Consecration: The opening scene features a nun with a big gun. Then we have a flashback to the recent past, Grace (Jena Malone) learns that her brother committed suicide and has murdered a fellow priest. Not believing that her brother would have done this she makes her way to Scotland and visits an isolated Convent run by an strict and odd order of nuns. After a series of faints she ends up first in hospital and then in the Convent itself after being pulled from the sea. She also experiences visions of the past, Medieval Knights disrupting pagan ceremonies, also of nuns committing suicide. All of the nuns are odd, the sanest one has just plucked out one of her eyes as she had seen the Devil. The Mother Superior (Janet Suzman) believes in One God and His Shadow (Satan) a Dualistic view which is shared by the other sisters and by Father Romero (Danny Huston) who is sent by the Vatican to investigate the deaths. There are many twists and turns in this narrative with flashbacks to Grace's youth and the search for a lost relic. A Templar like Order of Knights are also involved. Are we witnessing Angelic or Demonic powers at work? Naturally there are some gory scenes and further killings. A bit of a slow burner but a mystery/horror film which is well worth watching. Directed by Christopher Smith from a script he co-wrote with Laurie Cook, 7/10.

Consecration was a very pleasant surprise: a fine production and cast, on top some story in the line of movies a la The Exorcist or The Medusa Touch (Richard Burton, 1978) and the like. Mostly I watched this one because of Jena Malone and I was not disappointed - her fine performance gives Grace, our by mysteries and death surrounded hero, gestalt, depth. Consecration is for sure no movie for the pure gorehound or for those who want the simple pleasures of a slasher movie served, but rather for those who can enjoy a slowly unfolding plot sugared by some dark atmosphere and fine settings. No doubt, this one is no masterpiece but an entertaining snack for the connoisseurs of previously mentioned movies.

I'm writing this review because those I've recently seen (e.g. On the Roger Ebert site), clearly didn't understand what they were watching and what the actual story was. They WANTED a character drama in the cliched sense, when what they got was a mystic mystery of sorts. If you're patient and attentive, you'll understand it all comes together at the end. This is not one of Smith's best, but it's definitely good. It's also completely devoid of sickening Hollywood trends that have made so much of entertainment into an excuse to bash the viewer in the face with ideology.

Consecration is recommended for serious horror fans.