steven-222

Yes, this is a schlocky movie, but...

It rises to Aristotle's definition of art: tragedy which move us to terror and pity. By the end, I found this movie surprisingly and strangely moving. Even haunting.

Unfortunately, the film's ambitious themes are not matched by the filmmakers' and the cast's talent and technical expertise. (Exception: the sound production and original music are first-rate.) This is failed art, but it is not bad art.

Ironically, the one director in the history of cinema who could actually have done justice to this movie is the one director who could never possibly make it: Roman Polanski. What a masterpiece THAT could have been, on many levels.

So what is this "horror" movie REALLY about? The best review I have read here is the one that gives it (a way too generous) 10 stars and is titled, "Is All that We See or Seem but a Dream Within a Dream?" It's truly insightful. Give it a read...after you've watched the movie.

What sucked me in here was the depiction of some very bizarre behavior as experienced from the inside, so that it all seems perfectly normal to the loonies doing it, even when it leads to cold-blooded murder.

The people here are, after all, devout Christians just doing their best to serve Lord Jesus. Even when it leads to adultery, lying, grinding others into the dirt, and, if it pleases Jesus, cold-blooded murder.

You probably have plenty of people just like these in your town. Heck, if you're in a red state, they're probably running your town, burning books, scheming to ruin the lives of perfect strangers, and otherwise staying busy while waiting for Lord Jesus to show up.

Perhaps you even have some of these people in your own family. Or...since the chances are 50-50 in America...maybe YOU are one of them.

Heaven help us.