The Exorcism in Amarillo

Plot Summary

In the middle of nowhere in Texas, a family is seemingly subjected to demonic attacks due to some evil books that they have in their house. Will they be able to fight off the unclean spirits before it’s too late???

Production Quality (0 points)

This awful of a production doesn’t belong in our modern era of Christian entertainment, yet here we are. Cheap video quality and poor lighting are only compounded by bad camera work and weird angles. Audio quality is also horrible, including loud background sounds, a cheap soundtrack, and weird sound effects. Further, editing is extremely choppy due to abrupt cuts and transitions and annoying fadeouts. It goes without saying that the sets, locations, and props are very cheap and limited. With no potential to speak of, no points can be awarded here.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Going from one thing to the next, this narrative has an incoherent presentation that’s full of illogical happenings and things that happen simply because the writers want them to occur. As another installment in the awful Christian horror genre, this film is replete with stupid jump scares and dumb obsessions with demonic activity. The view of spirituality that is espoused is quite childish, which leads to laughably staged and unnatural scenes. Most sequences make absolutely no sense as they are full of riveting activities of daily living, expositional dialogue, wasted time, and ridiculous fake suspense. Most of the run time is spent on characters wandering around and believing in a misogynistic worldview that elevates men over women. Needless to say, there is no positive to note in this section.

Acting Quality (0 points)

Much like other aspects of this screenplay, the acting is a disaster. All performances are totally blank and dead. Stone-faced line delivery that lacks emotion or conviction has to be seen to be believed. Some lines are even said too soon or too late. In the end, this movie has absolutely no hope.

Conclusion

The Exorcism in Amarillo falls down to the basement of Christian entertainment, harkening back to an era that we should have already closed the chapter on. Instead, poorly funded trains wrecks like this film keep popping up. One day, Christian creators might learn their lesson.

Final Rating: 0 out of 10 points

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October 9, 2021 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, SuspenseTags: 2020, Ashley Hays Wright, Cadence Wright, David Owen Wright, Drama, Horror, Jaina Wright, Scout Wright, Suspense, zero points Leave a comment

Cries of the Unborn (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

In a sequel to The Life Zone, which nobody cared to remember, much less watch a sequel about, the horrific nonsense of the first installment is rehashed as a completely new cast of characters decides the fate of the perpetrators from the first film. These new characters form a jury who’s tasked with determining the innocence or guilt of the alleged criminals. In order for this movie to have a “plot,” one juror inexplicably thinks that the evil corporation that imprisoned three pregnant women is somehow innocent of all transgressions. She spends the entire screenplay trying to convince others, including the audience, of this fact. What ensues is a slow descent into madness that will leave you wondering how this garbage gets made.

Production Quality (-3 points)

Much like this film’s awful predecessor, Cries of the Unborn has an extremely cheap production that’s negatively impacted by other elements. Lighting and audio are quite poor, and the soundtrack is creepy. Sets, locations, and props are extremely limited. There really isn’t any editing present, and any aspects of the production that aren’t bad are washed away by all the other problems that are in this screenplay.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)

How is it even possible that there was enough money to make two of these terrible movies? To self-indulge in their first creation, the writers use Cries of the Unborn to provide a bizarre commentary on The Life Zone. Doing this requires the narrative to lead the audience in one direction, only to pull out a double fake twist at the end. As a result, the plot is completely mind-bending and out-of-this-world insane, essentially presenting a demented defense of the events that took place in The Life Zone. There are so many rehashed scenes from the first film that Cries of the Unborn feels like a sick director’s commentary on The Life Zone where the creators are speaking through the characters to lecture you on why you shouldn’t hate their utter madness. Contrived dialogue and trumped-up situations force propaganda down the viewers’ throats, including a very twisted obsession with eternal punishment for certain sins that the writers deem ‘worse’ than others. In the end, the awful nature of this section drags the entire creation down to the lowest level.

Acting Quality (-3 points)

On the whole, the acting in Cries of the Unborn is uninspiring. However, this section is overwhelmed by the sheer nonsense that overtakes the entire screenplay. When a central idea is this bad, it infects every section of the movie, causing an overall negative rating.

Conclusion

Additionally, this film receives a negative x-factor point for being offensive and for pushing toxic propaganda on the audience. It’s rare that film creators fail so hard that they produce two screenplays that each receive the lowest score possible from our ratings system. This is a feat that has never been previously recorded in our experience with the field of Christian entertainment. It goes without saying that both The Life Zone and Cries of the Unborn are among the worst movies ever created, and the views espoused by these films have no place among Christianity. If the pro-life movement is to ever be effective, it must dispense with poison like these two creations and actually care about every person like Jesus does.

Final Rating: -10 out of 10 points

April 22, 2021April 22, 2021 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2017, Allison Thomas Lee, Alycia Cooper, Andrew Gause, Blanche Baker, Buck Hujabre, C.C. Hughes, Carrie Brooks, Chalet Lizette Brannan, Clifton V. Powell, Dan Mason, Daren Donofrio, Deborah Twiss, Dexter Njoku, Drama, Ericka Demberg, Evgeniya Radilova, Francine Del Vecchio, Green Apple Entertainment, Horror, Jaclyn DiGianni, Jeff Davis, Joanne Baron, John Chludzinski, Josephine Moon Bloomfield, Justice for All Productions, Justin Deas, Ken Del Vecchio, Kenneth Hampton, Kirk Ponton, Mario Del Vecchio, Mary Apick, negative points, Nina Transfeld, Obaid Kadwani, Pamela Rivers, Psychological, Robert Loggia, Rosa Lucrezia, Russell Brannan, Shezi Sardar, Solodeep, Suspense, Suzi Lorraine, Theresa Teresi, Waleed Bedour, Wayne Mccrae, Yaron Urbas Leave a comment

The Life Zone (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Three pregnant women, who each intended to have abortions, are kidnapped by a powerful and creepy corporation that’s bent on forcing its pro-life agenda onto people. This unethical company intends to hold the three women captive until they deliver their unborn children. While they wait, the women are forced to explore their pasts and understand what led them to their choices. With a premise as bad as this, you can’t even imagine how strange things get.

