- Directed by Michael Peterson
- Written by Tim Cairo
- Stars Mark O’Brien, Jacqueline Byers, Shaun Johnson
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS_GzNfngAg
- Get it: https://amzn.to/4d07Vrg
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is very well made. It’s an exorcism kind of movie, but not a ho-hum one. There are some differences that make it unique and interesting. We both liked it quite a bit, Kevin more so than Brian.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a church in Guadalajara, Mexico. A pair of priests talks to a woman in a wheelchair; they’re doing an exorcism. The demon argues with them about her name, and then the woman kills Father Scott. The other priest, Father Mason Harper, uses Scott’s blood to drive out the demon. Harper reports to the Vatican, and they mention that Father Scott was the sixth exorcist killed today. Something is going on. Credits roll.
In Southern Alberta, Canada, Mason waits for a ride in the empty countryside. He watches his own father jump off the bridge, but he appears to have imagined that. Tania comes to pick him up, and he says the past 24 hours have been strange. Mason’s coming home, where he grew up with all kinds of terrible trauma. She doesn’t believe in anything, and she thinks his exorcisms are psychosomatic cures (she’s a psychiatrist) for lunatics, but he knows better– he’s seen things. They argue, and she leaves.
There’s no alcohol in the house, so Mason walks to the store and buys a bottle. As he leaves, he sees his father in the fog. We flash back to his father, a religious fanatic, nailing Mason’s hands to a board as his father whips him for the parishioners. Yes, Mason escaped from his own father’s cult– and went straight to the Catholic Church. Tania doesn’t see that as an improvement. She says his father wasn’t possesed, he was schizophrenic.
Tania gets a call from the police that a man jumped off the bridge and there was a witness who walked away afterwards. She goes to the hospital, and the man says the dead man landed on the rocks right in front of him. Then the body got better and walked away, it was some kind of terrible miracle. “It means the End has come!”
The police chief, Glen, comes to Mason and says he saw Mason’s father wandering down the highway. “Resurrection’s more your jurisdiction,” Glen says. “They’re looking for us,” says Angus, the father. “If they find us, we all die.” Glen bails out and leaves, he’s done his job, and it’s on Mason now.
Mason has always believed that his father made a deal with a demon many years ago, and maybe this is their opportunity to fix that. Angus admits that all his rituals and congregations were all wrong and that he was tricked.
On the drive back to town, Glen runs into several men on the road who have guns. They’re looking for Angus and shoot Glen full of holes.
Mason calls his boss, but Angus says “That fraud in Rome won’t help us.” Mason wants to do an exorcism on Angus, but Angus says he’s God’s vessel.
We flash back to young Mason and Tania, leading policemen with guns to their father’s compound. The cops shoot Angus several times in the chest.
Tania spots flashlights in the old compound and sneaks in to investigate. The old cult has returned; they capture her. She watches as they execute people.
Angus has a seizure and passes out, so Mason straps him to the bed. “He’s here.” The exorcism begins, and Angus begs him to stop. Mason calls Glen and tells him what’s going on. Glen is dead; it’s the murderer Beau who really answered the phone. Mason calls his boss but is informed that he was killed last night during an exorcism. The people on the phone forbid him from doing another exorcism until they know what’s going on.
Mason watches as screaming bright light pours out of Angus and makes things in the room explode. He goes out and puts on the collar and full uniform. Angus speaks telepathically, “Feel honored that you’ve been chosen for this,” says the old man with the glowing head. Mason turns the cross upside-down, and Angus doesn’t like that at all. This might be an angel, not a demon. No, he claims to be God himself.
The cultists realize that Tania is “a cohort of the Shepherd.” They talk about a prophecy.
Mason has a vision of Lucifer, who wants to talk. He’s been killing exorcists recently. “Humanity is done with God, and God is done with humanity.” When God gives up, all of humanity will be destroyed. He tells Mason that Angus is a vessel for God, and it’s important that Mason not let him out.
Beau breaks in with his goons and holds Mason at gunpoint. Mason escapes and runs out into the night. He goes to the local shop for help, but that’s a bad idea. He gets knocked out. He gets a vision where someone gives him a knife.
Mason wakes up chained in the cultists’ barn, but he does have a knife in his hand. The men nail Mason’s hands to a table, just as his father did. Then Beau whips him, just like the good old days. Mason tells Beau that if they complete the ritual, the world will end, but they’re fine with that. The whipping goes on and on as Mason does a Confession under duress. They cut a cross in his forehead with a razor blade.
Beau and the group force Mason to do the ritual on Angus. He summons God as “a being of flesh and blood.” It’s not an exorcism, not exactly. One of the cultists rushes up to look at God and his head explodes. Then we get a moment right out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” only with less face melting. All the cultists explode into dust.
Angus stands up, and his face shows the universe. “The summoning is complete.” Mason turns his cross upside down and calls upon Lucifer for help. He tries to banish God.
In the other building, Tania escapes. She grabs a gun and shoots God full of holes, but that does nothing. As he’s distracted, Mason stabs him with the knife. Lucifer shows up again and tempts Mason to kill God, but he stabs Lucifer instead. He then used Lucifer’s blood to cast God out, and that does the trick.
Angus apologizes to Mason for everything before dying again. As Mason and Tania walk away, he throws out his collar.
We cut to a hospital, where an orderly rolls a gurney into the morgue. It’s Angus, who’s still twitching…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s a different kind of exorcist movie, where maybe God is the bad guy. The special effects are good. For a long while, we weren’t sure whose side we were supposed to be on, which made it interesting. Even at the end, I’m not sure who was right.
It was well made and looks good. It’s different enough to be interesting, but it’s really just another exorcism film, which tends to bore me quite a lot.
Kevin’s Commentary
This was a breath of fresh air as far as exorcism movies go. I thought everything about it was well put together, and it was different enough to keep my interest. And who were we really supposed to root for? It’s complicated. I liked it a lot without being bored at all.
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