TI West's "The Sacrament" is a disturbingly accurate recreation of the Jonestown Massacre, the names and certain aspects of the event may have been altered but everything else is literally like watching the actual mass suicide take place.
There's a big debate to be had if events like this should be dramatised and I'm not entirely sure which side I land on, regardless I can absolutely respect the effort that was put into this recreation. It is very difficult to watch at times, especially knowing that the body count shown in the film is a fraction of the number of people who actually died on that day.
I've seen a lot of footage of the massacre and listened to the audio recordings of Jim Jones preaching to his soon to be dead parish after they've drank the cyanide laced grape soda but somehow this film affected me more than the actual recordings and I have to credit it for that. It's very different to hear something than it is to see it. I think TI West's intention was to show the horrific event as it was without glorifying it and I think he did as good a job as can be expected given the context of it being a found footage movie.
The acting is solid all round, particularly from Gene Jones who plays the Jim Jones stand in simply credited as "The Father", he has a commanding, charismatic and unnerving presence. Watching him you get an insight into why Jim Jones did this and what his justifications and reasoning's were behind what happened on that horrific day.
It's not a film I will watch again,
but it is definitely the last word as far as any film could go on the Jonestown Massacre.
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