David
Seltzer was already a prolific screenwriter in the 1970s such as The Hellstrom Chronicle and King, Queen, Knave before creating what
would become The Omen devil-horror franchise,
effectively boosting his career and landing him eventual directing jobs
including the hit 1986 film Lucas. Sadly, he struck a rut in 1992 with his
failed WWII drama Shining Through
with Michael Douglas and Michelle Pheiffer and he didn’t work on another
project until 1997 when he tried to restart his career once more with, you
guessed it…devil-horror.
Teaming
up with occasional director William Bindley, Seltzer indulged again in the
demonic and occult underworld though decidedly with far weaker results than the
one which launched him in the first place.
Originally slated for theaters, the film ultimately premiered on the
small screen with Starz before resurfacing on video store shelves. Though there isn’t much to write home about
here, what we do get with the otherwise mediocre and tired The Eighteenth Angel, however, are some interesting performances,
lovely locations echoing the international scenic beauty of Don’t Look Now and some truly strange
plot contrivances (human cloning?) which tread a fine line between science
fiction, fantasy and horror.
Starring
Christopher McDonald in a non-villainous role for once, we meet up with the
Stanton family who with his daughter Lucy (Rachael Leigh Cook) are in the
throes of grieving the loss of her mother who perished shortly after meeting
with Etruscan priest Father Simeon (industry veteran Maximilian Schell). When promises of a modeling career come Lucy’s
way, however, in the far reaches of Rome near the Etruscan areas, the grieving
duo relocate to the region for the opportunity.
Unbeknownst to them, however, is a secret Satanic plot to gather
together eighteen perfect human beings for the coming of the Antichrist with
the mysterious Father Simeon as the chief instigator of the plot.
Rachael
Leigh Cook, fresh off of modeling herself, is a bit rusty in the acting department
but has the strengths of McDonald and Schell to keep the proceedings
interesting. Being used to McDonald as
an adversary in movies like Darkman, Happy Gilmore and Requiem for a Dream, seeing him as the leading man pitted against
the forces of darkness took some getting used to but he pulled the task off
admirably. Maximilian Schell plays the dramatic
role of the villainous priest straight though part of me was hoping he would
ham it up ala Ernest Borgnine’s Satan worshipper in The Devil’s Rain.
Where
it falters is entirely on screenwriter Seltzer who clearly wants to make
another occult horror thriller but overloads his script with enough silly plot
contrivances to derail the whole thing.
The film also has an uneven rhythm with some sequences feeling hurried
and the finale is most certainly anticlimactic.
That said, there’s bountiful scenery to take in of the Roman
countryside, shot with finesse by Beetlejuice
cinematographer Thomas E. Ackerman. It’s
a nice film to look at for the most part with some moments of unexpected gore
including facial transplanting and mutant rodents, but overall this would be
among my last picks to throw into the bottom of the devil-horror pile.
--Andrew Kotwicki
