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Director Dante Tomaselli is a master at painting striking pictures with which we can lose our minds to. His films are often dressed in heavy themes of Catholicism and, due to his own nightmares as a child, are damn impactful with striking visuals and downright spooky occurrences.
From the oddity of not getting a candle to light in a cathedral to the trail to Hell that his work takes, his films are haunting treks into the surreal world, but, as you can surmise from the two examples I gave, the story of this visual artist all begins with the apocalyptical horror of Desecration.
This is a film that, oddly enough, begins with the tragic death of a boy’s mother. Bobby (Danny Lopes) is forever haunted by the sudden passing of his mother. There’s literally no recovery from that loss for this child. And, yeah, he will spend the rest of the movie trying to outrun Hell itself.
We will, too, thanks to the creepy shot that opens the movie. An old woman, Irma St. Paule as Grandma Matilda, is climbing the stairs of her house. A child is screaming from an upstairs room. We will later learn that is Bobby. She opens the door to his bedroom and discovers that his mother has died in the middle of the room. Shocking!
We won’t know why and it won’t matter. The event is staged in an incredibly shocking manner, complete with flashing red and blue lights. Even the shadows fall heavy as Matilda goes from her daughter to her grandson, offering the poor child a little comfort. {googleads}
But the event, as you can imagine, will haunt the poor guy for years to come. He feels cursed and then, one day, a freak accident happens: he accidentally kills a nun (Christie Sandford) with his remote controlled plane. Suddenly, the shadows of nuns are appearing on walls and weird and twisted events are happening to the people he loves and knows . . . beginning with his grandmother who just so happens to finish a puzzle with a haunting wilderness scene on it.
It is true: Bobby IS cursed and there is no escaping his little nature trail straight into the depths of Hell. Always engaging the imagination with a surrealist swagger (yes, such a thing exists), Desecration, the first film Tomaselli ever wrote and directed and produced, arrives on blu-ray thanks to Code Red’s efforts. Doorknobs turn on their own and the ground itself opens up, swallowing Bobby’s friends and his foes . . . because one does not accidentally kill a holy person without enormous repercussions.
“I saw Sean in a hole right here!,” protests Bobby as he tries to convince his teacher of his innocence. Remember what I said, the ground itself opened up to swallow him. But no one is buying what Bobby is selling; the boy is obviously spinning out of control. But when a pair of scissors takes out another nun, cutting through flesh and bone, even the church must take notice of these bizarre occurrences. It can’t JUST be Bobby doing this can it?
With great gore effects and shocking images throughout, Desecration is a low budget horror wonder. It is incredibly powerful in its visuals and the story, brutal and on point, never stumbles in its 88-minutes. Nuns are creepy, okay? And, thanks to Bobby’s haunted history with them, their pull no punches in dragging him down into the depths.
Baptized by fire indeed. If you are looking for a different kind of horror film by a very unique director, then you really should check out Code Red’s release of Desecration. Hallucinations know no bounds here. Hold on tight. God’s vengeance is all consuming . . . even when its victims are caged and in giant-sized diapers being sprinkled with milk from a bottle.
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[tab title="Details"]
MPAA Rating: Unrated,
Runtime: 88 mins
Director: Dante Tomaselli
Writer: Dante Tomaselli
Cast: Irma St. Paule, Christie Sanford, Danny Lopes
Genre: Horror
Tagline: You Will Burn in Hell...
Memorable Movie Quote: "Can priests take Valium?"
Theatrical Distributor:
Official Site:
Release Date:
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: August 7, 2018
Synopsis: Bobby, a 16-year-old loner, has been emotionally damaged by his mother’s early death and a repressive Catholic upbringing. The boy accidentally causes a nun’s death, triggering a chain of supernatural events and violent mayhem that leads Bobby into Hell to confront his mother. Powerful childhood demons are exorcised and unleashed as the gates of Hell open in this gripping, hallucinatory film.
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[tab title="Blu-ray Review"]
Blu-ray Details:
Home Video Distributor: Code Red DVD
Available on Blu-ray - August 7, 2018
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: None
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; single disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A
Framed in a 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the blu-ray debut of Desecration isn’t as crisp as you might be hoping for. Remember this is a low budget movie. It shows. While blacks are consistent, the colors of the flesh range from fait to good as it comes to details. The depth is also missing, but that is also due to the constrains of the budget. There are some pretty fantastic scenes and image popping up about this release. A mono English soundtrack is included.
Supplements:
Commentary:
• Tomaselli provides a very intense commentary. While there are some gaps in what he has to say, there is no doubt that this film still has a powerful effect on him.
Special Features:
Fans get the chance to watch the movie with Tomaselli’s own score, Witches, playing as one bonus. Another is a look at the construction of the torture chamber. The original short film, shot in 1994 and included in the movie, is made available to us, as well as a still gallery, and a theatrical trailer.
- Witches Album: Featuring 13 Tracks
- Building the Torture Chamber Featurette
- Desecration Short Film
- Desecration Still Gallery
- Desecration Trailer
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[tab title="Trailer"]
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[tab title="Art"]
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