Production Quality (-3 points)

The Life Zone is truly a creation to behold for all the wrong reasons, starting with its extremely cheap production. Poor lighting and bad audio quality make for an obnoxious experience. The soundtrack is creepy, and the sets, locations, and props are cheap and limited. Editing is choppy, and while some small aspects of the production are slightly acceptable, this section is overall negatively impacted by other elements of the film.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)

Words can hardly explain how awful this screenplay is. It’s hard to believe that this plot is so honest about the radical extremist wing of the pro-life movement. The Life Zone could be a dark parody if it weren’t so propaganda-heavy and full of bizarre sequences. Tossing all conventional movie procedures aside, such as meaningful dialogue and developed characters, The Life Zone elects to take a very demented turn down some of the less-traveled alleyways of Christian culture that many don’t dare to discuss. Instead of beating around the bush, this story fully embraces a warped view of the life issue to the point that the writers are unashamedly pro-baby and anti-mother rather than being an advocate for all life, born and unborn. Dominated with extraneous documentary content that attempts to brainwash the audience, this narrative is basically a slow descent into madness. Once The Life Zone reaches its climax, which is a very sick twist ending, it becomes clear what the creators’ agenda was: demonize everyone who’s ever had an abortion. Supporting the kidnapping of pregnant women so that they can be forced to deliver their babies is a very demented idea that has absolutely no place in Christian entertainment, which is why the negative ratings fill up this review.

Acting Quality (-3 points)

Much like the other aspects of this film, the acting is quite bad. Emotions are very strained while lines are forced and unnatural. Many cast members over-act and try way too hard to be convincing. Similar to the production, this section is negatively effected by the other horrible elements of the screenplay, which gives another negative score here.

Conclusion

Additionally, The Life Zone receives a negative x-factor point for being offensive propaganda that pushes a toxic agenda. There is literally zero justification for making a movie like this. If the pro-life movement is to defend the philosophies of this film, these activists are further gone than expected. This screenplay is the epitome of why the pro-life movement in America has not been fully successful over the past few decades. All that can be learned here is how not to do it, but such a movie can also prompt us to examine the purpose of our activism to see if we actually care about all people or just some.

Final Rating: -10 out of 10 points

April 20, 2021 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2011, Amanda Antonucci, Andrew Gause, Angela Little, Anthony Rackley, Beth Rosen, Blanche Baker, Charles Durning, Drama, Eileen Fulton, Elissa Goldstein, Eric Etebari, Francine Del Vecchio, Frank Giglio, Greg Jackson, Horror, Jeff Davis, John P. Gulino, John Tobias, Joyce Borneman, Justice for All Productions, Justin LaMarca, Katarzyna Wolejnio, Keith Collins, Ken Del Vecchio, Kenneth Lampl, Lindsey Haun, Maija Polsley, Mario Del Vecchio, Martin Kove, Michael Borao, Nace Naumoski, Natalie Romero, negative points, Nina Transfeld, Ozzy Fiaz, Psychological, Rachael Robbins, Randy Pearce, Rebecca Baron, Rob Moretti, Robert Borneman, Robert Loggia, Rod Weber, Suspense, Tara Buck, Tarri Markel, Tatijana N. Naumoska, Thomas G. Waites 2 Comments

Worm [2007] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Adam was one of the cool kids in high school who didn’t want anything to do with Christianity. However, he’s forced to examine the faith when people around him begin following Jesus. Nonetheless, Adam still wants nothing to do with Christ until it’s too late for him.

Production Quality (1 point)

Even though this production has okay video quality and camera work, the audio quality is quite weird, including loud sound effects, obvious overdubs, and a distorted soundtrack. Sets, locations, and props are average, but lighting is inconsistent. Editing is also passable, but there are too many concerns to award this section more than one point.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

It seems like that the entire purpose of this plot is to try to scare people into becoming Christians, which is a ridiculous tactic. The message-pushing is extremely obvious and doesn’t allow the audience to decide anything for themselves. The narrative is full of expository conversations and manufactured dialogue that make for cheesy characters, including absurd strawmen non-Christians and overly perfect Christians. There’s also quite a bit of talk about off-screen happenings as well as mindless sequences that accomplish nothing. The story concludes in a very dark way, and due to the propaganda nature of this film, this section has to receive a negative point.

Acting Quality (0 points)

Unfortunately, this section doesn’t yield any positive results either as most of the performances seem overly staged. Line delivery is unnatural and overly practiced, and it makes matters worse that the cast members frequently talk over the top of one another. Further, emotions are mechanical, rounding out a zero-potential effort.

Conclusion

We’ve said it before and will say it again: propaganda screenplays always fail. There’s just no potential in them. Setting off to push an agenda on the audience is always the wrong motive, and it will be inevitably exposed. There’s simply no sense in contributing this sort of garbage to the market.

Final Rating: 0 out of 10 points

March 23, 2021 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2007, Akron Watson, Brian Kennedy, Christiano Film Group, Drama, Horror, Ian Loomer, Jessica Quazi, Judah Films, Karen Seimears, Leslie Lesseman, Mitch Bird, Psychological, Rahim Quazi, Stephen Moffatt, Suspense, Tonya Coleman, zero points Leave a comment

Denounced: Rise of the Horsemen (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Paul loved his family, but they were Christians while he wasn’t. Thus, when they were taken in the rapture, he was left behind to face an ever-darkening world. Becoming a violent hater of God, Paul joins the ruthless government agency known as the Horsemen, who stamp out any traces of Christianity left on the earth. However, when they turn on Paul, he’s forced to face the reality he’s been trying to avoid.

Production Quality (0 points)

From the get-go, Denounced exhibits very disorienting and off-putting audio quality that’s sometimes overdriven, and although the soundtrack can be interesting at times, it’s often too loud. Camera work is very inconsistent, and despite clear video quality, the lighting is all over the place. The same can be said for the cheap sets, locations, and props as they don’t adequately represent what they’re supposed to portray. Special effects and sound effects are annoying, and weird zooms and camera angles confuse the audience. The editing is a disaster, sometimes wasting time on nature footage that accomplishes nothing and others times letting scenes drag on for no reason at all. Needless to say, there’s too much negative in this section to warrant any points.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

In keeping with most apocalyptic films, as soon as the rapture happens in Denounced, everything in the world starts falling apart and melting down for no reason. How are supposed to be believe so many instant natural disaster occur in succession? Besides this, it’s hard to follow the movie’s storyline since it jumps from one thing to the next, vaguely constructing the world with cryptic dialogue. Despite okay attempts at flashbacks, they’re too heavy-handed and narrated, and other conversations don’t do enough to build characters. Long boring sequences go by wherein nothing really happens and no one talks. Then, these give way to scenes of unnecessarily extreme and sometimes gross violence even though they’re accompanied by some slightly interesting plot turns that give better understanding to what the writers wanted to do. Nonetheless, it’s just too little too late as some potential as wasted that could have been better presented in a short film. This concept simply demands too much funding and planning than was put into this screenplay, but it’s a shame that the imperfect character outlines weren’t fully fleshed out and were instead replaced with excessive torture scenes. Also, to make things even more complicated, the ending of Denounced is very confusing as it seems to negate everything that happened in the narrative. Due to all these concerns, zero points are also awarded here.

