Desecration

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother with this one
Review: Man, what a creepy movie. One of the best independent horror movie i have seen in years! Dante Tomaselli did a great job. the film is about a teen, his family, and the catholic church all plagued by ghosts. i thought the most eeriest scenes were the "scissors scene. if you see it you will know what im talking about. and the scene where he is hallucinating. i had to watch it twice to fully understand it. reminds me of alice sweet alice (another excellant horror movie). the acting, direction, photography was top notch not to mention the haunting music.
i read dante tomaselli just released another movie horror. i would like to see it but cannot find it anywhere!
also, this movie will stay in your mind for awhile after watching it so beforewarned.

Rating:
Summary: Creative chiller
Review: Overflowing with weird, hypnotic visuals and Italian Catholic-themed tragedy, it's no wonder that the writer/director of DESECRATION is the cousin of Alfred Sole, creator of ALICE, SWEET ALICE (aka COMMUNION), one of the 70's most offbeat and inventive horror films. Desecration is a stylistic tour-de-force, a nightmarish tale focusing on childhood trauma, ghosts, and religion.

Rating:
Summary: Not that shocking or haunting...
Review: Reading all the hype regarding this low budget horror film, I expected a film 10 times more creepy than the Britain made Woman in Black DVD. (Which was creepy, shocking and wonderful) Instead I watched a horror film that had some really great moments (faceless nuns wondering around...demon clowns teasing and taunting), but some really "ho-hum" moments too. (The toy plane scene was ridiculous as were several scenes that went nowhere.) The acting is mostly atrocious. The good points did not overcome the bad ones so this one gets a big fat "C".

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating hallucinatory horror
Review: Some may call it eye candy. But I believe there's much more going on in Dante Tomaselli's striking debut horror film, Desecration. The movie impressively captures the inexplicable nature of dreams and hallucinations. Weird and often beautiful visions are woven, interchangably, through time. It is a bit like watching an 88-minute poem. Definitely not your typical modern horror film, but who likes those anyway? Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Dreadfully Dull
Review: The biggest mystery is how many people (based on reviews here) seemingly enjoyed this poorly-directed, amateurish film. Trust me - rent this one before you even think about buying it. Better yet, forget about it completely. It's not frightening and it's definitely not comparable to Suspiria just because there's a few (pointless) scenes with red gel on smoke.

Rating:
Summary: Friends don't let friends buy "Desecration"
Review: The writer of a negative film review faces a dilemma: the review itself becomes a perverse source of attraction, like the "warning" beacon in Aliens. The reader smiles over the horrendously bad review, glances at the red blinking lights flashing "STAY AWAY!!!", and thinks "ah, it *can't* be that bad---I'll give it a try."

So let me put this bluntly, and set up a real warning beacon: THIS MOVIE IS GARBAGE. Imagine the worst movie experience you've ever had, and then multiply it by a million, and you've begun to approximate the awfulness that is "Desecration", the first 'cinematic' outing by director Dante Tomaselli. I have seen TV infomercials that have better acting, production values, and offer more entertainment. Yes, "Desecration" is truly *that* bad.

Tomaselli reputedly spent $150,000 making this movie, and I don't doubt it. If that figure is correct, then Tomaselli apparently used $3,500 on the film itself, and the rest to pay off movie reviewers. How else to explain the favorable buzz about this film, reflected in the sympathetic reviews on this site and on others, reviews that compared Tomaselli to Italian horror master Dario Argento. Comparing Tomaselli to Argento is a gross insult to Argento, and a ludicrous, possibly deranged compliment to Tomaselli, the equivalent of comparing
Baywatch hero David Hasselhoff to Lawrence Olivier.

How do I hate "Desecration"? Let me count the ways.

1) The movie looks like it was made by a high school drama class. That's right---if you like looking at the same camera angles 20 times during a scene, if you think that your local high school spook-house make-up is really scary, if you think seeing the same ominous figure in the same position outside the same window for about five minutes is atmospheric----well, then this is the film for you. If not, you'll think about burning it in the first 10 minutes.

2) The acting in the film begins at Atrocious and goes down from there. It's not even bad in the Troma-films sense of "bad"---that is, worth a rent because it's funny/awful. No, think of your aunt and uncle trying to make a horror film, and imagine how they would "act" if they had 3 minutes to prepare.

3) Plot, you say? OK, here goes: Catholic school teenager has strict religious upbringing, grows up with grandmother with hacking cough (it's actually a real cough, and one of the scariest things about the film---scary in that you start wondering how much it would cost to insure actress Irma St. Paulle), and accidentally kills a nun with a motorized toy airplane. Strange things begin to happen at the Catholic school he attends: a faceless nun (actually an actor in a nun outfit with a cheesy $5.00 mask from Rite-Aid) starts walking the grounds; the boy starts seeing the nun he killed wandering about and glaring at him; one nun is killed with some levitating scissors; another is overcome by red smoke. As it turns out, a gateway to Hell has opened in the school, and the boy's mother is trying to get out through her son.

