Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson July 29, 2017

A US/Ireland/German co-production, Sacrifice (2016) is based on English writer Sharon (aka S. J.) Bolton's eponymous debut novel (published 2008), which is about woman's inquiry into a centuries-old cult in the northeast of Scotland. Dr. Tora Hamilton (Radha Mitchell) has been working as an obstetrician in Manhattan where she and her husband, Duncan Guthrie (Rupert Graves), reside but following Tora's fourth miscarriage, the couple moves to Duncan's native Unst where they hope to adopt a young child. A law in the UK dictates that there's a firm twelve-month waiting period so Tora and Duncan take refuge in a cottage off the picturesque Shetland Islands for a year-long stay. All of the arrangements have been made and things seem to be going as planned. The paperwork for adoption has been filed with the lawyer Stephen Gair (Declan Conlon), who has a fairly important role later in the story. Richard Guthrie (David Robb), Duncan's father, has helped to get Tora a job in OBJWN at a local hospital. Duncan apparently works as a construction worker in one of the region's quarries. Richard and his wife, Elspeth (Deirdre Monaghan), wine and dine Tora and Duncan at their Victorian home. But one day Tora is startled to find her horse dead. When she digs deep into the peat with a backhoe, she unearths the remains of a woman who has been deceased for who knows how long. The area to the poor lady's breastbone has been fissured and her heart missing. There is also a mysterious runic symbol branded on her skin. Tora has seen similar runes carved into stones on the hills and also on her basement walls so she decides to sleuth their origins and, in effect, becomes her own detective.

Tora does some research on runic alphabets and uncovers the Kumal Trows. According to this local legend, a superhuman man mated with an ordinary woman but required the sacrifice of that woman by tearing her heart out nine days after she gave birth. No one believes Tora's theory, including the laid-back Detective Inspector Andy McKie (Ian McElhinney). His colleague, the trustworthy Detective Sergeant Dana Tulloch (Joanna Crawford), is also initially skeptical that the ancient Shetland Rite, a secret society, is still active in the present. However, Tora shows Dana dental and other medical records, convincing her to investigate the case further. The two gather evidence showing that an epidemic of ovarian cancer deaths among women in the village has existed for many years. Sacrifice demonstrates that the Shetland Islands and its surrounding environ have historically (and unsurprisingly) been ruled by males with women overwhelmingly part of the minority. Indeed, an edict within the Kumal Trows stipulates that sons are the only kin considered for adoption so they can become the exclusive heirs to this underground cult.

Duncan and Tora hope to finally get their first child.

At ninety-one minutes, Sacrifice's compact narrative follows but also condenses the 379 pages of Bolton's novel into mini-episodes, short vignettes, and chases. The screenplay and resultant adaptation by British filmmaker Peter A. Dowling (director of Stag Night and co-writer of Flightplan) relies heavily on clues to move the plot along but it hits an impasse at the midway point when there is a semi-big reveal, which doesn't necessarily implicate specific characters but points to a coordinated medical conspiracy. Thus, the pacing and the climax suffer in the second half. The story doesn't explore the full background and context of the cult with sufficient depth. Additionally, Mr. Grey (Liam Carney) is cryptically introduced at a later stage and while a back story isn't needed to establish which side he's on, he seems relevant to the grander scheme of things to be relegated as a tertiary character.

Sacrifice is generally well shot but Dowling and his cinematographer, David Grennan, struggle to pinpoint specific style(s) that can appropriately accommodate the film all the way through. For example, they employ the split-focus diopter lens in an office scene involving Tora and D.I. McKie (see Screenshot #s 17 and 18) to visualize that Tora is working clandestinely behind the scenes and McKie may be concerned about what she uncovers in the case. But Dowling and Grennan don't develop this shooting pattern or do something with it in the larger narrative. Sacrifice is often quaint and beautiful to look at but it's mostly at the expense of conventional filmmaking.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Sacrifice comes to US Blu-ray courtesy of Shout! Factory as a BD/DVD combo on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-25. The main feature carries an average bitrate of 25981 kbps, with the disc clocking in at 32.16 Mbps. Dowling's second directed movie is presented in the aspect ratio of 2.40:1, which approximates its original theatrical exhibition. Filmed in Counties Dublin and Wicklow, the outdoor photography of Sacrifice looks splendid with picture-postcard and magic hour shots. Interior scenes can vary. Shout has boosted some a shade brighter (e.g., see #7). The greenery in the Guthrie nursery looks vibrant. Skin tones come out with a natural tone and sometimes are pale. There are patches of noise in a few spots, most obtrusively in #20. Finally, I spotted ringing in the same scene, along the dark blue sky (#19).

Shout has provided a dozen chapter selections.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout has supplied both DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 Surround (2513 kbps, 24-bit) and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Stereo (1724 kbps, 24-bit) options. The characters speak with British/Irish accents and language was generally clear enough for me to decipher. On the 5.1 mix, there is a nice bass to the track as well as very good depth. Aside from the sounds of wind and car noises, Benedikt Brydern's score receives most of the treatment on the satellite speakers. His music is mainly electronically generated and works best with the piano melody that he seems to associate with Tora and Dana.

The English SDH cover a majority of the dialogue and the bracketed descriptions of f/x are accurate.

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer (2:00, 1080p) - an original theatrical trailer for Sacrifice presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo. In English, not subtitled.

• Previews - three IFC Films/IFC Midnight titles that load after the disc's insertion. They include Tale of Tales (2:06), The Dead Room, and Carnage Park (1:48).

Sacrifice Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was looking forward to seeing Sacrifice mainly due to Rupert Graves headlining the cast but his character has essentially little to due until the final act. The movie belongs to Radha Mitchell, whose character applies her medical expertise to good use. Sacrifice probably plays better on a smaller screen or on a station like PBS than in a multiplex. Dowling's film aspires to say similar things about cults and societal rituals (as well as their effects) as Robin Hardy's The Wicker Man (1973), which represents a benchmark for the genre. Viewers interested in similar material are also advised to check out Hardy's The Wicker Tree (2010) and David Keating's Wake Wood (2009). Some critics have noted that Sacrifice's subplot involving a medical conspiracy echoes Michael Crichton's 1978 film adaptation of Robin Cook's novel, Coma, which my colleague Michael Reuben recommends. Go with a rental of Sacrifice first and if you like the British cast's work enough, you may want to consider a purchase.