Acting Quality (0 points)

The acting performances of this movie are less than inspiring, including a lot of yelling and screaming. As such, most emotions are quite forced. Lines are also mumbled, and there’s generally not any positive here to offset the negative, which rounds out a zero-point effort.

Conclusion

Did we really need another apocalyptic film? This rapture-succeeded-by-worldwide-dystopia song and dance has been done time and again, and it basically never works. Then, as if the premise didn’t already short-circuit potential, all other movie elements are very low quality. Denounced is a classic example of biting off more than you can chew and pushing forward to make something without proper planning. We’re long past the era where any random piece of Christian entertainment is going to be embraced.

Final Rating: 0 out of 10 points

September 29, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2017, 4 Mile Radius Productions, Alex Crowe, Anastasia Adleta, Apocalyptic, Drama, Fritz Beiswenger, Heather Uster, Horror, Jana Hart, Jennylynn Adleta, Jimmy Smuda, Justin James Mihalko, Matthan Griggs, Michael Martin, Michael Soland, Psychological, Rhonda Soland, Sean Hart, Stavros Bortsalas, Stephen C. Bortsalas, Steven Burke, Suspense, Will Carter, zero points Leave a comment

Adam’s Testament (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Joseph Gable is a police detective with a troubled past, but he never gives up trying to bring his son Adam back to the faith they once both had. However, a creepy businessman has come to city and seems to have some kind of magical hold over Adam, along with others in the area. Thankfully, there’s some ninja angels in the neighborhood who can help Joseph fight the forces of evil and take back his son!

Production Quality (1.5 points)

Despite acceptable video quality and camera work except for some randomly shaky moments, there are a lot of dark scenes throughout this production. The soundtrack is interesting, but audio quality is inconsistent. Special effects are very cheesy, and there are several awkward fadeouts. Further, the editing is mostly average; there are also some improvements with various elements as the movie goes on, which is enough to warrant an average score for this section.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Besides the typically absurd spiritual horror premise, the dialogue of Adam’s Testament is very obvious and message-pushing, making the characters feel like mere representations of issues rather than actual people. Despite a few interesting psychological elements, the spiritual warfare aspects are not handled well at all as they are too heavy-handed, leaving nothing to chance. Flashbacks are present but fail to properly build character personality and motive. What’s more, the audience can easily become isolated by the world built in this narrative since it’s hard to know where or what is happening as too many concepts are thrown at the viewers. At times, the writers become lost in their own philosophizing and their obsession with portraying Satan as a cheesy figure with more power than he actually possesses. Further, legalism and the unusual elevation of angels pollute the storyline, and it all concludes on a very bizarre note that only muddies the already murky waters. In the end, there’s just too much negative here to warrant any points.

Acting Quality (1 point)

Between forced emotions and line delivery, it’s clear that this cast was coached to as dramatic and serious as possible. Overall, the performances are trying too hard, and things only get worse as they go. Though some of acting is somewhat acceptable, it tends to get worse as it proceeds. Thus, one point is all that can be warranted here, which rounds out an overall absurd film.

Conclusion

Pretty much every spiritual horror screenplay in Christian entertainment history is a total bust. Adam’s Testament just falls into the already long line of awful offerings in this so-called genre. It seems like all these types of movies want to do is create a lot of sensationalism, using faith-based elements as props to reach a certain audience, whoever it may be. Thus, the next time a creator thinks about making one of these, they might should think twice and see if that’s what they’re actually supposed to do.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

September 10, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2.5 points, 2017, Adam Bogen, Art Hindle, Bridgestone Multimedia Group, Drama, Dwayne Adams, Elva Yuill, Frank Chiesurin, Horror, Ian Matthews, Jason Barbeck, Kate Drummond, Luke Bilyk, Marc Forand, Markus Parilo, Nicholas Schnier, Nick Mancuso, Pedro Salvin, Philip Moran, Psychological, Rafael Kalamat, Reel Deal Guys Entertainment, Sebastian MacLean, Suspense, Sydney Van Delft, Todd Yuill, Zoé De Grand Maison Leave a comment

The Crossroads of Hunter Wilde (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

In the aftermath of a world war that left mutants and ISIS rebels roaming the earth in search of their next victims, Hunter Wilde fights to survive and protect those close to him. However, when a new threat emerges that he has no idea how to fight, Hunter does what he typically does: run away. Will he be able to rekindle his faith before it’s too late?

Production Quality (1.5 points)

Despite seemingly having adequate funding, this production fails to meet quality standards. This includes background noise that sometimes conflicts with spoken audio as well as a loud and generic soundtrack. The sets, locations, and props don’t effectively portray what they’re supposed to portray. Also, the camera work is wild, including poor shots in action sequences. The video quality is mostly stable throughout, however, and the editing is average. Despite some less-than-inspiring special effects, some elements of the production do improve as it goes on. Nonetheless, it’s only enough to earn a middle-of-the-road score for this section.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Besides the fact that this film is based on a ridiculous premise and bizarre plot elements, it also contains a really bad and slightly incorrect portrayal of the spiritual dimension. The writers seemed to be obsessed with sensationalism, shock, and awe as well as fixated on pro-prepper messaging that seems to want the world to descend into chaos so that they can do whatever they want. Despite being a large-scale idea, the story is based on clunky narration and stock footage. It’s also full of forced drama and purposely creepy supernatural elements. In the character department, the so-called protagonist almost always saves the day via unrealistic action sequences. Other characters are built on forced cardboard dialogue and awkward conversations that make everything drag out. The villains are extremely cheesy, and the narrative decides what happens to the characters and what random things they’ll do without good reasons for doing them. Things only get more ridiculous as they go, mostly due to the fact that the movie confuses itself with wacky inter-dimensional subplots and terminology. The concepts of other realms are extremely difficult to grasp, and the screenplay’s questionable view of spirituality tends to play fast and loose with reality. In the end, this is a pointless storyline full of madness and nonsense.

