'Consecration' Review: A Strong Horror Premise That Fails to Live up to its Potential
- Shauna Bushe
- Jun 2
- 3 min read
By Shauna Bushe - June 2, 2025
“My brother always believed I had a guardian angel, I used to believe in nothing. Now? I’m not so sure.”
A mysterious voice over talks to us, just as a nun comes into focus with a gun in hand, pointing toward the camera. Now, if only Consecration carried on and felt as stirring as this opening sequence, instead it falls into the repetitive tropes and feels dull fully uninspired.
What is 'Consecration' About?
Grace (Jenna Malone) is a woman of science, who works as an eye doctor and relatively keeps to herself. Her life suddenly and irrevocably flips upside down when she receives a phone call about her brothers’ apparent murder/suicide. Grace refuses to believe her brother would be capable of such actions and decides to travel to Scotland in hopes of uncovering the actual truth. Once she arrives, she’s met with a cold welcome from the nuns, although her distrust in the convent doesn’t make it easier. Nonetheless, Grace finds aid in DCI Harris (Thoren Ferguson) and Father Romero (Danny Huston). The further into her visit, as well as her search, Grace unearths not just the truth about her brother but realizes the convent may be key to unsealing the disturbing secret of who she really is.
Grace (Jenna Malone) brings a headstrong performance at first, but that soon withers. Her refusal to buy into the church’s explanation over her brother’s death and her directness in questioning authority has you rooting for her, but even her commending performance isn’t enough to salvage this film from blandness.
Supporting her is Father Romero (Danny Huston) who’s sole purpose is clearly just to direct Grace. He appears kind, trustworthy, expressing great history about the church, but his true intentions soon show as the master manipulator after all. As well as Mother Superior (Janet Suzman) a nun who chants and babbles about possession, causing fear amongst her nuns and uses her time to meddle in police business.
Neither of the main or supporting cast help the plot move along, instead they either fill the screen with poor conversations, such as towards the end of the second act we see Father Romero and Mother Superior having a heated discussion about Grace and how the “visions have started, and her powers are getting stronger” but in no way does the film elaborate or we’re tormented by disturbing imagery during certain flashback sequences and followed with awkward appearances from nuns who at times don’t even have any dialogue other than peek a boo? Scraps of unexplained information and choppy editing only puts its audiences in further disarray, rather than giving them something to engage with.
British director Christopher Smith (Creep) delivers a tireless amount of puzzling red herrings. Focusing on misleading clues, such as the journal which is found in her brother’s belongings. Obscure commentary which creates distortion during the viewing experience, making it difficult to follow along with the erratic events. Additionally jarring you with visceral images of nuns jumping off cliffs, ghostly apparitions and furthermore with its inconsistent jumps through time.
Consecration takes far too long in revealing any of its most interesting aspects, you endure insufferable characterizations, absent plot points and random flashbacks that were essentially futile and gave no answers. Be that as it may, not relying on jump scares and trying to replicate Creep's persistent undertone of trepidation, gives the film a pulling curiosity but disappointingly it falls flat, as there is no pay off in the end and the constant red herrings prove too distracting.
Even with its noticeable flaws Consecration is consumed with stunning visuals of Scotland, gloomy skies, green moss-covered land, beautifully detailed cliff edges, mountain tops and even the architecture found on the convent is gorgeous to look at. The camera work is also pleasant, using dioptor shots occasionally, allowing the camera to home in on two separate planes within the same frame, allowing the viewer to feel more of the scene and creating the illusion of deep focus. One of these shots is right at the very beginning and gracefully put into effect.
Is 'Consecration' Worth Watching?
To wrap it up, Christopher Smith and Laurie Cook took an initially really strong script with a really cool fallen angel premise, but it was put through a shredder, scattered across his garden with a leaf blower and frantically reassembled into something semi-coherent. Ultimately, Consecration leaves a lot to be desired.
'Consecration' releases on digital platforms June 16
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