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I do not know if it was an intended spinoff or not, but this film reminded my
of a modernized version of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting Of Hill House book, for
which the subesquent films, The Haunting, were made in the 1960s and 1990s. In
this case, investigators go not to a haunted house in an attempt to prove or
disprove the existance of ghosts, but to an observatory where a series of
signals have been picked up, hinting life in outer space in one form or
another has made contact with Earth. As the movie goes on and the military
intervenes, everyone ends up at everyone's else's throats. It is then
suspected the mysterious signals are not coming from Mars or Planet X, but
from some other source, quite possibly Hell.
Each of the individuals shows a strange effect from the signal. According to
individual weakness, Deborah Odell becomes the embodiment of lust and
temptation, Jefferson Mappin as a walrus-like New Age Minister, becomes absorbed by
gluttony, Stewart Bick is swallowed in greed and so on. Only Judd Nelson seems
to have a clue as to what is really going on, while evil devours the rest of
the party. In the meantime, each of the others falls victim to one of the
Seven Deadly Sins of Catholic lore.
A special note must be made to the performance by Jefferson Mappin as a rambling,
annoying minister. When the signals effect his weak point and he becomes
ravenous in his desire to cosume, he not only cleans out a refrigerator, but
sits on the floor and makes a giant martini drinking straight from a bottle of
gin and mixing it with a large jar of olives. He becomes the embodiment of all
things repulsive. You just want to wipe his face, staple his mouth shut, or hit
him over the head with a setting maul and put him out of his misery.
In spite of Cloud Ten being a Christian film production company and using a
good deal of Jesus Christing, so to speak, in their movies, this piece of work
does not become sappy like some of those old Billy Graham turn-or-burn flicks
from the 1970s. In fact some libraries actually have this movie stocked in the
sci-fi section and not the religious category. In the end, prayer and faith
win out for the good side, as is usually the case in Cloud Ten scripts or
those by similar companies. In the meantime, however, there is ample violence
and even some killing to make it entertaining to nonbelievers as well.
Special note goes also to film composer Gary Koftinoff, for an Ennio Morricone
type soundtrack that does not disappoint. It is a shame that as far as I know,
there has never been a CD released of this score. The opening title is
particularly captivating.
Though not well known outside of Canada, actress Deborah Odell gives a
credible and tempting performance as a major newscaster used to getting her
way due to her looks, who becomes prey to the sin of lust, and shows it quite
convincingly
Then there's Judd Nelson as his usual, droll, sarcastic self, while Lou Gossett
jr steps up to the plate as a particularly annoying military officer who gets his
due to his own particular sin of choice in the end. The others also turn in
credible showings.
If youa re one of the Christians, this is a film for you. If not, it might
still be a film for you anyway, if you can overlook the obligatory religious
message and just view it as a good sci-fi or horror film
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