+1/2
Super-serious yet silly religious horror film starring Winona Ryder as a Catholic schoolteacher who moonlights as an exorcist's assistant; she gets the assignment of a lifetime when a possessed mathematician puts her on to the true-crime writer (Ben Chaplin) chosen by Satan to become the antichrist. If Satan were as stupid and weak as movies like this one would have us believe, we'd have no need for God. Poorly written (by Pierce Gardner) and ineptly directed by Kamiński (who, to take but one example, unnecessarily delays a dramatic reveal -- the writer finding proof that he has been marked -- then jump-cuts through it with the speed of an afterthought). Chaplin, however, plays his part well: that is, if the vacancy in his eyes is meant to suggest the emptiness of soul that makes him an attractive target for Satan's usurpation. With a few good, if ultimately pointless, special effects.
Super-serious yet silly religious horror film starring Winona Ryder as a Catholic schoolteacher who moonlights as an exorcist's assistant; she gets the assignment of a lifetime when a possessed mathematician puts her on to the true-crime writer (Ben Chaplin) chosen by Satan to become the antichrist. If Satan were as stupid and weak as movies like this one would have us believe, we'd have no need for God. Poorly written (by Pierce Gardner) and ineptly directed by Kamiński (who, to take but one example, unnecessarily delays a dramatic reveal -- the writer finding proof that he has been marked -- then jump-cuts through it with the speed of an afterthought). Chaplin, however, plays his part well: that is, if the vacancy in his eyes is meant to suggest the emptiness of soul that makes him an attractive target for Satan's usurpation. With a few good, if ultimately pointless, special effects.
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