"Sator" Is Unsettling Folk Horror with Otherworldly Secrets

Described by director Jordan Graham as a “filmmaker’s film,” Sator doesn’t offer an easy narrative, jumping around a timeline at an unhurried pace. The nonlinear structure will test the patience of most horror audiences, and yet the artfully composed cinematography and undercurrent of malevolence draws you in. The lead performance is almost wordless, and the scattering of random characters are introduced without any clear connection and the least possible dialogue. Sator is folk horror, conjuring up those dark things that infest the backwoods at night. Within lies an entity fixated on a family for generations – or perhaps it's all undiagnosed mental illness, since there’s some allusion to breakdowns and trauma. The film’s tone is bleak, bewildering, creepy, and deeply unsettling. The sound design takes on a life of its own, with a constant droning mix of whispers, distant screeching, birds, growls and wails. Sator is defiantly enigmatic, but just one repeated viewing helps unrave