Already three weeks into production in Savannah, Georgia, it was puzzling many who would actually be rounding out the cast of “House of the Devil” and “The Innkeepers” helmer Ti West’s latest venture into the horror genre, “The Sacrament.” Perhaps as a Halloween gift of sorts, Worldview Entertainment – who is financing and producing this film along with a whole slate of projects including Eli Roth’s directorial comeback “The Green Inferno”— has announced the cast of the film, and it’s an altogether familiar but enticing one.
It looks as if “V/H/S” actor, filmmaker, and all-around BFF Joe Swanberg will be returning to work in front of the camera for his buddy West, along with genre favorite AJ Bowen (“The Signal,” “House of the Devil”), Amy Seimetz (“Tiny Furniture”), Kentucker Audley (“V/H/S”), and Gene Jones (“No Country for Old Men”). That’s a pretty solid ensemble of genre and indie stars, with Bowen having turned in an onslaught of well-regarded genre performances, Swanberg having done his fair share of genre work in West’s standout “V/H/S” entry (which was arguably the highlight of that wildly uneven spookshow), and Seimitz, who certainly caught our eye in Lena Dunham’s “Tiny Furniture.” You may recognize Gene Jones as the gas station attendant from the infamous coin toss scene in “No Country For Old Men,” and he has the sort of features and character actor make-up to suggest maybe he’ll be tormenting some poor individuals throughout – we’ll have to see.
Of course producer Eli Roth, Worldview, and West himself are all keeping mum on plot specifics, so any speculation on who each will play or what capacity their roles will serve is just that. Roth’s film has already started casting ahead of its November 5th production start, so it’s curious that it took Worldview so long to announce the cast for “Sacrament,” but we’re guessing the build-up to this film will be much like that for West’s own features — a slow burn until the final reveal of this next glimpse into his particular cabinet of terror.
Please let Swanberg's character die before the credits so we won't have to watch him stumble through more of his terrible acting or even worse, his gross nude body- that looks like a bag of glue wrapped around a skeleton with scoliosis – which he loves showing off.