Most of the promotional material for “Consecration,” the religious gothic horror film directed by Christopher Smith, features an indelible image of star Jena Malone wearing an all-white nun’s habit, soaked in crimson gore from neck to fingers. It’s a striking, curiosity-sparking visual, and a great hook for a film of this genre. But after watching “Consecration,” one can’t shake the feeling that Smith and co-writer Laurie Cook started with the image and worked backward, filling it in with a thin — and yet overly busy — story of terrifying nuns, lost relics, broken families, fallen angels and a young woman who sees too much for her own good.
Smith does have a weapon in Malone, who can sell any performance in any role, and is fully committed to the Catholic camp of “Consecration.” She plays Grace, a young eye doctor who rushes to a remote Scottish convent upon hearing that her brother Michael (Steffan Cennydd), a priest, has died in an apparent murder-suicide that he committed. While he was a man of the cloth, Grace is a woman of science — a phrase that’s almost hurled at her in disgust by the intimidating Mother Superior (Janet Suzman).
Convinced that Michael was murdered, Grace wants to see his body and his things, which elicit far more questions than answers. It also doesn’t help that the nuns at Mount Savior are an exceptionally odd and imposing bunch, aided by a smooth-talking representative of the Vatican, Father Romero (Danny Huston), who scheme behind her back, fussing about a Crusades-era “relic.” Grace is also wracked with bloody visions, hallucinations, premonitions and flashbacks to she and Michael’s violent childhood.
