Movie Review: ‘Sator’ (2021)

 
 
Jordan Graham’s new supernatural horror Sator is heading towards its release. I got a chance to watch it early and I thought I’d share my thoughts with you.
 
 
In Sator, Graham’s family, including his grandmother, have claimed to have long had contact with a mysterious presence by the name of Sator. After the sudden loss of his mother, Adam has become a recluse and retreats deep into the forest to his family’s cabin. When he’s not hunting, he sits in the dark cabin along with his trusty dog and listens to the tapes of his grandmother talking to Sator while consumed by the trances she frequently falls into.
 
 
Gabriel Nicholson stars as Adam, who is best described as the silent type, hell, he barely says anything at all. I’m sure his lack of lines was meant to make him come across as sort of stoic, but it only makes him feel distant and cold. The other main character is Adam’s brother Pete who you can barely understand a word he says. He’s fresh out of some type of asylum and struggling with mental illness, as is the entire family. All of the characters in the film feel shallow and barely there and there is a serious lack of character development. There was really no reason to care about the characters. And that’s a problem. If you can’t sympathize, identify with, or even like the characters you are watching then there’s no reason to cheer them on. Plus, this guy is basically begging for Sator to come, so he pretty much deserves whatever he gets.
 
 
Another thing that bugs me is about the film’s main villain, Sator. We actually learn very little about it/him, where it came from, or why people are willing to serve it. And why is it involved with this family in particular?
 
 
The film is partially depicted with great cinematography and a beautiful landscape, but when it comes to some of the scenes involving the family, they are shot in black and white, home camcorder style, which seems like a very strange choice seeing that those scenes are both set in the present day and in the past. Unfortunately when the film transitions between the two styles it breaks the tension that the film desperately needs.
 
 
I will say this, there are some moments of real tension and a jump scare or two. In an attempt to make us feel uneasy there are also moments of strange behavior and sights but mostly they just came across as a bit awkward. The dark imagery was decent though. Movies like this rely on feelings, uneasiness, horror,  etc.., but the only thing the movie really made me feel was worry over the main character’s dog, not the characters.
 
 
The costumes were a nice touch. Covered in skins with masks made from deer skulls, those who serve the mysterious master look like something out of  Native American based mythology.
 
 
Overall, I feel the movie was left lacking and there was a ton of squandered potential. I’ve heard a lot of hype about the film, maybe that set my expectations too high, I don’t know. You can judge it for yourself, who knows, you might love it.  Sator is set to be released on February 9, 2021.