Crampton Watch: Sacrifice (2020)

Watched:  12/29/2025

Format:  Prime

Viewing:  First

Director:  Andy Collier / Tor Mian

There's some interesting stuff in Sacrifice (2020), but it never shakes the feeling it's maybe too-familiar- maybe especially in the wake of Ari Aster's Hereditary and Midsommar, and probably several other scary films where there's a cult involved.  

The film is about a younger couple who come to remote Norway to sell a house the guy, Isaac (Ludovic Hughes), inherited from a father he doesn't remember.  His mother, an American, told him his father found a new family and she returned to America.  His wife, Emma (Sophie Stevens) is very pregnant, and they're here to sell the house Isaac just learned he inherited from his father upon the passing of his mother - and maybe have some money for a nest-egg for raising that baby.

However, the locals start off rude, until they learn who Isaac is, then welcome him like a brother.  And a local constable (Barbara Crampton trying on a Norwegian accent) comes by to ask questions - telling Isaac his father was murdered in the house.  

This is a movie wherein the dude starts deciding he's down with whatever the people in the culty, remote town are offering up, and the wife is clearly trying to clear out.  

It's a pretty good example of what you can do on a budget with a stunning location and the right talent in front of the camera.  But it also seems like the last project by the writing/ directing team, which is maybe too bad.

Vibes are key to this movie, as we're required in a cult horror film to slowly increase the paranoia and tension.  And I think the movie pulls that off better than expected.  The thing where people wake up from nightmares - giving us some spooky scenes - is baked right into the plot.  And it works the first three times, but eventually - it's enough already.  Every interesting scenes can't be a dream, movie.  Which is a shame, because some of that stuff was effective, but there's too much build to each scene to keep pulling the rug out from under us.

I think Hughes and Stevens are both really solid in this, and it's a shame Stevens apparently hung up her acting spurs, because she's got talent.  Crampton as a Norwegian law officer is a choice (she looks like a million bucks) but I think she sells the part - and is clearly there to draw in dorks like me, and that's fine.

The biggest problem is that it never really cuts loose and goes fully nuts.  And after you've seen the end of Midsommar, even the rather extreme ending to this movie doesn't land super hard.  And I think it's a solid ending, tying together all the threads in both a scary and satisfying way - even with a bit of a chuckle there right at the end - credit to Crampton.  But, I mean...  it's just not pushed to 11.

But, yeah, I did want to get in one more Crampton movie before end of the year, so here you go.