6.6 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Julio is dead. It's terrible news for OVNI Levante, the association of ufology aficionados that he ran. The death hits one its members, José Manuel, particularly hard. Julio and he had a secret project to change human destiny. Now he must carry on alone.
Starring: Llum Arques, Nacho Fernández, Rocío Ibáñez, Joanna ValverdeForeign | 100% |
Drama | 37% |
Sci-Fi | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.59:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Spanish: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Spanish: LPCM 2.0
English, English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Note: There is one potential spoiler early in the following plot summary, though as is discussed, it's actually revealed in the film's own
opening moments.
Despite its title and key art that suggest something potentially supernatural, there's very little that might under normal circumstances
be
termed either "sacred" or "spiritual" in The Sacred Spirit, and in fact despite a prevalence of Egyptian symbology (more about that in a
moment), the actual story really
turns out to feature a somewhat tawdry and perhaps even rote horror plot involving abducted children and organ harvesting. Now that
might
seem like a major spoiler, but as several of the copious supplements on this two disc set make clear, both the kidnapping and harvesting
aspects are raised within seconds of the film's opening, though under somewhat discursive conditions. A very tightly framed shot offers a
little girl named Verónica (Llum Arqués) who, in a preternaturally serious voice, begins a report about child abductions and devil
worshipping
organ harvesters, although the "discussion" is couched in some unabashedly politically incorrect terminology, which perhaps makes Verónica's
comments simultaneously both
somewhat comical and completely disturbing. As Alexandra Heller Nicholas points out in her interesting visual essay included on disc one of this set
(just one of two visual essays about the film on that disc), that tight framing continues when the next student, who is considerably taller
than Verónica, steps up to deliver her report, which means that the top of the little girl's head, and specifically her eyes, are out of the
frame. It's subliminally unsettling, but already writer and director Chema García Ibarra is toying with audience expectations, both with regard to
story
but also with regard to structural elements like what is seen (or not seen). And in fact "seeing" in its various connotations is a recurrent
element in this odd, discomfiting tale.
The Sacred Spirit is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.59:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains only pretty generic verbiage about the transfer:
The Sacred Spirit is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.78:1 [sic] with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio sound. The High Definition master was supplied by Heretic.Despite the discrepancy between the "advertised" aspect ratio and what's on the disc, there are no framing issues that I noticed, and it's perhaps salient to note that the IMDb lists the film's original aspect ratio as 1.60:1. Ibarra shot this on 16mm, and it has a suitably gritty, lo-fi ambience that fits well with the increasingly sordid aspects of the plot. In terms of palette suffusion and fine detail levels, there's probably no arguing that the most brightly lit outdoor material fares the best, and in fact some of the sun drenched material offers a really robust accounting of primaries in particular and some impressive and consistent detail levels. Things can falter a bit in some of the more dimly lit material, both exterior and interior, and a few interior scenes in particular have a kind of slightly sickly yellow-green tinge that can give flesh tones a somewhat odd appearance. The presentation looks nicely organic throughout, and for a "vintage" artifact from days of yore, I refer you to the charming hair stuck in the gate on the bottom left of the frame in screenshot 19.
The Sacred Spirit features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 audio options in the original Spanish (a drop or two of English sneaks in surreptitiously). The sound design here is occasionally rather nicely layered, and some of the surging cues which are (for want of a better term) a little "farty" sounding offer good dynamic range and immersion. Ambient environmental sounds are also well placed in the side and rear channels in some of the exterior scenes in particular. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
Disc One
- Cinematographer and Production (HD; 2:28)
- Director (HD; 2:33)
- Production Design (HD; 2:16)
- Cast (HD; 2:25)
- Episode 1 (HD; 1:40)
- Episode 2 (HD; 2:50)
- Episode 3 (HD; 1:40)
- Episode 4 (HD; 1:51)
- Episode 5 (HD; 1:28)
- Episode 6 (HD; 1:22)
- Grandma (HD; 00:15)
- Andrea (HD; 00:18)
- Jose Manuel (HD; 00:08)
- Mum (HD; 00:15)
- The Bad (HD; 00:15)
- Raul (HD; 00:19)
- Lady (HD; 00:19)
- UFO (HD; 00:18)
- Raul Navarro (HD; 00:18)
- Advert: Miguel Porras - Consultancy and Legal Services (HD; 00:35)
- News: Shoemakers Demonstration (HD; 1:47)
- News: Explosion (HD; 1:02)
- Magazine: Easter Special (HD; 3:21)
As I've mentioned (confessed?) in some reviews of other films featuring at least tangential connections to the occult, part of my misspent youth was involved in some pretty deep dives into the work of Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats, in anticipation of writing a Masters Thesis about their wives, each of whom supposedly engaged in "automatic writing", a thesis which due to the vagaries of making a living never quite got completed. However, anyone who has ever spent much time with Crowley's output in particular will know how important Egyptian mythology was to him, and in fact there are whole nooks and crannies of Thelema (Crowley's supposed "religion") devoted to the interactions between Osiris, Horus and Isis. I kind of wished Ibarra had exploited some of this pre-existing (if admittedly occult in more than one sense of the word) material rather than "reinventing" the Eye of Horus for his own uses, and subverting things considerably in the process. That said, Ibarra frankly probably could have used any symbol that a cult has glommed on to, and the underlying context of belief and "seeing" is what really drives this film. The Sacred Spirit is very odd, and I'm frankly not sure it really totally holds together, but it's incredibly disturbing and in its own way unforgettable. Technical merits are solid and as usual Arrow has provided a really sumptuous array of supplements. Recommended.
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