Acting Quality (1 point)

Between overly theatrical emotions and forced line delivery, the cast was seemingly coached to be very serious for no good reason. Too often, tones and feelings don’t seem to appropriately fit the situations. Makeup is also an obvious problem, and the villain acting is laughably ridiculous. In the end, despite some okay moments that keep this section from being zero, the acting tends to worsen as it goes forward, which rounds out an overall absurd creation.

Conclusion

It’s difficult to understand what the makes of this film were really going for. Mixing a dystopian premise with muted political overtures, much like The Reliant, is basically a losing formula from the get-go. Combing this with poor production and acting aspects sends this movie down to the basement of Christian entertainment. However, the market is thankfully changing for the better, which will no longer allow screenplays like this to exist.

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

July 22, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2.5 points, 2019, Abel Becerra, Alin Bijan, Apocalyptic, April Hartman, Bridgestone Multimedia Group, Chuck Huber, David Timmes, Drama, Greta Norris, Haulston Mann, Horror, Jordan DragonKing, Kaci Hill, Kat Rowland, Kenneisha Thompson, LaRonn Marzett, Mike Norris, Norris Moving Pictures, Psychological, Rafael Villegas, Suspense, Ted Ferguson, Valerie Norris, Vernon Reeves, Zane Tabari 2 Comments

The Cabin [2019] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Roy, a former pastor, has decided to go out to a secluded cabin in the woods to determine whether or not the spiritual realm exists. He’s determined to lock himself in until something spiritual manifests, which attracts the undue attention of various supernatural forces, both good and evil. In the end, Roy will have to battle for his soul, using homemade armor, against poorly animated demons!

Production Quality (.5 point)

Although the video quality of The Cabin is fine, this is the only positive production element. The camera work is very shaky, including some really wacky camera angles, and the audio leaves something to be desired due to its background sounds, constant generic soundtrack, and weird sound effects. Also, the sets, props, and locations are quite cheap, and it goes without saying that the special effects are terrible. Elsewhere, the flashbacks are unnecessarily black and white, and editing is sub-par. Essentially, this is an unacceptably bad production, but it’s not even the worst of what this awful film has to offer.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-3 points)

Although The Cabin‘s plot begins with boring sequences of activities of daily living and vanilla dialogue that produces cardboard characters, things quickly become much more outrageous. Through a combination of stupid jump scares, blank scenes where basically nothing happens, cheesy found footage sequences, and drug trip montages that are nearly impossible to quantify, this film successfully finds its way all the way down to the bottom of the barrel. Besides the forced drama that has no logical lead-up, the narrative is so vague that it’s barely even a story and completely lacks purpose. However, this doesn’t even though the fact that many of the plot points lack realistic support and that the spiritual elements of the story are either portrayed in juvenile ways or through very bizarre methods that cause the viewer to question whether or not the screenwriters actually comprehended the serious subject matter they wrote about. Basically, the movie’s second half is utter nonsense and full of over-the-top sensationalism such that it makes a laughingstock of otherwise important spiritual topics. It’s incredibly difficult to include all of the complete madness that’s contained within this one screenplay without asking the audience to see for themselves, but that would be a total waste of their time.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Despite other glaring problems in The Cabin, the acting is actually quite average, considering the fact that there’s not much for the cast members to work with. Not many lines are demanded of them due to the abysmal writing, but many of the performances contain forced emotions. Nonetheless, this section isn’t all bad, but it’s not enough to salve the utter disaster that is this film.

Conclusion

The Cabin puts the proverbial icing on the bad cake that JC Films made in 2019. Flooding the market with tons of sub-par movies is never the way to go, as we’ve previously stated. Doing such will inevitably lead to horrific disasters like this one that further tarnish the reputation of Christian entertainment. All that can really be learned from train wrecks like this are how not to do it and how important it is to continually produce more quality creations in the future.

Final Rating: -1 out of 10 points

April 8, 2020 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2019, Abby Suder, BMC Productions, Burning Bulb Publishing, Deven Bromme, Dorian Cleavenger, Drama, Enrico Ravenna, Horror, J.W. Myers, Jason Campbell, JC Films, Jenni Ivers, Michael Sigler, negative points, Psychological, Ronda Suder, Timothy E. Goodwin, Timothy Goodwin 1 Comment

Heaven’s War {Beyond the Darkness} (Movie Review)

The magic of the cosmos…

Plot Summary

Senator Jonah Thomas is a rising political star who wants to be the good guy in Washington, but evil individuals, both human and spiritual, have their own plans for him. Jonah’s political career is pushing his family to the brink, and he doesn’t realize the evil devices that await him in one fateful meeting. As his soul hangs in the balance, he will be given one last chance to battle for his eternal destiny in a very poorly-animated CGI world.

Production Quality (0 points)

Imagine you have this great idea for a complex sci-fi plot that requires a lot expensive CGI and animation tools. Would you go ahead and make it even though you didn’t have the funding to make it on a level we see in theaters today? Essentially, Heaven’s War is a poorly funded attempt at a possibly good idea that will fall totally flat due to how bad the production is. The extremely cheap special effects and the cheesiest possible animation and CGI draw so much attention to themselves that they negate any possible good elements in other parts of the production. They affect everything and make it an unpleasant experience whether via disorienting editing, cheap flashback quality, weird sound effects, or wild and quick cuts between scenes. Even if other elements of the film are fine, the special effects failings are the types of issues that infect everything, which keeps this production rated at zero.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Besides this, the plot is fairly confusing and hard to follow. Even though it’s an interesting idea to explore the spiritual realm, everything is too focused on American politics, which begs the question why the major spiritual battles highlighted here center around raising taxes and finding a vaccine for cancer. If this isn’t the intention, it comes off that way through expository dialogue and devices that move the plot forward, such as news reports and phone conversations. As the story wildly jumps from one random idea to the next, the slightly interesting flashback\psychological vision elements had something going for them, but the way they are presented is a disservice. Poor delivery and unclear direction doomed this plot from the start, not to mention the extremely cheesy portrayal of the spiritual realm that is almost a laughingstock. After lots of disorienting battle sequences and explorations of alternate realities, problems are suddenly quickly fixed at the end with no feeling or reality behind it, and by the time it’s all over, you suddenly realize that this film barely had any actual content in it. Hence, no points can be awarded in this section either.

