Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Sect Blu-ray Movie Review

Paging Rosemary Woodhouse. Is there a Rosemary Woodhouse in the building?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 23, 2018

It was of course no mere coincidence that Jamie Lee Curtis was a featured performer in Scream Queens, since she was famously branded with that very title due to her now legendary appearances in films like Halloween and Halloween II. Though she’s older than her sister by two years or so, one might cheekily label Jamie Lee’s sibling Kelly Curtis a “scream princess” of sorts, since she made her starring debut (after some featured roles, including one in Trading Places, not so coincidentally featuring her better known little sister) in the Dario Argento co- written and produced The Sect, which was released in some territories as The Devil’s Daughter. That alternate title probably gives one of the film’s central plot conceits away from the get go, as if Rosemary's Baby (to which this film bears more than a passing resemblance) had been titled The Devil’s Son. The film begins in what is somewhat hilariously labeled as “South California” (evidently the difference between nouns and adjectives falling by the wayside), in what is also labeled “1970”, despite the fact that the soundtrack is playing America’s “A Horse With No Name”, which any pop music fan worth their salt will tell didn’t make the airwaves in the United States until 1972. (A similar time shifting error occurred early in the run of Mad Men, where one of the early Bossa Nova classics sung by Astrud Gilberto was misplaced by several years.)

Because it’s “South California” in “1970”, there are hippies having a bacchanal in the desert (evidently the Summer of Love also lasted a bit longer than some might recall), a gathering that is suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a patently Manson like character named Damon (Tomas Arana), a longhaired and bearded “messiah” who wastes no time in quoting the lyric to the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil”. That segue from "A Horse With No Name" might be a bit on the nose considering the carnage that follows, but it at least is accurate from a timeframe standpoint (yes, that’s a joke). Perhaps unsurprisingly, Damon and his acolytes (who are shown just kind of appearing after the fact) slaughter the party goers, with Damon approaching a mysterious figure in a limousine asking when some expected event is finally going to occur.

The film then segues forward a couple of decades and hops to an alternate continent by taking place in Germany where focal character Miriam Kreisl (Kelly Curtis), an expat teacher from America, is introduced. This may cause some viewers to ponder what the whole foregoing sequence had to do with anything, a questioning spirit that will serve audience members well for the entire (probably too lengthy) running time of The Sect, since so much of it seems unhinged and nonsensical. A seemingly random near fatal interaction with an elderly man named Moebius Kelly (Herbert Lom) results in Miriam offering the old guy room and board, but of course the meeting has been anything but random.

While the plot mechanics in The Sect are already getting on the creaky side, director Michele Soavi, an acolyte of Argento, is undeniably stylish in his presentational proclivities, with an emphasis on almost Fellini-esque faces and bizarre framings that keep things deliberately off balance. By the time Moebius is stuffing magical bugs (or something like that) up Miriam’s nostrils as she sleeps, giving her Rosemary-like visions that hint at giving birth, the film is definitely already offering what some may consider a hefty dose of “WTF”.

The Sect pretty much literally goes down the rabbit hole not just due to a surplus of tunnel imagery but also due to an actual magical bunny that plays into the proceedings (I swear I’m not making any of this up). Even that kind of odd element isn’t the best example of just how gonzo the film gets, especially as it wends its way toward its hyperbolic conclusion, but rather than spoil some of the surprises that are in store for the viewer, I’d rather actually comment on some of the less whimsical imagery. Coming along at the tail end of the Italian horror craze, as The Sect did in 1991, one might reasonably expect it to have moved beyond what were then traditional gialli and/or other horror tropes, but what struck me as kind of interesting is what I’d almost call a Clive Barker-esque approach to disturbing visuals, some of which would have been completely at home in any of the Hellraiser films. It’s here that The Sect really does deliver some shocking impact, but as visceral as those scenes are, for some viewers it may be the relatively more subtle unsettling mood that suffuses the rest of the film that will remain after the initial gasps at blood, guts, viscera and (small spoiler alert) face removal have faded.

The Sect Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Sect is presented on Blu-ray by a coalition of Scorpion Releasing and Doppelganger Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The back cover of this release touts a "brand new 2K scan of the original negatives, with over 45 hours of color correction done in America, exclusive to this release." This is by and large a really nice looking transfer, one that does indeed offer a very nicely suffused and accurate looking palette, and some perhaps surprisingly consistent detail and fine detail levels, despite several sequences that are bathed in blue tones or are otherwise fairly dimly lit. (Look, for example, at the downy hair on Curtis' face in screenshot 5, easily visible despite the omnipresent blue and purple tones.) A couple of moments are intentionally hazy looking, including Damon's mirage like entrance early in the film (see screenshot 6), as well as some of Miriam's hallucinations (see screenshot 11), but on the whole, this is a very sharp and appealing looking presentation. The only minor qualm I can see some having is some very brief and transitory clumpiness (see screenshot 19), something that I personally found not all that distracting.

The Sect Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Sect's DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix offers excellent support for the effective score by Pino Donaggio, as well as several well done sound effects, especially in some of the gore and/or hallucination scenes. Unlike many Italian films, I didn't get the sense that the entirety of this piece was post dubbed, and so synch to my eyes looked rather good. Fidelity is fine across the board, with dialogue, effects and score all rendered cleanly and without any discernable problems.

The Sect Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Tomas Arana (1080p; 29:21) finds the actor in good humor and with a couple of funny anecdotes to share as he talks about his collaborations with Soalvi and Argento.


• Interview with Michele Soalvi (1080p; 20:10) is also enjoyable, with the director giving a bit of his personal history in addition to commenting on the film at hand.


• Play Trailers includes a Trailer (480i; 1:35) for The Sect, along with other related films.

The Sect Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some may see my 3.0 score for The Sect and wonder "who pushed a bug up his nose?", but I have to say I actually enjoyed this film quite a bit because of its decided and undeniable weirdness, not in spite of it. It's all largely incoherent (I still am not sure about several salient plot points, despite revisiting some sections of the film), but it hardly matters when the imagery is so imaginative (and occasionally extremely disturbing). It's a little surprising that Kelly Curtis didn't join Jamie Lee in the Scream Queens category, because she's rather effective here, aided by a traditionally outré and spooky Herbert Lom. Technical merits are great for those considering a purchase.