I wasn’t much of a horror fan up until a few years ago. Then films such as Cabin in the Woods, It, Get Out and A Quiet Place drew me in and now I can stomach a few jump scares and splash of blood.

Which is good, because Sacrilege delivers on both of those aspects.

The film centres on four young women played by Emily Wyatt, Tamaryn Payne, Naomi Willow and Sian Abrahams who decide to spend the weekend at a house in the middle of the Forest of Dean.

Trouble ensues when they join in a pagan ritual to bring a bountiful harvest. But it turns out they’re the sacrifice.

It’s very Cabin in the Woods meets Final Destination and it works surprisingly well.

This is the company’s very first feature film and it does feel a bit stilted at the start.

These are four relatively new actors but they do settle into the roles and you soon forget that you’re watching an independent horror movie.

The plot does feel a little generic at times but the writer, David Creed, has said that he builds his work based on the relationships between characters rather than anything else.

You can see there has been thought put in to how these characters interact and react to each other.

And you can see that they all do care for each other, which adds an additional element of empathy to the film that you don’t often get in a generic horror movie.

In some films you might find one character annoying and you might wish to see their demise sooner rather than later, but in this you don’t.

At the start of the film I genuinely hoped that all of the characters survived and that it would be a happy ending. But of course that doesn’t happen.

The main antagonist is a goddess which is presented as a wooden figure with a deer skull as a head. In order for the ritual to be completed, each of our protagonists have to put their biggest fears into the fire.

Surprise surprise, these fears are what comes after them the following day. The fears themselves aren’t too scary although a couple are genuinely creepy.

If I have one main criticism of the movie it is the ending. I won’t spoil who makes it to the credits and who doesn’t, but it does feel a bit abrupt.

I would have liked to have seen more. I would have liked to have seen some kind of satisfactory ending for the pagan cult that began this ritual rather than just leaving them out in the wild.

But you could argue that that only adds to the horror. That this group of people are still out there and that they will continue to torment people for as long as possible.

Considering this is the very first feature film from this production company I really can’t have many complaints.

It’s a solid horror flick with enough to satisfy everyone even if it does leave a little to be desired.

The film is currently only being shown in 43 Cineworld cinemas in the UK and being screened at Regent Circus in Swindon town centre at 9.10pm tonight.

Connor Mountford