Acting Quality (1 point)

Surprisingly, as bad as it is, the acting is the strongest point of this movie because it’s the only section that gets any points. Even still, the acting often comes off as un-earnest, overly practiced, and robotic. For the most part, emotions are black, forced, and unnatural. There are some good moments for some of the cast members that are basically just average, but as a whole, the acting is cardboard and the casting poor. This rounds out an unacceptably bad film in the new era of Christian entertainment.

Conclusion

Danny Carrales’ intentions to make different types of Christian films are definitely noted, but their application is way off the mark. It would have been better to make Heaven’s War fully animated so that more time could have been spent on making a real plot. Relying only on special effects of any quality level is never a good idea because they can’t write the story for you. Even the best sci-fi idea will fail if the characters can hold it up for you because the audience has no real connection to the concept without feeling like real people are experiencing it. Basically, better luck next time.

Final Rating: 1 out of 10 points

April 25, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 1 point, 2018, Allen Prewitt, Allison Wood, Aubrey Carrales, Barbara Williamson, Chance Hartman, Chloe Clark, Conner Evans, Connor James, Craig Nigh, Danny Carrales, Derek Lee Nixon, Donny Boaz, Drama, DRC Films, DRC Productions, Gary Clarke, Gregory Kelly, Horror, Inspired Family Entertainment, Janet Travis, Jason Gerhardt, Jesse Allen, Joe Estevez, Johnny Walter, Karrie Cox, Kelly Patton, Kimberly Bramlett, Kip Farrar, Lance Haverda, Loomis Warren Jr., Matt Garner, Mike Gassaway, Monika Stewart, Psychological, Rachel Lena Young, Richard Rollin, Ripley Lowe, Robert Walker Jr., Robin Haynes, Romen L. McPherson, Scott Kirfman, Scott Mullins, Scotty Curlee, Suspense, Tom Costello Jr., Trenton Rostedt 17 Comments

Wraith [2017] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

The Lukens family is tired of living in their old, creepy house, so they want to downsize.  However, an unexpected addition to the family throws them for a loop, as does a disturbing presence their daughter keeps seeing and hearing in her room.  As they must make difficult decisions regarding the life of their future child, the evil presence seems to tighten its grip on their lives, pushing them to the breaking point.  Will they be able to survive the onslaught of the paranormal force?

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

For another independent Christian horror film, Wraith doesn’t have that bad of a production, but it is still mostly average on the whole.  Video quality is mostly fine, but there is some poor lighting throughout, perhaps by design.  A lot of the dark scenes appear to be for dramatic effect, but there are other typically cheesy elements that seem to always come with a cheap horror production, such as wild camera work and dizzying cuts.  Though the sets and locations are somewhat limited, also by design, the props are fine, and there appear to be attempts to create authenticity throughout.  The editing is mostly fine, but there are too many issues with this indie effort to give the production anything more than an average score.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Making a pro-life Christian horror film is an interesting endeavor, and it is not one without potential, but Wraith has too many problems in the plot department to reach this possible potential.  When setting out to make a Christian horror film, it’s like it’s a requirement to totally disregard character development.  This film is no exception as the characters are extremely bland and empty due to cheap and stilted dialogue.  Though there are some interesting attempts at flashbacks and creative psychological elements, they are too muted and downplayed in the midst of wasted time that is mostly filled with stupid jump scares and incoherent moments that are meant to be ‘thrilling’ or ‘scary’ but really just end up being stupid.  Randomly vague things just happen as opportunities to build real characters are squandered by kicking the proverbial can down the road just to get to the ending.  Unfortunately, this storyline gets worse and worse as it goes as it slowly reveals a very ill-advised approach to dealing with demonic entities until it finishes with an extremely cheesy climax that endorses dangerous practices.  Overall, this plot is just a mess and really needed to be completely reworked.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

While some of the more experienced cast members, such as Ali Hillis, are mostly fine in their performances, some of the younger cast members, particularly the younger female lead, are quite bad at acting.  Some line delivery is painfully forced, and emotions are uneven throughout.  Other moments are far too dramatic, which is an unfortunate byproduct of the difficult horror genre.  In summary, this film squandered whatever potential it may have had.

Conclusion

Christian horror films desperately need a better basis.  It is important that the core concepts of psychological thrillers are well-thought-out and have some logical basis before they are thrown into a movie.  Pro-life themes are great, but this consistently has been one of the worst sub-genres in Christian film.  Besides the fact that the basis for the horror elements in Wraith are difficult for most audiences to grasp, the practices that are seemingly endorsed (trying to cast demons out of houses) are extremely dangerous to practice in real-life and should be heavily discouraged.  Unfortunately, this is just another awful attempt at Christian genre-busting.

 

Final Rating: 3 out of 10 points

 

June 7, 2018December 31, 2018 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2017, 3 points, Ali Hillis, Brian Murray, Catherine Frances, Charles Kagen, Christopher Chisholm, Dan Oliver, Dave Ross, Dennis Ranke, Gabriella Lillian Zoltowski, Gina Berceau, Horror, Jackson Hurst, James Covell, Jensen Buchanan, Karl Greene, Lance Henriksen, Lily Hansen, Michael O. Sajbel, Owen Hansen, Pro-Life, Psychological, Suspense 5 Comments

House [2008] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

On a stormy night in rural Alabama, two couples find themselves stranded at a remote and strange bed and breakfast that is run by three eccentrically creepy people.  The longer they are in the large, ominous mansion, the stranger circumstances become for the four of them.  They find themselves in a fight for their lives as they are stalked by a serial killer known as the Tin Man, who is bent on reminding each of them of their darkest secrets from their pasts.  Will they be able survive this evil night?

