Darkness

Two women get pregent at the same time. Problem is both of them are virgins. One will give birth to the child of God. The other one will give birth to the child of Satan. A made for TV movie that is exactly like every other TV movie. It's dull, bland and of course features a familiar face or two in the cast. It isn't really all that bad, but it isn't much of anything either. Pity.

Rated PG-13; Violence.

This movie is about the apocolyptic birth of two babies to two virgins. Very big on religious themes. It's far from a great movie, but it is based on the book VIRGIN by James Patterson. I had read the book years ago, so had more of an interest in seeing the movie. It follows what I remember fairly accurately. This movie can be considered "horror" because of the sinister aspects of the visions and occurrences that the girls experience.

CHILD OF DARKNESS, CHILD OF LIGHT has an intriguing title but turns out to be a completely pointless TV movie that readily copies the likes of THE OMEN alongside ROSEMARY'S BABY. The storyline sees a priest investigating a prophecy which tells of two births: one child will be good, one evil, and he has to figure out which is which.

The movie plays out low-key for the most part, at least until the very silly ending, and this makes it a real bore to sit through. The problem with religious-themed films is that the characters are often boring and that's the case with the protagonists here. It says something that TV veteran Sela Ward (THE STEPFATHER) ends up playing the most interesting person in it, and that's hardly saying much.

There is the potential for interest here and there, with allusions to Biblical plagues and the like, but sadly these are kept off-screen for the most part in favour of the dullish detective story. Perhaps better actors would have improved this, but I doubt it; some nice location shots are all you're going to find here. Otherwise, it's completely underwhelming.

I like this movie because it didn't need to be anything more than the story it was trying to tell. It has it's suspense and a plot twist at the end and the stars do their job adequately well. Personally, I like Sela Ward. She's pretty and looks good out of her nun's habit. Bottom line, when you have something of value... trust no one.

You'll only find this dull and bland if you think this is going to be like the Omen or the Exorcist. Not a bloated vehicle for overblown special effects and 'the world will end by midnight' mumbo-jumbo. I see one viewer was even FORCED to watch this, so he could share his comments with us. The poor poor thing.

Actually, the movie is neither horror nor Sci-Fi. With a very strong Christian religious theme, this movie delivers minimal content and no suspense. Second-tier actors do half-decent jobs of reading their boring roles. The only good performance is by Sydney Penny who plays a role of a mother of ... I won't spoil the movie, it's either Christ or Anti-Christ. Avoid watching this movie unless you a Christian religious fanatic obsessed with apocalypse.

Being a non-Christian, I had to force myself to watch this movie just because I wanted to write this review. It's a pity that Sci-Fi channel had to air this movie at the peak evening time.