Main cast: Michael Daniel (Pete), Rachel Johnson (Evie), Aurora Lowe (Deborah), Gabriel Nicholson (Adam), and June Peterson (Nani)
Director: Jordan Graham
As I am watching Sator, my immediate thought is how this one has me thinking of Hereditary: both are movies about someone finding out that their family members aren’t just bat-dung crazy; these people worship a demon so ooh. The only thing is that this movie appears to be made on a budget of a few hundred dollars tops.
Adam is the woods to track down an entity called Sator along with his dog, and this Sator is something that his grandmother Nani says talks to her on a regular basis. Soon he is bumping into people wearing masks and claiming to be worshipers of Sator, and that’s just the start of Adam’s trip down the rabbit hole of the most cray cray kind.
This movie is not something that can be immediately “got” at first viewing, as scenes initially appear to be inserted at random throughout the whole thing. I have to say, though, while this movie is clearly not rolling in money, the cinematography and lighting are top notch, and some of these apparently random scenes are beautifully shot enough to be chilling and darkly beautiful.
If the viewer is inclined to do so, repeated viewing can help them get a better idea of what is happening here. Even then, there are some things that are open to the viewer’s interpretation. Given that June Peterson, the director’s actual grandmother based on some articles that I’ve read, actually made up her lines and some of the lore on the spot while filming her scenes, I’d say that there is no certain answers to be had here.
Thus, people that prefer a more definite closure of an experience after watching a movie may not be fully satisfied with this one.
On my part, I find Sator to be compelling and intriguing enough to worth spending some time to try to figure out what is happening, but… Well, this may not be fair to this movie, but I keep comparing it to Hereditary in many ways (some scenes in one movie seem to mirror those in the other movie) and I’m afraid this movie falls short in comparison. This is a rawer feel to this movie that I appreciate, but the other movie builds up the atmosphere and presents the chills in a more effective manner.
At any rate, while this one isn’t the scariest movie I’ve seen, it has enough intriguing elements to keep me watching. I wonder what Jordan Graham, who basically did everything behind the scenes when it comes to this movie, can come up with if he had more money to work on.