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

Though House is adequately funded—more so than other Christian horror films, except for The Remaining—the production begins a bit rough.  This includes weird camera angles and moving camera work, probably for dramatic effecting.  There are also some wild cuts, as well as some odd sound effects and lighting for sensational effect.  However, video quality is fine, even if there are some cheesy special effects and zooms throughout.  Moreover, the Anberlin soundtrack is great, and the sets, locations, and props are well-constructed and well-utilized.  Also, the editing is slightly effective, and other production elements improve as the film goes on.  Thus, this production ends up average.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 points)

Though House is full of unnecessary sensationalism and cheesy horror elements, these concepts reflect the flaws of the original novel by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker, which is actually not the best book that could have been chosen from them to turn into a movie.  In the beginning of this film, everything comes off as too dramatic and too pronounced.  However, it does get better as it goes as the film explores the intriguing psychological elements and concepts of this novel, including effective character backstories and a great use of flashbacks.  In some ways, the movie may be better than the book, even though there is still a need for more substantial dialogue.  Nonetheless, the climax still makes no sense and leaves too many unanswered questions.  However, some audiences will enjoy this movie, if the horror elements do not bother them.

Acting Quality (2 points)

Though some cast members in this small cast are trying too hard to be dark and to have strange undertones, the acting of House is mostly fine.  There is also some weird makeup work, but for the most part, emotions are effective among this cast, even though there were a lot of difficult acting moments due to the use of special effects.  This rounds out a mostly average film.

Conclusion

While the premise of this plot is very creative, it still needs a better explanation with more clarity as to what is happening.  Sometimes, Christian horror films, like Scattered, are better at focusing on character backstories and effective flashbacks than other films, which is one thing that keeps the genre alive.  Nonetheless, there are better Ted Dekker books to use for movies, even if future Christian horror flicks will be hard pressed to get this type of funding again without proving itself as effective.  Unfortunately, this is something the Christian horror genre has yet to accomplish.

 

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 10 points

 

February 22, 2018January 1, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie ReviewsTags: 2008, 4.5 points, Alanna Bale, Albert Pietrzak, Andrew Gorzen, Bill Moseley, Bobby Neutz, Dan Raines, David E. Russo, Erick Goss, Florentyna Synowiecka, Fox Faith, Frank Peretti, Heidi Dippold, Horror, J.P. Davis, Joe Goodman, Julie Ann Emery, Kelly Neutz, Lance Henriksen, Leslie Easterbrook, Lew Temple, Marek Sledziewski, Mark Fierer, Michael Madsen, Michael Webber, More Entertainment, Namesake Entertainment, Pawel Delag, Psychological, Ralph Winter, Reynaldo Rosales, Rob Green, Robby Henson, Ted Dekker, Weronika Rosati, Wojtek Frykowski, Wojtek Palys Leave a comment

A Distant Thunder [2005] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Ann Brown is a successful prosecutor, but when she is tasked with trying a case of a double homicide that involves an unborn child, she begins having strange psychological experiences and attacks beyond her control.  As the experiences continue unexplainably, Ann feels like she is going crazy or being targeted by her opponents.  She has no way to stop them, so she cries out to God for answers, and she gets answers in an unexpected way.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

It is difficult to quantify A Distant Thunder without telling you to watch it.  However, you definitely shouldn’t watch it if you have epilepsy or don’t like horror productions, because it’s a real doozy.  This includes a lot of disorienting and dizzying special effects, with weird sound effects to accompany them.  There are also random lapses in audio throughout.  However, video quality and camera work are surprisingly okay.  The soundtrack is somewhat intriguing.  Yet the editing is fairly poor, which rounds out a confusing experience that is sometimes a pain to watch.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

Most of the time, it is very hard to know what in the world is going on in this film.  It makes a strange attempt to combine creepy and off-putting horror elements with an otherwise profound pro-life message.  However, this ‘story’ is just too bizarre and strange to be fully embraced due to its general wackiness and off-the-wall nature.  Yet the legal case therein is interesting and mostly realistic, as are the psychological elements, except that the horror themes constantly distract from anything good.  The ending also has some potential, but the weirdness is too much to overcome.

Acting Quality (2 points)

Despite the other issues in this film, the acting is actually mostly fine.  There are a few overly dramatic moments, but on the whole, line delivery and emotional delivery are on point.  Nonetheless, one can’t help but wonder if this effort was wasted due to the other strange parts of this movie.

Conclusion

The idea behind this film needs a total rework, because as it is, it is not going to have very wide appeal.  The unappealing horror elements will turn off people too easily and will stunt the impact of this important message.  Perhaps one day more improved pro-life films will begin appearing on the market.

 

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 10 points

 

January 8, 2018January 2, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2005, 3.5 points, Charlene Tilton, Corrie Tuffendsam, Danielle Riecks, David Emma, Deborah Flora, Diane Sellers, Horror, Joanne Takahashi, Jonathan Flora, Kip Perry, Laura Richardson, Ned Vaughn, Olivia Flora, Peter Renaday, Pro-Life, Psychological, Selah Victor, Steve Bauman, Terry Brown, Tina Morasco Leave a comment

Elevator to Salvation (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

On Christmas Eve night, two random guys, one of them your stereotypical evil Christmas-hating workaholic, get stuck in a weird construction elevator that constantly goes up and down infinitely and keeps trying to show them all kinds of strange things like notes falling from the ceiling and creepy hands reaching through the elevator doors.  This seemingly endless ride has no purpose or function except to waste your time with another bizarre Christmas movie.

 

Production Quality (-1 points)

Faith House Pictures has had bad production in the past, but Elevator to Salvation is hands-down their worst to date.  There is nothing good about it, and it is actually quite offensive.  Video quality is bad, and camera work is terrible.  Audio is abysmal, and the soundtrack is weird.  There are no sets, locations, or props to speak of except for a poorly constructed elevator.  The special effects are medieval and annoying.  Finally, the editing is highly disorienting.  Essentially, this production joins the special ranks of those that earned negative points for being especially offensive, which makes us wonder why and how Faith House continually makes films.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

But that’s not all that is annoying about this weird film.  The premise is not only trumped up and ridiculous, but it is also downright bizarre and creepy.  What’s the point of trying to force half-hearted horror elements into this?  There is really no sense of understanding what is even going on in this so-called story.  The dialogue is very wacky and absurd, thus creating off-the-wall characters, even though there are basically only two of them.  The psychological elements are poorly delivered, and the ending makes zero sense, just like the rest of the ‘plot.’  There is no question that this is the strangest and most off-putting Christmas movie ever, except for things involving Kirk Cameron and British Bible characters.

