A glacial pall engulfs the steadily sunless beachfront town of La Boca, but for the five fallen priests who are sentenced to make it their purgatory, it might as well be an all-inclusive stay at Club Med. The quintet is free to drink, gamble, and garden their days away, their only punishment being a promise to sin no more. But a new arrival’s stay is cut short after the graphically detailed curbside taunts of a former victim named Sandokan (Roberto Farías) force the child-rapist to confront his accuser with gun in hand. Instead of firing off a warning shot, the pistol makes an unexpected and suicidal turn towards the priest’s temple. Acting on their suspicions — the deceased didn’t own a gun, nor did he exhibit any outward signs of depression — the Church dispatches Father Garcia (Marcelo Alonso) to act as both investigator and Father confessor. Ashen-faced Alfredo Castro, a staple for director Pablo Larrain, is brilliant as always (is this the first time in four features that he’s been allowed to crack a smile?) but it’s Antonia Zegers’s Sister Mónica — the only hen in the rooster cage, who acts as the terminally sunny “jail-keeper” and knows a good meal ticket when she rides one — who earns top acting honors. Alas, the scattered third half resorts to shock and horror as a means of tying loose threads. The climactic carnage that overruns both man and beast (capped by the on-screen fulfillment of Sandokan’s wildest anal fantasy) nudges this well away from social commentary and in the direction of ineffective gothic horror. (2015) — Scott Marks