Tom’ when talking to Isaac about being preoccupied with his thoughts could’ve been cut from the script. That’s just poor writing. No offence. The story itself is not bad, I like a good Lovecraftian tale I didn’t really like how many Cthulhu figures there are throughout the movie, including stuffed animals and what I’m assuming is a Cthulhu chess set. That just felt like spoon feeding your audience and buying props from a comic book store. Also, there are too many dream sequences.

Overall, I was interested to see where Sacrifice went because its location is beautiful and Barbara and Sophie crush it acting wise. But I was let down by this film, sadly. It has everything it needs to make a great Lovecraftian horror film, yet it seems to drop the ball. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t see it. You should definitely take the time to watch it because there is something interesting about it that does keep you from turning it off. Maybe its Barbara Crampton’s gorgeous eyes, I don’t know.