Acting Quality (-1 points)

Much like the other parts of this train wreck called a movie, the acting is very forceful and annoying.  Watching these people try to act is like undergoing a painful surgical procedure.  Every line is like fingernails stretching a chalkboard due to forcefulness, mumbling, and general awkwardness.  In the end, this rounds out a very eye-rolling and face-palming experience that should never, ever be repeated.

Conclusion

Faith House has had some real doozies in the past, but Elevator to Salvation really takes the cake.  It goes beyond the typical bad movie conventions and crosses into the territory of unreasonably terrible and offensive.  So if you’re looking for a good holiday film, steer clear from this one.

 

Final Rating: -3 out of 10 points

 

November 22, 2017January 3, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Christmas, Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2015, Auturo Gavino, Bivas Biswas, Christmas, Craig McMahon, Faith House Pictures, Horror, negative points, Patrick Giglio, Psychological Leave a comment

Paranormal [2009] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Novelist Greg Evans doesn’t believe in all that paranormal stuff, even though his son regularly goes to Ouija board ‘meetings.’  But then he begins experiencing paranormal events that he cannot explain, so he calls in a group of paranormal investigators to come check out the weird stuff going on in his house.  Meanwhile, Greg’s wife prays that he will finally see the truth about the supernatural.  Will Greg seek the truth before it’s too late for him?  Will anyone be able to make through this film in its entirety?

 

Production Quality (-2 points)

From the studio that brought you the awful Pray. trilogy comes another cringeworthy horror production literally filmed with a camcorder that somebody carries around their houses and some abandoned buildings they commandeered for this madness.  In this other worst possible production from Cross Shadow, everything is wrong.  Sound quality is terrible, including the always unacceptable overdriven audio.  The soundtrack is also strange.  Video quality is blurry at times and lighting is inconsistent, including a lot of night vision scenes.  Sets, locations, and props are very lacking and sad.  Probably one of the worst elements of this film are the cringeworthy special effects that seem like they were pasted on top of the video.  Basically, with nothing good to say here and many extremely bad elements, this is another negative production from Cross Shadow.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

Much like Pray., Pray 2, and Pray 3D whatever, Paranormal is full of the worst possible portrayal of the spiritual\supernatural realm.  Demons can only gain power over people through Ouija boards and extreme hauntings are apparently very commonplace in this universe.  Stupid jump scares are used to make this movie ‘interesting,’ as if that’s possible.  The whole thing is designed to scare you into not playing with the devil, but it’s done in such a juvenile fashion that this movie is only good for laughs.  The characters are so poorly designed due to impossibly bad dialogue that there’s no way to take this seriously.  The Christian message is equally silly.  All drama is completely forced and manufactured as time is wasted on pointless night vision footage and exposition.  Essentially, the Christian horror genre is among the worst.

Acting Quality (0 points)

Much like their other awkwardly titled movies, the Cross Shadow casts are stiff, awkward, and sometimes annoying.  Of course, it’s not like they had actual lines to work with, but the lack of coaching makes matters way worse.  Emotions are forced and unnatural, thus making for an even more painful experience.  Unfortunately, there is nothing positing to note about this film.

Conclusion

Why do we need another one of these after Pray., Pray 2, and Pray 3D whatever?  Why does this sort of horrifically low quality film making need to be perpetuated?  Why is the Christian horror genre so bad?  There are all pressing questions, but none of them are answered in this film.  All we are left with is another embarrassing display of ineptitude and an example how to not make a movie.

 

Final Rating: -3 out of 10 points

 

November 12, 2017January 3, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2009, Aaron Michael Johnson, Addy Miller, Amy Mitchell, Andrew Tilley, April Kruger, Clay Naylor, Cross Shadow Productions, Daniel Gray, Dawn Swartz, Elizabeth Lordge, Horror, Jessy Hannah, John Rutland, Lacey Rudolph, Laurie Kimsey, Matt Mitchell, Maureen MacDonald, negative points, Nick Errato, Patrick Downey, Phase 4 Films, Psychological, Rachel Holt, Regina McKenzie, Robert Crayton, Rusty Martin Jr., Stephen Schaefer, Suspense, Tiann Kruger Leave a comment

Scattered [2016] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When a group of friends gathers at a mutual friend’s house to celebrate her graduation from law school and upcoming bar exam, none of them could have anticipated or predicted what would happen to them that night.  Some of them are frustrated that their old friend has become a Christian and refuses to get high with them, so they decide to have their own ‘party’ secretly in her house.  However, what they do not know is that supernatural forces beyond their control are at work and they will be taken for the psychological ride of their lives—whether they want to or not.

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

Much like The Basement, Scattered begins with very poor production quality, including too many tight, awkward camera angles and too much shaking camera work for dramatic effects.  Though video and audio quality are relatively stable throughout, there is really only one set in this film with no outside locations except for within flashbacks.  Props are mostly fine throughout, but there are some cheesy ‘horror’ special effects that really need to be eliminated.  There are also too many choppy cuts and transitions, as well as a lot of disorienting editing to try to add to the psychological effect.  However, relatively halfway through the film, a switch if flipped and it suddenly becomes a respectable production.  Thus, it ends up average in the end, but that is not all that changes throughout this film.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Scattered begins as annoying as The Basement was throughout, including a lot of stupid and mindless dialogue that makes non-Christian characters very bad and Christian characters too good.  It’s also hard to keep up with all the characters at first as the first half of the plot really has no coherent thought or direction.  However, it is clear that the first half is trying to kick the can down the road to get to the big twist this movie hinges upon, however, this is not done in a very good fashion.  The tone and premise of the first half is very strange and off-putting, including ridiculous horror elements.  Though this part drags on way too long due to wasted, pointless conversations and empty scenes, the middle of the story totally flips the script and suddenly becomes the best Christian horror plot written to date.  Flashbacks are used very effectively to suddenly build the characters into real people and the ‘horror’ elements become justified and actually realistic.  The plot is not afraid to take on realistic gritty issues that people endure and suddenly makes its characters more gray rather than so black and white.  Thus, the ending is interesting and actually makes one want to see more.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Like the other elements of the film, the acting is quite bad at first.  The makeup is a standout problem in the beginning.  A lot of the cast members are trying way too hard at first, including forceful line delivery and wooden emotions.  However, even these issues demonstrate improvement as things completely change in the middle of the film.  The difference between the two halves is so stark that one has to wonder if the creative team completely changed in the middle.

