MotelX 2025 Review: THE LAST SACRIFICE Has A Few Aces Up Its Sleeve

On Valentine's Day 1945, on a hill in the Cotswolds, England, the 74-year old farmer Charles Walton is found dead. You suspect that a documentary with this premise might be just a true crime doc, but The Last Sacrifice fits more in with the likes of Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched, Room 237 and other film-centric documentaries, as it dares to ask the question: was this murder partly responsible for the folk-horror-boom that brought us The Wicker Man?

It makes a partly convincing case that this murder, and the media frenzy about it, eventually led to some slight references in the genre, including The Wicker Man. But still it oversells the idea that the murder and genre are interconnected. If you don't entirely buy into its premise, like myself, The Last Sacrifice still is a lot of fun, though. This is mostly due to the novel use of archival clips from films that are re-edited to fit a narrative, furthering the idea that the clips from these movies might as well have been based on this true crime. For instance, when telling the story of Charles Walton's day before the murder, and the immediate aftermath, all the accompanying footage is of other films and series, sleekly re-edited to fit the story that the narrator is spinning. Because of its heavy dependence on existing footage, it is really helpful that every clip has been identified in the lower left corner, and as an extra helpful extra, it has been noted if it is a clip out of a documentary or news clip ("Fact") or a genre film feature ("Fiction").

As well as the narrative is told, it kinda flies off the cliff at times, when going too long into tangents about the real life Highgate Vampire and it's influence on Hammer's Dracula A.D.1972, a detour that has only a slight relation to the main narrative. Still, some of these detours are necessary in the case this film is trying to make: that folk horror, and this true crime, both have their roots in quintessential English practices that might have evolved throughout the years. Not going as far as to point the finger at pagans for a perceived ritual sacrifice, it does make the point that the pagan roots of England run deeper than some English people are willing to admit, and that it is precisely the hidden nature of witchcraft and paganism, that might have led to the murder. Because as the makers point out: this might not have been a murder by pagans, but a murder against a pagan.

Either way you look at it, in this true crime there are some pagan elements, even if they are the culprit or the victim. By looking into the nature of the crime, director Rupert Russell also looks deeper into the evolution of witchcraft in England through the past century, from the fear of witches in folk horror, through the popularity of seances and covens in the swinging sixties and seventies, eventually setting on ghost stories of a few centuries old as well. Some of it is mightily far-fetched and veers into the territory of urban legends, while at other times it is truly enlightening with some rare and amazing footage to boot. As a documentary it might be hewing a bit too close to the conspiracy docs on the likes of The History Channel, it is more well made and entertaining than the lot of those.

Director Rupert Russell leaves the best for last: The Last Sacrifice has the most baffling and hilarious mid credits scene I have seen in years. It's one that left the audience guffawing and gasping for air. Without spoiling any of it, it cheekily and convincingly ties the location of the crime to a famed piece of entertainment, in a way that is unexpectedly left-field, hilarious and leads to one of the better ghost stories of one of the interviewees. It really drives home what kind of documentary The Last Sacrifice is: a bit off-kilter, not to be taken entirely seriously, with kernels of truth in it, yet always thoroughly entertaining.