Blu-ray Review: Desecration (1999)

Bobby (Danny Lopes) loses his mother while still an infant; an event which scrambles his eggs and leaves him off-kilter six ways to Sunday Bloody Sunday! Naturally he ends up inadvertently putting the murder on a nun via remote control airplane (as one does) which has the result of unleashing a supernatural hell upon the Catholic School, not to mention his devout Grandmother (played to the hilt by Irma St. Paule) he attends resulting in a nun sliced to ribbons by flying scissors, folks dropping into holes in the Earth that seemingly lead to hell, children’s toys falling from the ceiling, holy sisters becoming rather unholy…and then shit gets really, really weird! Will Bobby be able to survive this arcane assault, or will he become Hell’s newest poster child (and just what part does his dearly departed mother play in the supernatural scheme)?!!
Directed with more atmospherics and fever dream imagery then one would deem humanly possible, writer/director/composer Dante Tomaselli pretty much depicts the perfect representation of a nightmare caught on film with Desecration. While there is a strong narrative element, this is the type of fright flick your’s cruelly adores; one that plays with it’s own set of rules and where reality is just a mere suggestion as the truly psychotronic takes complete control. As with all of Tomaselli’s oeuvre there is a biographical aspect at play, especially in regards to the repression inherent in a Catholic upbringing and the psychological toll that can take on someone. This adds a sense of gravitas among the ghoulish goings-on and creates a delicious dichotomy that adds a lot to the overall experience.
While the film may be nightmare fuel, the extras included on the Code Red Blu-ray release are more akin to a dream! First up we get the film with Tomaselli’s haunting ambient album Witches playing throughout. This serves as an alternate score to the film (removing all dialog) and syncs up perfectly to the horror on screen. Following that we get a fascinating commentary by Tomaselli that provides a fascinating insight into the film’s production and his creative process. Next comes the film’s trailer, the short film on which the feature was based, a still gallery, a featurette which offers more biographical detail on Tomaselli and an overview of his career, and an introduction to a horror fest from Dante himself.
If you dig on pictures such as Argento’s Suspiria or Mattei’s The Other Hell, then Desecration will be right in your wicked wheelhouse; it’s hallucinogenic, disturbing, and one hell of a nightmare ride!