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.
There’s a nostalgic, retro quality to “Consecration,” which harkens to the folk horror and Hammer horror roots of British genre traditions. While Grace is waylaid at the convent, there’s even a straight-arrow Scottish police investigator (Thoren Ferguson) on the case, turning it into a tug of war over science, detective work, religious bureaucracy and the psycho-spiritual realm — all in 90 minutes. The result is that the story, heavy on flashback, premonition and other random visions, becomes overstuffed and doesn’t make much sense, despite a somewhat concerted effort to explain it all.
It’s a shame, because the action at the convent is delightfully bonkers, from an unhinged performance by Eilidh Fisher as the creepy, childlike Sister Meg, to the dazzling gothic horror cinematography by Rob Hart and Shaun Mone, who fill their compositions with fog and light and split diopter shots. Hart and Mone send the camera hurtling up and down corridors, and capture the verdant coastal Scottish landscape with the distinctive white habits of the nuns upon it. They experiment with tricky shots that take us through the looking glass with Grace, illustrating right away that things are not what they seem, but not necessarily in the way that we might expect.
Despite its title, “Consecration” is more concerned with vision than ritual, and our detours into Grace’s memories are ultimately a distraction from the otherwise compelling setting, characters and narrative in the present. Had it remained rooted in place, the schlocky B-movie pleasures could have flourished. Instead, they are hampered by Grace’s inner excesses, a jumble of symbols, provocative images and mixed messaging that detract from the story at hand.
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‘CONSECRATION’
2 stars (out of 4)
Rated: R (for bloody violent content and some language)
Running time: 1:30
How to watch: In theaters Friday
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