User Reviews

Title: Desecration (1999)

Director: Dante Tomaselli

Cast: Danny Lopes, Christie Sanford, Irma St. Paule, Vincent Lamberti Review: This was Dante Tomasellis first directorial effort. And like many directors on their first film, they either show some promise and go on to become great directors...or they fall flat on their ass and disappear into oblivion. I'm thinking that Tomasellis one of the promising ones.

The story is about a 15 year old kid called Bobby Rullo who is played by Danny Lopes in his first starring role. He is assisting St. Anthonys Catholic School and one day as he is playing with his remote controlled air plane, he kills a nun by accident. Bobby didn't know it, but the nun he killed was an evil nun even in life. And when she was killed by Bobbys remote controlled airplane, she went straight to deepest bowels of hell. Now she wants out, and she intends to use Bobby to do it.

Thats the basic plot of the film. The film does go into surreal dreamlike territory so be ready for a film that doesn't necessarily spell things out for you. Like Bobbys grandmother mentions at one point in the film "its a puzzle!" Though I don't think it was as hard to grasp as some people say.

I'm a big fan of supernatural horror movies and it seems that this is just the type of horror film that Tomaselli is specializing in making. I had already seen his second film HORROR and loved it. It was heavy on its supernatural themes as well, so I dug it lots. So I just knew that I had to see his previous film. I was expecting Desecration to maybe be a little less good since it was his first film, but boy was I wrong. Desecration was fantastic! Let me go on detailing why.

Tomaselli is obviously a very visual director. He is keen to showing striking nightmarish images that will stick in your mind long after you've seen the movie. There's many instances like that in Desecration. The nun who terrorizes Bobby and his grandmother all through out the film is one striking image all on its own. She appears quite a few times in the movie, sometimes faceless, sometimes extremely demonic....she gave me the willies. One particular image of her coming in through the gates of St. Anthonys Catholic school was very very spooky. So be on the look out for that.

There's one moment that has to go down in the horror books for all eternity and its the scene with the flying scissors killing the nun. I freaking loved that scene! Things flying in the air all by themselves give me the hibby jibbies...so these flying scissors really did it for me. There's many more memorable sequences like that all through out the film.

Now, keep in mind that this is in fact a low budget flick (budget was around the vicinity of $150,000) so don't be expecting a big Hollywood film. This is a low budget flick that shows that you don't need kajillions of dollars to make a good flick. In fact I enjoyed Desecration more then any of the crap coming out in theaters recently (Boogyman and Darkness Falls I'm looking at you!) It may have some limitations on money...but not on creativity.

Speaking of creativity, my hats down to Tomaselli for making the score and sound effects so creepy. Like Carpenter, Tomaselli scores his own films. And its pretty obvious he pays much attention to this part of the filmaking process. I loved all the different sound effects all through out the film. The crying babies, the scary maniacal laughter, the wind blowing...just little details that add a whole lot of atmosphere and horror to the proceedings.

The only thing I didn't like was the abrupt ending. It just suddenly ends...and your left feeling like WHAT? Thats it? I guess I really didn't want the movie to finish since I was enjoying it so much, but I guess Tomaselli opted to go with a Argento/Fulci ending, where you are left with a big question mark in your head...clever way to make you think about the movie after its finished now that I think about it.

Also the sequence where the nun gets hit by a plane, in my opinion could have been pulled off slightly better. It didn't feel authentic. In my opinion that sequence was meant to be the first big shock in the film, but it turns out a bit funny instead because it didn't look like thats the way it would have happened in real life. But thats just a minor imperfection in an other wise great film.

I'm a big fan of independent horror cinema. Why? Cause it shows all you really need is imagination, creativity and drive to make something special. And its obvious that Dante Tomaselli has plenty of those traits. Tomaselli demonstrated with Desecration and Horror that he is more then capable of making some damn fine horror films, and I got a feeling that as time goes by and Tomasellis recognition as a horror director grows his films will only get better and better. I'm really looking forward to his newest flick being released soon by Anchor Bay Entertainment called "Satans Playground".

Rating: 4 out of 5

P.S. I really wished that this DVD had a audio commentary with Tomasellis insights on the making of it. Half of the enjoyment of watching HORROR was Tomasellis comments on what went on behind the scenes. Too bad there is no audio commentary on this DVD version of Desecration. Maybe on a future version?

I've read quite a few good reviews on this movie and I just can't understand why. Now I know foreign horror films tend to have some very bad acting. (which this one does)And they pride themselves on being very atmospheric. (one of the few plusses with this movie) But why must they be so damn disjointed. It's like the editting is performed by someone having seizures. The movie is all over the place and totally incoherent. Maybe it's just me but most Italian horror flics seem to have the same problems. They make little sense. I bought this movie on sale and I was still robbed! SPOILER: The model airplane death scene has to be one of the lamest deaths I've ever witnessed! The old lady ought to be put in a home though the son was good for a few chuckles. The only really intense scene was the nun being killed by the scissors. And the ending.... doesn't exist!! What the hell is this movie about??? Terrible movie... avoid at any and all costs!!!

Whereas I usually bemoan so many of the low budget efforts that we come across as of late, a lack of funds doesn't necessarily mean a bad movie when you're blessed with a wealth of intelligence and inspiration. Such is the case with writer and director Dante Tomaselli's 1999 effort Desecration, which began its life as a 1994 short film.

Danny Lopes plays Bobby - he would go on to star in several more films for the creator - a troubled boy who has lost his mother and has been raised by his overly protective and extremely Catholic grandmother. After an accident with a remote control airplane causes a nun's death, Bobby's life becomes a true nightmare, both in waking reality and in dreamlike states that attack the viewer when you are least prepared for their onslaught.

