Pater Noster and the Mission of Light

Man, where do I even begin with Pater Noster and the Mission of Light? This isn't just a movie, it's a fever dream, a time machine made of celluloid catapulting you into the sun-drenched, acid-tinged haze of the '70s-only to drop you straight into the heart of unrelenting terror. It's raw, electric, and brimming with the kind of energy only the underground can conjure.

Max, our guide into this kaleidoscopic nightmare, is your every-kid-stacking vinyls in a dusty shop, looking for nothing more than the next song to stitch her life together. Then she stumbles upon it. The record. A black mirror that sings, pulling her into the grooves of a long-lost world-a commune promising love and light but delivering shadows and sacrifice.

The movie doesn't just tell you a story; it channels it. Shot for the price of a beat-up VW van, every frame feels gritty and raw, like it's been marinated in patchouli and fear. The cult's remnants-those wide-eyed, sunken-cheeked keepers of secrets better left buried-pull you in with their cracked smiles and promises of enlightenment. But you know better. You feel it. There's rot under the flowers, and it's spreading

This isn't a movie for everyone. It's messy, chaotic, and unpolished, like a poem scrawled on a napkin at 3 AM in some dive bar. But if you're the kind of person who gets it-who feels the call of the weird and the wild-it's a revelation.

So, roll the dice, press play, and dive in. Just don't expect to come out the same on the other side. Like the best of the underground, Pater Noster and the Mission of Light doesn't ask for your attention-it demands it, and once it's got you, it won't let go.

Working in a used record store, an eager employee tries to search for a fabled album from a legendary rock band from the 70s that's rumored to be immensely rare and valuable due to a curse surrounding its release, leading the group to their still-running commune that holds a deadly secret.

This was a fantastic genre effort with a lot to enjoy about it. The main feature to enjoy here is one of the more likable storylines in this particular style that has quite a lot to like. The central premise involves the search for the album after coming into contact with the community and how rare their work is so that the eventual stumbling upon them and getting a chance to go visit them on their secret ranch feels entirely earned and worthwhile. The series of secondary features here, from the psychedelic nature of their music that's designed to hook victims into their origin status, the hidden messages within the lyrics helping to expand their base, and the malicious antics in their beliefs, all bring about a vicious and rather chilling streak here following up on the fun first half that involves the search for their history and getting to know the group quite well. It all leads nicely into the incredibly fun series of tortures that are immensely brutal and creative which makes things far more fun than they should. Taking the group to isolated areas of the compound and using a series of tricks to drug them and start torturing everyone to complete a ritual of theirs, this one makes for a great time as the scenes involving the drummer being seduced and taking to their remote room, the friendly one being attacked in the kitchen, and the chase to bring the escaping friends in their bus all getting immensely fun elements added to the torture. With the enhanced psychedelic nature of everything due to the drug use being added to the experience so everything is wrapped in a disorienting haze with echoing voices and trippy visual aesthetics, this being far more than expected becomes a fantastic attribute here as the stellar indie effects and downbeat needing all add a lot to this pone leaving it a highly enjoyable time. There isn't a whole lot to knocking this down but it does have a few minor issues. Among its few drawbacks is the fact that it's so obvious what's going on at the commune that it's not all that surprising what's happening and can quite easily be seen what's coming. Once they get there and realize that the group is far more devious than the hospitality lets on, it's all accomplished in the same means that most other cult films of a similar vintage attempt feature which is the use of splitting them up, drugging them, and performing their rituals on everyone. This does make everything slightly less threatening and intimidating knowing what's going on but it doesn't knock it back that much. Very little of this one is explained or makes sense so it's basically carnage for the sake of carnage as the brief bits about completing a special ritual are all we get here, which are the issues present with this one.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Nudity, and drug use.

I just finished watching Pater Noster and the Mission of Light, and first off let me say thank you Chris for another great film! I would like to recommend this film to any Horror fan that might be interested in watching an insane psychedelic acid trip gone off the deep end. What might happen when a group of friends that are really big on finding and collecting rare records get invited to meet a band that has not been heard from in decades?

If you by chance have had an opportunity to check out Chris Bickel's previous films 2017 The Theta Girl, and Bad Girls 2022 you might have some sort of an idea of what to expect and if not I recommend that you at least give them a look see.

I'm so glad I made the effort to see this one on the big screen--Chris Bickel is a genius at film and music genres and he has studied them his entire life--and it shows in PN and The Mission of Light. A Beautiful classic horror flick! I was worried that it would give me PTSD like some recent horror films but this film was perfect! It was scary but I walked away feeling great!

The storyline: A California-type cult from the 70's strayed from its original purpose and became a Satanic nightmare. A modern-day record store collector is drawn to it but after she and her friends discover the mysterious group, assuming that they're just a friendly family lead by an MIT professor, everything goes south...

I discovered my favorite movie of 2024 streaming on Night Flight. I love how record store culture is portrayed, with complete strangers bonding over obscure music and ending up sharing overnight listening parties. And the gradual descent into a bugfuggen crazy horror movie is masterful, especially given the microbudget and unknown cast. My jaw dropped open so often from watching this movie, I got cottonmouth!

Cult director Christopher Bickel also tosses in a mushroom-soaked soundtrack that tries as hard to make you trip as some of the movie characters, who seem to think nothing of dosing unsuspecting visitors with psychedelics. Highly recommended to fans of Master Of Horror and the original Evil Dead trilogy --