Saint Sinner

What a disappointment! A weak, illogical plot loaded with cliches. There is so much psycho-sexual territory to be mined in exploring the mythology of Incubi, but this stinker does nothing more than throw in the towel. Clive Barker has done some good original stuff, but not here, not now.

Judged against the majority of Clive Barker adaptations, this one ranks as one of the better; not as good as 'Lord of Illusions', 'Hellraiser', or 'Midnight Meat Train', but far more enjoyable than the dismal Candyman/Hellraiser sequels, about on par with 'Night Breed', 'Book of Blood', or the original 'Candyman'.

In 1815, a curious monk accidentally unleashes a pair of lethally seductive succubi, who swiftly kill his brother and then flee through time. Wishing to atone for his sins, the monk follows the pair to the 20th century where he must slaw them with a magical dagger. He is arrested after arriving too late to one of their murder scenes and is forced to try to convince a female cop with no religion to believe him.

Produced for the SciFi channel (or now SyFy, how dorky), the movie has some of the problems connected with made for TV flicks; that is a few tacky sets, less-than-stunning visual effects, and some cheesy lines of dialogue.

On the plus side, the film has an excellent color pallet and a good sense of mood lighting. The lead protagonists (the monk and the cop) are a likable pair of heroes and the succubi sisters manage to be both desirable and repulsive in just about equal proportions.

As mentioned, this was intended for cable broadcast, so the movie has to conform to TV standards of content; meaning no nudity or graphic violence. That being said, the film is surprisingly sticky (even without excess blood, there are a couple noteworthy gross-out scenes) and there is a fair amount of sexual content. On a side not, the DVD has a couple of unrated scenes in the special features which contain some nudity for those that absolutely can't do without it.

Imperfect, yet still satisfying; worth a look.

7/10

SAINT SINNER had the potential to be really good, but the final product is only average. There are some good scenes in here, but the screenplay also shows inability to prove it has a brain every now and then. There's enough of the "erotic gore" that Clive Barker is known for to make this "a Clive Barker movie". The film certainly has an intriguing pedigree, and perhaps even a nice premise, but the end result is just not that great.

5 out of 10

(go to www.nixflix.com for a more detailed review of the film)

In 1815, the curious monk Tomas Alcala (Greg Serano) releases two evil female succubi called Munkar (Mary Mara) and Nakir (Rebecca Harrell) from a prison with the shape of a sculptured ball. The demons kill his brother eating his arm and escapes to the Twenty-First Century using a weird device stored in the monastery. Tomas is marked on his hand by a dagger, and the priests understand that, in accordance with God's wish, this would mean that he would be a saint and should travel in time to destroy the succubi, using the dagger as a kind of compass to direct him towards the demons. In the present days, he is helped by detective Rachel Dressler (Gina Ravera), who is grieving the loss of her father and believes on his words. Meanwhile, the two evil demons are feeding themselves of blood of human beings and fighting against Tomas and Rachel. I have just seen this movie on cable television and certainly it is above average. It has a reasonable screenplay and good special effects. The cast is not bad, but something is missing to be a good or excellent movie. Maybe with a better lead actor, and some more fun in the scenes of the two succubi might improve the story. Anyway, I am a great fan of horror movies and I found `Saint Sinner' a worthwhile entertainment, specially considering that it is made for TV. I do not know why most of the present horror movies uses the expression `God's Plan'. As far as I know, the Catholic Church does not have this cliché, but it is used in many stories to designate what God expects from a character or situation. Does God have a plan for the humankind? I find this expression not appropriated, but maybe it is my misunderstanding of language or lack of knowledge of religion. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): `O Santo Pecador' (`The Saint Sinner')

I was shocked to see that this got so low a rating. I really liked this movie. The story is so good, and brings to mind the best work of Clive Barker. I thought this movie has some purposeless violence. However, that does not change the fact that a wonderful story is being told in a way which is far beyond most main-stream horror. 10/10.