4) Many reviewers make the mistake of highlighting the bizarre deaths in the film, making the plot sound interesting. Again: if you like cheesy informercials shot with no budget and horrible acting, the movie *might* be of some interest. The scene where the model airplane kills the nun is laughable in its incompetence---the actress has obviously smeared some fake blood on the side of her head, and for about a minute holds the fake airplane to her ear. Great. This, by the way, is the high point of the movie.

5) Did I mention the writing and acting is below the level found on most home-movies? The lead actor has obviously been culled from the bottom 5% of some remedial high school PE class; another key character, a young priest, delivers all of his lines (whatever the emotion) all in the same volume and all in monotone, without any inflection. Want some dialogue? Here's a sample, when a nun at the school phones the main character's grandmother to tell her about her grandson killing another nun.

NUN: "It's about Bobby---he's killed a nun here."
GRANDMOTHER: "Oh, it can't be Bobby---he's a good young man. What will happen to him?"
NUN: "Probably nothing."

Or how about this, when Bobby is confronted by the young priest mentioned above.

PRIEST: "Do you know you're failing out of St. Anthony's?"
BOBBY: "But how can that be, I got A's in History and in your class, Psychology?"
PRIEST: "Oh, I dunno, beats me."

At some points Tomaselli even tries for laughs, hoping, evidently, that the movie will wind up on late-night TV or Mystery Science Theater 3K. It doesn't work.

6) There is zero suspense, horror, or even effective splatter in the film; if the bloodletting were even competently done, it might justify sitting through this mess of a film. But even that is ruined, leaving the horror fan to sit in agonized wonder through scene after scene that ups the ante of incompetence, featuring horrible lighting, no suspense, zero special effects, abysmal acting, and even worse dialogue.

If by some misfortune you are given this film as a "present", either burn it or give it to a hated enemy.

Rating:
Summary: Strange,atmospheric,horror experience
Review: This film is strange,atmospheric,sometimes creepy experience.Dont expect films with too much talking about what is going on,but enjoy experience with something from your bad childhood dreams and with deep dark atmosphere.

Rating:
Summary: For Phlegm Lovers Everywhere!
Review: This is like a 90-minute student film - and a bad one at that. The dialog is laughable, the actors are obviously amateurs and the anemic plot is just an excuse for the director to insert some artsy-fartsy imagery or camera angle. These "arty" scenes stick out like a sore thumb in the midst of the dreary stuff in-between. It's all about some teenage boy's mother trying to escape from Hell, but the main character is actually the kid's grandmother. She delivers an atrocious performance, disgustingly coughing up phlegm throughout the entire film to the very last shot!!! Yuck! Not even possessed killer balloons (I kid you not) can do old gramma in! One hilarious highlight is a nun getting hit in the head by a motorized model airplane --- one of the fakest death scenes I've seen in years. Besides that, there's weird faced nuns roaming around, lots of fog machines, some clowns (huh?), light-up Christmas gifts in the woods (huh?), a diapered-teen in a cage, and some very bad make-up. The score and the sound effects are effective, but anything visual is pure amateurism. It's a shame since it's obvious the director was earnest and trying to make something better than average...but it doesn't work. The DVD also has a 3 minute excerpt from the director's original short-film version --- it's way better than anything in the 90-minute feature. Go figure.

Rating:
Summary: For Phlegm Fans Only! Desecration of celluloid!
Review: This is one of the most annoying and amateurish films to hit the direct-to-video (DVD) market in years. From the bad acting, non-existent script, the attempts at artsy-fartsy "style", poorly executed make-up effects and even the use of fake miniatures....this movie looks just like a high-school student's film project...except that it's stretched out to an interminable 88 minutes! It's about some teenage kid whose mother is trying to escape from Hell or whatnot...but there's really no plot to speak of and it's all just an excuse for various set-up shots to show off colored lighting or fog machines. Z-z-z-z-z-. The actual star of the film is not the kid, though, it's his grandmother. The old lady's performance is really quite disgusting and will most likely make any viewer ill since she coughs up phlegm (I'm not kidding!) throughout the entire film up to the very last shot! Yuck! Other "highlights" include an attack by killer balloons (once again, I'm not kidding), the teenager in diapers in a cage, stupid clowns, light-up christmas presents in the woods (huh?) and even an attack by model airplane (one of the worst and most laughably staged scenes in the film). What does all this mean? It means you're wasting 90 minutes of your life, that's what. It's total incompetence all the way and the so-called "stylish" scenes stick out like pretentious sore thumbs in the banal proceedings. The DVD includes a 3 minute segment from the director's original short film (student film? ) which is way more interesting than anything in the laughable 90 minute feature. Go figure!

Rating:
Summary: HOLY TERROR!
Review: This is the creepiest horror film I've seen in a long time. Desecration tells the tale of a boy in trouble. A 16-year-old Catholic boy - who kills - a nun! But he didn't mean it - we think. Actually, Bobby's remote-controlled airplane goes completely haywire. Once his devoutly religious granny finds out, things start really spinning out-of-control...Soon the Gates of Hell open as Bobby is swallowed by guilt and bad dreams. Visions of his long-dead mother, child abuse, clowns, demonic nuns. Genuinely spooky, Dante Tomaselli's Desecration is a real treat for fans of EuroHorror. Don't miss it.