Samuel-Shovel Sacrifice is the story of an American doctor who moves to Wales with her husband. Unable to have children, the couple move back to the husband's homeland, the Shetland Islands, to adopt a child. When attempting to bury a dead horse, our hero discovers a dead body on her property, leading her onto a conspiracy of sacrificial practices dating back centuries. Is this all fairy-tale stuff or can she prove the men on this island continue the tradition to this day?As my title notes, this plot closely resembles the plot of "The Wicker Man": an outsider arrives on an island, begins to investigate mysterious happenings, and gets in trouble for their efforts. But unlike "The Wicker Man", this movie is far less enjoyable.I guess I'll start off with the positives. The setting is beautiful. I can watch those Welsh hills forever and the cliffside footage is stunning to look at. I also enjoyed seeing Rupert Graves in something. I stopped watching "Sherlock" a while back so it was nice to see him pop up. He's... okay in his role. I did enjoy the scene where he bashes that guy's head in with a rock, absolutely brutal!The rest of this though isn't great. The dialogue is extremely clunky; the screenwriters had no idea how to write good exposition. It all feels very forced and rushed. The average movie-goer can see this plot twist coming from a mile away. Within 20 minutes I knew what the remainder of the movie was going to be. The lighting, especially during the climax was horrendous. I couldn't even tell what was going on.And then just a lot of this plot didn't make sense to me. Why move your wife back to Scotland if you know she's in danger of being murdered by your father and his weird cult? Why would that lawyer use his real name when dealing with that family to take their sister and have her pretend to be his wife? Why did that fake computer tell the doctor in the beginning that the baby was positive for cocaine? We never even acknowledge this. There's a lot more that I have problems with but I've wasted enough time on this.I wouldn't recommend this movie. It's not good but it's not bad enough to be enjoyable to watch either. The pacing is slow and there's really nothing noteworthy to see here.

charlesjameison Beautifully shot, a great film to watch on a dark and stormy day at home all cuddled up. It's never super slow either, though from the beginning I prepared myself for some longer more slower parts but that definitely didn't happen. I love this lead actress! I truly believe she is intelligent and a Doctor whereas many actresses who play Doctors do not convince me and then I find myself distracted and unable to focus on the story. I could guess what was going on but I still wanted to keep watching because I was connected to the main characters. Satisfying ending with this film. It is worth the rental for sure. Afterward I felt like I'd been in Scotland/Ireland all weekend.

Khun Kru Mark From the start you know this is going to stink when the lead asks her husband of many years "Your father doesn't know you're a diabetic, does he?", when they are IN HIS HOUSE having dinner! Presumably this didn't seem important enough to talk about before!A nosy American doctor shows up at a remote Scottish island and without delay starts her own full scale murder investigation after she dug up a hole in her garden that uncovers a body! She immediately gets a job at the hospital, too. She must be a helluva doctor!The bloody awful music tries to give an atmosphere of suspense for the entire 90 minutes... even when there's NOTHING HAPPENING!The cult elements are never really explored, apart from a few daubings on walls and bodies... which the cops don't seem to think really matter.Anyone who gets in the way is bumped off and for the cops it's just another day in the office. Happens all the time on these remote islands.Somehow the house on the top of a mountain seems to have been FLOODED! How the bloody hell did that happen?The final 20 minutes play out like the worst episode of a 1990's Ruth Rendell crap-fest.Overall it's just very silly. It is Lifetime TV for people who think that Lifetime TV needs more murders!

BogdanH I'm not really a fan of thriller movies in which legends and cults are used for a plot. Because most are quite predictable and so it is Sacrifice. Thus, after reading a storyline at IMDb, I kinda knew what to expect.I admit, main reason for watching this movie anyway, was Radha Mitchell. I just think, over the years, she's getting better and better. I can't judge her acting, but one is for sure: she leaves a mark in a movie.So, even nothing really surprised me during watching Sacrifice, it got my attention all the time -it's something that makes a good movie in my eyes.Thus, if you like such genre, I recommend seeing this movie. I give it 7 stars.