Consecration is the newest horror movie from writer and director Christopher Smith, and it’s certain to be a must-watch for any fan of horror. Set to premiere next month, the movie involves possible foul play when a priest winds up dead at a remote Scottish convent. While the nuns all agree the priest’s death was a suicide, his sister believes otherwise. The consensus among the nuns is the priest jumped from the nearby cliffs himself after “falling into darkness,” while his sister is under the impression that something more heinous occurred at the distant abbey. When she arrives to investigate on her own, she quickly uncovers something even more unsettling than she could have expected.

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Full of creepy nuns and disturbing religious imagery, Consecration strikes an immensely eerie tone and is almost guaranteed to be a film worth watching. If the trailer is any indication, there are likely to be plenty of perfectly timed jump scares as well as genuinely disturbing and bloody scenes. With nuns who appear to be practicing supernatural or occult rituals outside the realm of modern Catholicism, there’s no doubt more is at play than the nuns are allowing anyone to believe. Here’s everything we know about Consecration.

Consecration: The Plot

Classified as a psychological horror movie, Consecration is sure to provide a multitude of unsettling scares that slowly build as the movie unfolds. Following the presumed suicide of her brother, Grace travels to a remote convent in Scotland where he was a priest. After learning more about the events surrounding her brother’s death as well as investigating his body postmortem, Grace becomes distrusting of the official story about her brother’s death. Noting the injuries her brother clearly endured before he fell from the cliffs near the convent, she’s all but convinced someone might have beaten him and then pushed him off the edge, suggesting what happened was nothing short of murder. She quickly utilizes the assistance of Vatican priest Father Romero to help uncover what might have really happened.

At a convent filled with cliffs and windswept beaches in its vicinity, it’s no wonder death and other mysterious things have happened on the grounds. Although despite what the nuns would have her believe, Grace thinks they played a larger role in her brother’s death as well as other nefarious occurrences at the convent. As she digs deeper following her arrival at the monastery, she quickly uncovers murder and sacrilege as well as a disturbing truth about her own past that’s sure to bring certain emotions to the surface for the self-proclaimed atheist. It’s clear more is happening than the audience is meant to be aware of as the story unravels.

Consecration: The Cast

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Directed by Christopher Smith who also co-wrote the movie along with producer Laurie Cook, Consecration has quite a few familiar faces. At the helm of the movie is Jena Malone, who audiences will remember from such films as The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and Antebellum. Malone plays Grace, an atheist surrounded by what she believes to be religious zealots who are hiding something heinous as she attempts to uncover the truth about her brother’s supposed suicide. Steffan Cennydd plays Michael, Grace’s now-deceased brother whose backstory will surely come to the forefront as the movie unfolds.

Danny Huston portrays Father Romero, the priest brought in from the Vatican who assists Grace during her personal investigation of the convent’s most recent death. Viewers will undoubtedly recognize Huston from such movies as Wonder Woman and the upcoming Marlowe as well as HBO’s Succession. As the Vatican priest, he explains he’s meant to ensure transparency regarding the incident, but whether he’s to be trusted himself is debatable. Seemingly on Grace’s side, Romero’s position at the Vatican could cause more harm than good for her.

At the head of the convent is the mother superior played by Janet Suzman, who seems to be hiding darker and potentially supernatural aspects of Catholic life at the abbey. Her total control over the remote Scottish abbey in the middle of a horror film all but scream religious zealot. The rest of the cast of creepy nuns includes Eilidh Fisher as Meg, Jolade Obasola as Matilda, and Alexandra Lewis as Beth. The nuns without names consist of Angela White, Emma Hixson, and Rachael Joanne Brown.

Rounding out the rest of the cast are Ian Pirie, recently seen in The Last Duel, who plays Vincent, and Thoren Ferguson, seen in the STARZ series The Spanish Princess, who portrays DCI Harris.

Release Date

Consecration will be released in select theaters beginning February 10. Then the movie will be released on-demand the following month on March 3.