Sator: Movie Review

Given its infamy of being edited, scored, produced and directed by Jordan Graham alone for six to seven years, what Graham accomplishes with "Sator" is no joke. Making a film is hard but doing most of the work while crafting a professional-looking body of work is something we just can't comprehend - and yet we have "Sator" complete in our midst. Unfortunately, "Sator" as a horror film was as slow as its actual creation. It definitely is an acquired taste and one that, we believe, most regular viewers will find too cumbersome, too confusing, and too off-beat.

Secluded in a desolate forest home to little more than the decaying remnants of the past, a broken family is further torn apart by a mysterious death. Adam, guided by a pervasive sense of dread, hunts for answers only to learn that they are not alone as an insidious presence by the name of Sator has been observing his family, subtly influencing all of them for years in an attempt to claim them.

As a purely visceral and atmospheric experience, "Sator" was able to transport us into its extremely desolate and isolated world. Most of the legwork came from its outstanding and fantastic visuals. To think that one-man did all the work, the whole thing was simply astounding to behold. But unfortunately, besides its excellent outer skin, we just couldn't find ourselves being invested with the film's characters and narrative. First off, we struggled to comprehend what was happening on-screen. Most issues came from inaudible dialogue with specific characters failing to properly enunciate their words and having terrible transitions from scene to scene. Jordan Graham also used different aspect ratios and black-and-white scenes that just didn't make sense or at least we couldn't understand a pattern to these shifts. In fact, we're ready to admit that we found the film incomprehensible with us having a vague idea what the whole thing was about. As for its horror, it was a very slow burn culminating into one climactic scene that wasn't really worth the wait. While there was potential in its premise, "Sator" was severely limited by being simply a one-man show. Jordan Graham showed a lot of potential especially with his keen eye to produce amazing cinematography and while we didn't really love "Sator", we're pretty excited what he has in store if he ever gets a chance to work with a full team in the future.

Rating: 2 reels

Why you should watch it:
- the visuals and camera work were outstanding and simply stellar 

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- very slow and incomprehensible