Desecration

DESECRATION, frankly, is a mess of a movie. Lots of imagery that was intended to be disturbing, but it falls far short of the mark. Badly acted with hamhanded lighting, clumsy cinematography and poor production design all add up to a very amateurish-looking film. For example, I saw surprised to see the Kodak film logo on the end credits, as I was convinced the movie was shot on video, then given the Film Look process.

Yes, the movie tries to weird you out by presenting "disturbing" images (none of which disturbed me), but since the story was lacking and what little bit there was, was confusing, there is no tension, no suspense, and without those, disturbing images won't cut it. You don't care about these people, and without empathy for your characters, all the disturbing imagery in the world isn't going to make a difference.

This, as with Dante Tomaselli's second film HORROR, would have made perfect 7-minute student films.

"Desecration" is a creepy psychological horror film from Dante Tomaselli; a New Jersey director whose influences include Dario Argento, Mario Bava and Salvador Dali. This film feels hallucinatory in some parts, and it becomes hard to tell what's actually happening or what's fantasy. The plot concerns a boy at a catholic school, who accidentally kills a nun. When his remote control airplane malfunctions, the blade hits the nun. Because of this incident and his long deceased mother, the gates of hell open up. Creepy, bizarre and unexplained things start to happen. Repeated viewings might help as the ending leaves it's viewers confused and in awe. This film is amazing, it shows what you can do on a low budget with creativity and imagination.

The mere fact that this 1999 movie titled "Desecration" was a horror movie that I had not already seen, nor actually ever heard about, was more than sufficient to make me sit down and watch it here in 2025, as I was given the chance to do so. Sure, I harbored no expectations to the movie, as I virtually had no idea what I was in for. So in a sense, I suppose, writer and director Dante Tomaselli had every opportunity to entertain me.

I can't claim to say that the movie's storyline, script and narrative was particularly enthralling or entertaining. It was a best semi-watchable, but hardly so. I have to admit that my attention drifted from the screen as nothing happened for long periods of time, and the movie just looked, felt and sounded like a low budget amateurish home-made project.

Something that worked out in favor of the movie was the fact that I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were actually fair enough.

While I thoroughly enjoy all things horror, I just didn't find much of any enjoyment in this 1999 movie. And thus, it is not a movie that I would recommend horror fans to rush out and get to watch. This is definitely not a movie that will grace my screen a second time.

My rating of writer and director Dante Tomaselli's 1999 movie "Desecration" lands on a generous two out of ten stars.

I've got a particular interest in low budget film making, especially if it deals with "the fantastic", horror or otherwise, so I was looking forward to seeing 'Desecration'. Some of the greatest horror movies of all time have been low budget and shot guerrilla style - 'Carnival Of Souls', 'Night Of The Living Dead', 'The Last House On The Left', 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre', and 'Eraserhead' all immediately spring to mind - and directors like Jess Franco and Coffin Joe have made some amazingly imaginative and original movies on very little money. Low budget film making can be a real acid test for an aspiring director. Unfortunately going by 'Desecration' Dante Tomaselli fails that test. This is just a lousy movie anyway you look at it. Much is made of the "miniscule" budget. I'm sorry but $150,000 is far from miniscule! Robert Rodriguez's brilliant action movie 'El Mariachi' only cost $7,000! Closer to home Darren Aronofsky's 'Pi' was released the year before this and that only cost $60,000. Now 'Pi' isn't technically a horror movie true, but it's much more original and disturbing than 'Desecration', it looks brilliant visually and it features some great acting to boot. So what gives? I haven't seen Tomaselli's subsequent movie 'Horror'. Maybe I'm wrong and he really does have talent and that movie will blow my mind, but honestly, after snoozing through 'Desecration' I'm in no hurry to find out!

Debut film from Dante Tomaselli gives us a nice little campy atmospheric horror film but other than that there's not much to say about this film. It's good, but not great. There are some very creepy standout scenes that stick in your mind for awhile, but there's nothing really special about this film that would make me rave about it. The negative reviews say that Desecration is lousy and very bad well I've seen a lot worse so don't be discouraged out of seeing this film it's still a decent effort by a then rookie director. Horror buffs out there that like hypnotic creepy horror films that make no sense like this should be/will be pleased with the effort. 6/10