[Movie Review] THE SACRED SPIRIT - Nightmarish Conjurings

There is something to be said about the scariness of extreme belief systems. No matter what someone believes in, when they take it to the extreme, good things rarely come of it. What does that have to do with a UFO movie? It turns out that even extreme UFO beliefs can cause their own brand of trouble. The film THE SACRED SPIRIT delves into that trouble.

THE SACRED SPIRIT was written and directed by Chema García Ibarra. The film stars Llum Arques, Nacho Fernández, Rocío Ibáñez and Joanna Valverde. In Spain, Jose Manuel is a part of a group of believers that think something is coming, something outer space-related. In secret, Jose Manuel and the group’s leader, Julio, have a secret plan that has already been set into motion. After Julio suddenly dies, all the plans fall into Jose Manuel’s lap to continue on. This is happening after Jose Manuel’s niece, Vanessa, goes missing leaving behind her mother and identical twin sister, Veronica. Curiouser and curiouser.

While that may seem a bit on the vague side, there isn’t much more to be said. The plot is outrageously simple with a fun little twist at the end that left me with eyes like dinner plates. Until that moment, which settles in about the last three minutes, I felt as if I was watching a home movie of someone’s daily life and on a VHS at that. The film has this weird, dreamy pastel quality about it that makes it feel like it was filmed in the 80s. Nacho’s portrayal of Jose Manuel was incredibly mundane but I say that in the best possible way. His character is just some guy that owns a small business and believes he can single-handedly save humanity. You know, your average Joe.

Admittedly, there were large swathes of time where literally nothing happened, and the film got very boring. Yes, it was subtle character building, but there has to be a happy balance between those quiet moments and something, literally anything happening. You spend time, and this is true, watching a man pick up dominos, sweep the floor, a woman shop for fruit and we listen to a LOT of television. The idea of taking a peek into the everyday life of someone with extreme views is a fascinating premise and I am so back and forth on my feelings about this film. Part of me thinks it’s genius and the other part had her eyes glaze over.

Don’t get me wrong. I think THE SACRED SPIRIT deserves a watch, but it’s definitely for a certain audience. There won’t be any intense action sequences and the most intense thing you will see is a woman talking about her extensive culinary training. Even so, there is just something about THE SACRED SPIRIT. You could see the ending coming a mile away and yet you will still be left thinking, “Oh my god, seriously?” But you have to get through an hour and a half of chores first.

You can watch THE SACRED SPIRIT now on VOD via ARROW.