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| Courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films |
For every Risen or Paul, Apostle of Christ (two
genuinely good examples) which are sadly few and far between in the faith-based
subgenre, there are movies like Nathan Frankowski’s jaw-droppingly certifiable The
Devil Conspiracy. A movie that wants
to be End of Days by way of Gods of Egypt which ends up cranking
up the insanity meter higher than an Ovidio G. Assonitis flick, The Devil
Conspiracy (let’s get this out of the way) is not good or well made per se
but it is one of the wildest things you’re likely to see in a theater at all
this year.
In the simplest plot description one can offer on this crazy
thing, a biotech company has figured out a way to clone the DNA of renowned
historical figures with only a few speckles at the scientific team’s
disposal. Operating covertly within the
company is a cabal of Satanists on a secret mission to steal the Shroud of
Turin to clone Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice to Satan. Meanwhile, deep within the bowels of a dark
blue Hell itself we see Archangel Michael (Peter Mensah looking like he walked
off the set of Gods of Egypt) duking it out with Lucifer (Joe Anderson). But when it becomes apparent the Shroud of
Turin has gone missing, American art scholar Laura (Alice Orr-Ewing) is
kidnapped and local priest Father Marconi (Joe Doyle) is murdered by the cabal,
it is up to Archangel Michael to possess and resurrect the body of Father
Marconi to track down the Shroud before its too late.
Written and produced by Ed Alan in his first screenplay, The
Devil Conspiracy is like an unholy union between PureFlix and Vinegar Syndrome,
meshing together the God-fearing with the patently absurd and even
transgressive. The most ridiculous film
played with a completely straight face in some time, featuring everything from an
artificially inseminated ‘new Jesus, a better Jesus’ to a demonically possessed
pregnant woman spraying acid from her crotch onto the hero’s face followed by
the line ‘my water broke’, The Devil Conspiracy is stunningly
batshit. The kind of film people find
out about via word of mouth rather than any kind of promotional efforts behind
this Samuel Goldwyn Films release, The Devil Conspiracy almost chases
its tail frenetically in terms of how many weird ideas it splatters onscreen.
For being a rare case of basically a faith-based
action-horror movie that embraces camp almost as a high art, The Devil
Conspiracy is reasonably well made and acted including some set pieces and
staging sure to remind some viewers of films like The Devils or more
recently Final Prayer. The
cinematography from Czechoslovakian director of photography Milan Chadima (Hostel;
Grindhouse) though largely dimly lit is startlingly good for this kind
of low budget material. The original
score by Anne-Kathrin Dern isn’t anything to write home about but it gets the
job done. The ones who really shine in
this however are the actors who really sink their teeth into their roles before
gleefully tearing away at them with relish.
Alice Orr-Ewing, for example, starts out as the prototypical
resourceful heroine who gradually undergoes a startling physiological transformation
as she gradually succumbs to demonic forces.
Joe Doyle is mostly good in an Eric Bana type of heroic role. The standout performance here goes to the
witchy Eveline Hall who is Satan’s most loyal disciple who chews up the scenery
with relish. The film even manages to
work in overqualified actor James Faulkner who is no stranger to theological
movies, having played the titular Paul, Apostle of Christ as well as
appearing in Dan Brown’s Da Vinci’s Demons. Ordinarily poor acting would go more hand in
hand with the film’s outlandish concepts but because it is played straight, we
the audience aren’t always necessarily sure how seriously to take the film
altogether.
I can’t tell if this is a dumping ground movie, a parody, a
dark comedy, a horror film or a Christploitation flick. Sort of being a mixture of all of the above,
one thing is for sure The Devil Conspiracy isn’t really scary but it
will make you feel an invisible question mark forming over your cranium. As it went on, there were times when I felt
my hands slapping against my head in sheer disbelief. If it is a faith-based movie, it surely is
one of the goriest and most violent in some time replete with heads sliced
neatly in half, impaling, emaciation and excreted bodily fluids. A movie with everything but the kitchen sink
after someone left the blender running for far too long, The Devil
Conspiracy is the kind of film you seek out for camp over quality, zaniness
over coherence and to marvel at in sheer amazement that such a thing exists at
all. Think of it as our generation’s Beyond the Door.
--Andrew Kotwicki
