The Sacrament

In previous chillers, director Ti West has put the wind up audiences with demons (House of the Devil) and spooks (The Innkeepers), but for this slow-burning tale he recalls a real-life atrocity that shook the world in the late 1970s. Joe Swanberg and AJ Bowen play the reporters who visit a remote compound in South America to investigate a spiritual paradise set up by a religious leader known as "Father" (Gene Jones). On the face of it, the inhabitants appear happy and content but after an unnerving interview with the man (his southern drawl dripping with threat and menace), it soon becomes apparent to the journalists that there's more to the place than meets the eye. West's use of the notorious 1978 Jonestown massacre as a template will chill anyone who remembers it, but for those not around then, events here will provide a disturbingly vivid insight into that outrage. Characterisation is pretty perfunctory (though Jones is suitably eerie and charismatic) but the film ticks along at a lick, and remains tense and involving throughout.