Directed By: David Flores
Written By: Jeff Coatney, Kevin VanHook
Released: 2008
Grade: B-
Sands of Oblivion is based on the mysteries of the making of Cecil B. DeMille’s epic tale of The Ten Commandments. It actually goes back a little further than that even to ancient Egypt, where chaos was overpowering. The monsters that were plaguing the area were locked up by the burial of an amulet. DeMille and his crew went to great lengths to recreate this atmosphere for the film set in Guadalupe, California. Mysteriously enough though, when filming had rapped up, he demanded that the set be buried. Sands of Oblivion explores why this might be through curses of ancient Egypt transferred in to 21st century California.
John Tevis (Kennedy) was a member of the crew of The Ten Commandments. He was part of the burial nearly 80 years ago and for the past 19 years he has been attempting to recover it. One thing he is specifically looking for is the amulet, which seemed to have the highest importance of all. His grandson, Mark (Webster) is now helping him on this journey. For two years, Mark was away in Iraq fighting the war. Now that he is home, he just wants to completely forget about that life. He engages himself in this search instead and is able to spend time with his grandfather in doing so. When they come to an area, where they think the set may be hidden, someone else apparently thinks this may be the case too. Anthropologist, Dr. Alice Carter (Boccarin), has a team of students helping her try to uncover the same set. She reluctantly gives them permission to dig there, since John appears to be the best hope for having any success.
Miraculously, after all of the years he has spend looking John finally finds the amulet. He doesn’t have much time to rejoice as he is literally sucked in to the sand. Underneath, are the Egyptian monsters who were trapped underground by the amulet. As long as it is free though, they are free to do as they wish. With all of the years they have been secluded, it just gives them more reason to violently lash out on anyone they see. This gives John a “heart attack” and is instantly killed. A side story comes in to play here with Alice’s ex-husband, Jesse (Baldwin). After he is shown cheating on her, he comes to Alice to help with her mission. Soon enough, he discovers that the beasts are coming after them. After all, within in their first two days there, 3 people have died. Although Jesse manages to get away, he is viciously attacked. His face is completely bloody and he complains of severe burns. He tries to warn the others, but there seems to be more evil than good in him now. He tries capturing Alice in fear of Mark and her becoming too close with one another. As they realize the situation they are in more, it becomes up to them to figure out how to beat the beasts while they still can.
The acting was fairly good here, not amazing, but everyone seemed realistic. Although he had a very small part, Dan Castellaneta, did very well as Cecil B. DeMille, the man himself. He was very convincing and left a certain air of mystery, which was necessary with the suggestive actions and motives the film gives him. George Kennedy’s performance stood out quite a bit as well. He was very relaxed and easy going, yet was very passionate and obsessive about his search. In this case there seems to be some advantage to age, as the two stand outs are older characters/actors who are in the film for a much shorter time. They do both convey intellect that is just interesting to watch. Morena Boccarin was able to hold a certain level of likeability as the female lead and had good chemistry with Victor Webster. In most scenes, this isn’t even in any romantic way, just their process of working together worked well.
There is one very important thing you have to remember when watching Sands of Oblivion: it is a sci-fi channel made for TV movie. Many of the sci-fi channel’s films have a reputation for being very cheesy. Sands of Oblivion seems to be far better than most of them. It does require you to suspend a certain amount of belief. There is one scene where the painting on the wall actually comes to life, walks off the wall, and begins chasing and attacking. It is hard not to laugh at this. Luckily, the characters aren’t subjected to this cheesiness, which makes the viewing easier.
In the actual shooting of The Ten Commandments it was reported that 60 people were injured on set. This was from a scene involving chariots, which ended up crashing. However, no one was seriously hurt and there were no deaths on the set. In Sands of Oblivion, it is said that there were many deaths in the form of freak accidents, assuming that the Egyptian monsters were there causing the deaths. It is said that there is no way that the film set was a Hollywood product, but actual Egyptian artifacts to brought to the set. The premise of the film of why The Ten Commadments set was buried is very interesting. Most likely it was either financial or convenience reasons. However, the idea explored of the spirits and representations of objects used in the film works well. Although this probably wasn’t the case for the burial, there is still an engaging idea to explore. Also, the thought that ancient evils may be unleashed in a completely different day and time represents that some things may just be better left alone.
- Kelsey Zukowski
