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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
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5
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7 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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A
deranged sniper opens up on a throng of New York City pedestrians,
killing fourteen innocent people for no apparent reason. His
perch surrounded by cops, the sniper is approached by NYPD detective
Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco), who attempts to learn why he's
committed this senseless atrocity.
"God told me to," the smiling, seemingly mild-mannered
killer tells Nicholas before leaping to his death. Was it merely
the suicidal confession of a mentally disturbed individual?
Or could there be something even more sinister behind it? Somehow
Nicholas instinctively senses that there is.
When more slayings occur — all completely random, perpetrated
by supposedly stable people who claim that God told them to
kill — Nicholas becomes obsessed with finding some kind of link
that ties the crimes together. Then he receives a phone call
from an anonymous man warning that a cop will be the
next psycho killer to act on orders from "God". These future
murders are to take place at New York's annual St. Patrick's
Day parade. Despite his fellow detectives' skepticism Nicholas
believes the warning is for real. Sure enough, exactly as the
tipster predicted, a policeman marching in the parade (the late
Andy Kaufman, in his first acting role) draws his service revolver
and begins blasting. He manages to kill a couple of bystanders
and a number of fellow officers before being mortally wounded
himself. The maniac cop's dying words: "God told me to."
God
Told Me To
peels away from the Start Line fueled by a very intriguing premise
but then virtually stalls after the first lap. Writer-director
Larry Cohen's penchant for interesting, well-developed characters
(something certainly not often seen in low budget genre flicks),
played out by a solid cast, serves the film well and kept me
watching. But the answer to the central mystery and the plot's
resolution were rather disappointing, not to mention perplexing.
Marketed as an Omen-like horror
movie with strongly religious overtones, the film may give viewers
whiplash when, two-thirds the way in, it veers abruptly into
science fiction territory. Those looking for a story about the
conflict between God and Satan on Earth, the 'End Times', etc.,
will doubtless be chagrined by such key plot elements as alien
abduction and insemination of human females. Cohen seems to
have extrapolated the central idea of his screenplay from the
"God as Ancient Astronaut" fad in vogue during the 1970s, so
the evil forces at work here are extraterrestrial in nature,
not supernatural. Even within the constraints of network TV,
episodes of The X-Files handled such themes in far creepier
a fashion. By the time veteran screen heavy Richard Lynch (The
Sword and the Sorcerer) showed up as the supposedly androgynous
'bad' alien, decked out in a long blond wig and bathed in angelic
light, I was already losing interest.
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Easily
superior to previous VHS incarnations and the bargain bin DVD
editions put out by Catcom and Brentwood, Blue Undergound's version
of God Told Me To is widescreen (1.85:1)
and anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs. The transfer is still
too dark in places, notably the scene in which Nicholas is attacked
by a knife-wielding woman in a stairwell, but this appears to
be a symptom of the original shooting conditions. Light grain
is evident throughout (which isn't unexpected for a low budget
70s film). A choice of 4 audio options is available: 6.1 DTS,
5.1 and 2.0 Dolby Surround, and the original mono. The upgunned
stereo mixes chiefly benefit the sound effects and composer Frank
Cordell's score.
As with Blue Underground's Bone and Q
— The Winged Serpent DVDs (also released this week), a substantial
array of extras are provided. In addition to the theatrical trailer,
a text bio of Cohen and a poster/still gallery, no less than seven
TV spots are included — some of these promoting the film under
its alternate title, Demon. Larry
Cohen and Bill Lustig again team to deliver yet another entertaining,
info-packed audio commentary. There's very little dead air here
as Cohen details the film's production and financing, the various
New York/New Jersey locations used and his concept for the story
and characters, all the while dishing up amusing anecdotes about
the actors. (Jackie Brown's Robert
Forster was originally cast in the Nicholas role but was fired
after 2 days' filming because he refused to stop chewing gum on
camera!) 8/28/03 |
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