- Directed by Cru Ennis, Lee Roy Kunz
- Written by Cru Ennis, Lee Roy Kunz
- Stars Lee Roy Kunz, Maria Vera Ratti, Alexander Siddig
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7jbLzqz0XM
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one was hit-and-miss. The story was a little on the predictable side. The cast did a great job with it, the direction and visuals were interesting, and the effects were well done. It was a loud movie, using noise for unnecessary jump scares and emphasis. We liked it more than disliked it, but just barely.
Synopsis
We open on a bunch of prisoners on their knees, being executed, one at a time. As the bodies lay there without heads, someone starts peeling their skin off, tattoos and all.
We cut to a convent where one sister snipes at another about her vanity; she has a mirror in her room. She has nightmares about the skin being peeled from the prisoners’ backs. The leader of the executioners smiles at his tattoo collection. She wakes and staggers out of her room, bleeding heavily. Is she possessed?
In Saint Petersburg, Russia, a priest comes into the boss’s office; they want to assign him to do an exorcism on Sister Yulia. The case has been confirmed, but Father Fox just wants to retire from the church and be a father to his coming baby. Cardinal Russo, possibly the next Pope, will be going along– that’s how serious the Vatican is taking the case.
Father Fox goes to the remote, isolated convent on the mountain, and the head nun padlocks the gate shut after letting him inside. He meets Cardinal Russo, who has read his writings and is impressed. Father Saul introduces himself, he’s a creepy man. Nobody knows why Sister Yulia insists on only talking to Fox.
Sister Yulia says she never learned English; she only speaks it for him. She’s very pregnant, and she says it was an immaculate conception. It soon becomes clear that the Mother Superior doesn’t want Yulia talking to him.
Russo has an old book written by some Zoroastrians, but he can’t read it; Fox can. It’s about a virgin birth, twins, and the devil’s son. Yulia is carrying twin boys, and Russo thinks that the prophecy applies to this situation; Fox is skeptical.
Fox follows some footprints and finds Yulia naked and wading into the frozen lake. He sees two dead babies float to the surface– nope, just a dream. He wakes up to find an old woman in his room– jump scare!
Father Saul wants to abort the babies, but Russo says that’s wrong. The babies will bring about the “End of days” if they’re allowed to be born, so it’s not an easy question. The Antichrist and the Messiah are predicted to be born together. Fox overhears this, and he’s got opinions.
Fox walks in on some kind of Black Mass, and Saul attacks him with a knife. Fox and Russo grab Yulia and run for their car. Russo rams the gate, but it’s too solid. Still, they manage to escape on a train to Kiev.
Fox is in and out of consciousness, but Yulia gives birth on the train. The ticket man comes around for their papers, but when he sees the baby, he kills himself– no, that was a dream too. Both babies, Samuel and Jacob, are alive and doing well. Oddly enough, there’s an eclipse that day.
Fox calls his wife Laura to come meet the group. The group goes to Laura’s grandfather’s cabin in the woods. The old man was a prepper before he died, so the cabin is well stocked. Fox and Laura talk about raising children of their own. Russo says the prophecy tells him that Fox will die as a priest but be reborn as a father of twins.
Yulia and Russo love the house, and they’re both happy; Fox senses something is wrong. Meanwhile, Father Saul goes to Laura’s office wanting to know where she is. Fox notices that his stab wound has completely healed. They both go to bed separately, but they also fantasize about each other in their dreams.
Laura shows up at the house; someone at the factory threw blood all over her. She’s booked a flight to Canada for tomorrow morning. In the city, there’s some kind of virus in the water, and they’re blaming her; society is getting weird. Is it a new plague or the end of the world?
Laura and Fox go back to their home in the city to pack their things. Saul had been there earlier and killed their maid, but they don’t see any evidence of that. Laura thinks she sees someone outside.
Back in the cabin, Russo starts hearing voices, “Kill the child.” He sees someone standing outside in the field. Russo goes outside to find the man but steps in a bear trap, and then the wolves eat him.
Laura and Fox go to the factory, where a mob has assembled over whatever’s in the water. The mob is revolting, and one of them shoots Laura in the stomach. She soon dies. As he drives up to the cabin, alone, Saul follows him.
Fox is flagged down on the road by Yulia, and the two go into the woods to look for Russo. They soon find the wolves eating what’s left of him. They take the body back to the cabin and burn it.
While they’re doing that, Saul goes into the cabin and looks at the two babies. He points his gun at one, but something pushes his hand toward the other one. Yulia comes in and interrupts, but he knocks her out quickly. Fox grabs him, and they wrestle, but Saul is really big.
Fox stabs Saul in the one good eye with his cross, and Yulia shoots the bad priest in the back.
Yulia gets a vision, and it shows them the paintings upstairs, which show the whole story up to this point. They say the two of them and the babies are going to be a family. He laughs and gets a vision of Laura, who tells him to kill one of the children.
There’s another eclipse. Fox, now insane, chases Yulia and the babies through the woods. She runs to a police car, but the babies distract the cops until Fox can kill them. He chases Yulia to the edge of a cliff and says he only wants to kill the evil one; she wants to save both. He changes his mind at the last minute, but before he can say anything, Yulia shoots him.
Yulia prays over Fox’s corpse, who wakes up and is all better now. The two of them will raise the two babies.
Commentary
Saul wanted to kill the babies to save the world, but what was up with him in the room sacrificing a goat with the cultists?
There are cheap jump scares here to make us jump, but the people on the screen don’t see anything happening. It’s a very loud movie, unnecessarily so, especially the odd jump scares that are just loud noises. The sets, locations, and music are good. The story, on the other hand, we’ve seen many times before. It should have ended right after they killed Father Saul, but instead, it went on another twenty minutes with Fox being insane