We've interviewed Dante before, whose cousin is director Alfred Sole, the creator of Alice, Sweet Alice. Much like that film - while becoming an original work all its own - the feeling of dread that one may feel inside a house of worship comes home to roost. I can almost smell the sweet odor of incense and hear the clanging chain of the censer as the priest makes the procession to the altar. And I can remember the sheer worry I felt when one elder priest would bark into a crackling microphone, chastising us all for believing that the Communist menace was dead, as late as 1992.

Desecration is the rare film that can make a gold balloon or an outdoor Christmas decoration lighting up more ominous than a hundred jump scare packed big budget Hollywood film. It's terrors feel like they come from a real place, from true nightmares, from worries that you have while kneeling and praying for salvation.

Supernatural horror film about a young boy who's mother dies suddenly on his birthday. Years later a chain of events beginning with the death of a nun spirals him downward into the pit of hell. Mixed bag horror film that is has some really great images and a sense of things being really off that are under cut by a lack of budget (The death by model plane that starts everything is laughable as are some of the other deaths) and performances that aren't all there, with some of the cast seeming to have come from who ever was around that day. Its one of those films that almost works but falls just short so seems more like a missed opportunity then something you actually will want to sit through. To be fair those who don't mind trying films that don't work as a whole in order to see spooky imagery will want to give it ago for the bits that do work.

Low budget art-house horror film that so few people understand, or appreciate. 16 year-old Bobby (Danny Lopes) has only vague memories of his dead mother, a psychotic woman who abused and terrified Bobby as a little boy, by keeping him in a cage and surrounding him with disturbing, unhealthy images of hell. Probably a religious fanatic, she died while Bobby was still very young. 11 years later a mysterious and menacing looking nun appears at the Catholic School Bobby is attending. The nun bears a striking resemblance... to Bobby's dead mother! Of course the withdrawn loner Bobby doesn't realize as he has no clear memory of what she looked like, and when he accidentally kills her with his flying toy airplane, all hell breaks loose: literally! We learn, through a series of bizarre hallucinations, nightmares, and flashbacks that Bobby experiences, that his dead mother had come back as a nun to once again be close to her son. When the accident sends her back to hell, she decides to exact revenge, and use the boy... to escape again, from hell. A chilling tale, executed beautifully by first time director Dante Tomaselli. The acting by all is not always professional, but it is passionate and everyone lends their character life and drama. Irma St. Paul as Bobby's grandmother is wonderful to watch, with her Italian accent and dramatic outbursts, and she looks like she is 100 years old! There is a menacing priest with piercing eyes who thinks nothing of slipping the kids Valium to keep them in line, and for the (much needed) comic relief, we have Donato, the very Italian Uncle who is convinced everyone around him is nuts, until he sees for himself, the ghostly image of the "nun from hell." Featuring some deliriously menacing images of flying scissors, living, creeping plant life, nuns with burnt skin, hellish clowns, and an unforgettable image of the lone nun stepping out of a hearse and motioning to Bobby to come to her, causing him to urinate in his pants! Along with that are some beautiful surreal images of the Gothic Catholic church and school, surrounded by trees and their changing colors of Autumn, windswept forests and nuns wandering around with their habits billowing in the breeze, and one unforgettable scene with the boy waking up outdoors, inside a circle of red roses, while a rainbow lingers in the background. The fact that "Desecration" has only a 2 star rating here shocks me, and I'm a bit saddened by how few people can truly appreciate a real, foreign inspired horror film done in the style of the 70's greats. Have CGI and gore laden throwaway movies like "Devils Rejects" and "Saw 2" destroyed the ability for people to recognize the artistic beauty and intelligence of art-house films like this?

As a toddler Bobby (Lopes) witnessed his mother die in front of him. He is adopted by his Very religious Grandma Matilda (St. Paule) who watches over the strange boy. As a teenager, Bobby rams a gas powered plane into a nun and kills her which triggers a bunch of supernatural events in Bobby's and Matilda's life. This debut feature from Writer/Director Dante Tomaselli is one of the stranger films in some time. Tomaselli leans heavy toward Italian Horror with the film taking on a dreary dream like state for more than half the running time. The plot, like in a lot of Italian horror films goes sideways in favor of scary imagery. But this is New Jersey. It doesn't matter because Tomaselli lets his film unfold like a nightmare does, some of it making sense and some of it visually terrifying. A nun is attacked by an unseen force using a real butcher knife. Faceless nuns prowl the grounds and Bobby keeps falling down into a hole in the middle of a field which Matilda sees in a puzzle she is putting together no less! Through all of this, Tomaselli manages some truly frightening images and scary scenes even if they don't always make sense. The acting is rough at times and Tomaselli makes the strange use of using bright lighting in most of his scenes, even when mood lighting could have helped the effect he was after. Extremely original and scary at times, 'Desecration' isn't anything you have seen before which is welcomed. If Dante Tomaselli can smooth out some of the edges next time he will be a Director to watch in the Horror genre.

I couldn't find one redeeming quality in this pretentious mess. The plot is nonexistent and the acting is atrocious. And then there's the imagery...Yes, clowns can be creepy. Here, they're not. It doesn't make any sense for them to be there; I know it's intended to be surreal, even absurdist, but it comes across as forced, trite, and clichéd. The dead nuns get redundant pretty quickly. And, as a couple other reviewers mentioned, the murderous toy airplane is totally laughable. Personally, I thought the flying scissors were pretty inane as well. I marked this as containing spoilers, but really, what is there to spoil? With no plot and no tension, there's nothing to give away. Don't waste your time on this; it's not even worth satisfying your curiosity. It's just dreck. 0 out of 10 stars.