Conclusion

Scattered bears a strong resemblance to Pendragon as a rare film that changes and improves throughout and is actually sustained by a strong and unique plot idea.  Yet the question still remains: since they showed they could improve, would it really have been that hard to go back and fix the beginning?  Sure, it would have taken more time, but think of the impact this film could have had.  This is likely the only good Christian horror concept on the market right now, and it most definitely needs to be reused in some way.  After the debacle of The Basement and the first half of this film, it seemed like JCL Production was just another failed venture, but with the total turnaround in Scattered, they have demonstrated that there is more to them than meets the eye.  Thus, it will be very interesting see what they can come up with next.

 

Final Rating: 4 out of 10 points

 

November 5, 2017January 3, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 4 points, Alex Neumeier, Anastasia Brunk, Angie Scuderi, Burt Laposka, Christabel Fitzgerald, Christina Carlos, Cynthia L. Leon, Damia Torhagen, Debra Ovall, Erin Nordseth, Erin Rose, Ervin Anthonly Merritt, Ervin Anthony Merritt, Fred Cherry, Horror, Isabel Scuderi, Jared M. Leon, JCL Productions, Jeff Jackson Jr., Kathy Sanders, Kenita Hunter, Mary Suib, Michael Sigler, Michelle Lewis, Mike R. Tinker, Patrick Vann, Psychological, Raian Stanley, Rowan Titus, Shane Scuderi, Smitty Chai, Suspense, Tonya Morrissey, Trish Lassinger, Vic Scuderi, Vic Suderi, Willem Krumich 1 Comment

Just a Measure of Faith (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Jacob refuses to let go of all of his problems and let God deal with them.  He goes around yelling at people all the time and can’t seem to shake those weird red demons that keep following him around.  He doesn’t want to surrender to God, but his life is falling apart.  Will Jacob ever be able to find his way?

 

Production Quality (0 points)

It’s painfully obvious that this film was not very well funded, so it’s very difficult to justify its creation.  From blurry video quality to shaky camera work, this production is your typical zero-pointer.  Audio quality is very poor, allowing many background sounds to cover things up.  The soundtrack is also very stock.  Sets, locations, and props are very cheap and limited.  There are also too many dizzying sequences filled with weird special effects.  Thus, the editing is awful and some scenes even cut off in the middle of a sentence.  There are too many obvious cuts and continuity errors as well.  Basically, this is a real mess.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

But it doesn’t end there.  Not only does this ‘plot’ have no focus, direction, or substance, it includes many wacky and laughable spiritual\psychological elements that temporarily turn the film into the cheapest possible ‘horror’ film.  The Christian message presented is extremely cheap and trite.  Too much time in this film is wasted on ridiculously forced and manufactured drama to the point of annoyance.  The characters are absurdly empty do to plastic dialogue.  In the end, this plot warrants negative points due to its abrasive and wildly off-the-wall nature.

Acting Quality (0 points)

As if the other elements of this film weren’t bad, the acting is among the worst.  Emotions are painfully forced and almost desperate at times.  Line delivery is excruciatingly awkward and completely unnatural.  Everything is very much over the top and unprofessional, thus rounding out a very sad and wasted effort.

Conclusion

These ‘let’s make a movie with our church’ projects rarely end well, but few of them mess up in such a memorably horrible fashion as this one does.  No matter how well they meant, there is no excuse for putting this kind of nonsense out there as a Christian film.  This entire project needed to be scrapped and started over.  Alas, this is another example of how not to make a Christian movie, part 3930942.

 

Final Rating: -1 out of 10 points

 

October 30, 2017January 4, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Inspirational, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2014, Horror, Inspirational, Larry Clark, LCMemphis/TCity Productions, Maranja May, Marlon Wilson, Maverick Entertainment, Mechelle Wilson, negative points, Psychological, Sylvester Brown, Tramaine Morgan 3 Comments

Invisible Enemies [1997] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Jackson decides it’s time to tell his son about a mysterious pair of glasses he came into possession of while in college.  Jackson tells his son of how this pair of glasses reveals the spiritual realm to whomever God has allowed to see it.  Jackson recounts how his discovery of the spiritual realm made his faith real to him and helped him to save his family and friends from certain destruction.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

As a 1997 production, this one is unfortunately not up to par.  It’s likely that funding was limited for this ‘educational’ drama, but it makes one wonder if it was justified.  Video quality is okay, as is audio quality, yet there are a lot of weird sound effects throughout, as well as strange lighting and wild special effects.  The soundtrack is also cheesy, yet sets, locations, and props are mostly fine.  Furthermore, this relatively short movie has choppy editing that stunts its development.  However, it may have never intended to be a real movie.  But if this was the case, why is it marketed like one?

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

Despite its meager origins, Invisible Enemies is actually based on an interesting idea that has potential, yet this story is neither well-constructed nor well-presented.  The characters are too one-dimensional due to stiff information-dump dialogue.  There is not enough time in this plot to do any real story work; it needs a lot of complexity and development.  This film has an overly simplistic portrayal of spirituality and it all culminates in a very cheesy climax that is hard to reconcile.  In the end, this was almost like a test idea that really wasn’t ready to be released to the public, but it’s been twenty years now, so here we are.

Acting Quality (1.5 points)

Surprisingly, the acting is the best part of this film, as the cast members post mostly average performances.  Some lines seem overly practiced and some emotions tend to be over the top, but on the whole, this is a fine effort.  The good thing is that at least this section demonstrates work towards the semblance of a film.

Conclusion

Films like Invisible Enemies are very hard to quantify.  They are put out there like a movie, so they are reviewed like a movie.  Yet there are many lingering elements that make it an overall odd experience to watch.  I feel like more could have been done with this concept beyond a simple ‘educational’ film.  But alas, budget constraints are always going to be an issue with independent Christian movies.  So once again we have another sub-par film that could have been better.

 

Final Rating: 3 out of 10 points

 

October 19, 2017January 4, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 1997, 3 points, Adam Sharp-Cole, Bill Muir, Bob Pinney, Creative Youth Resources, Cynthia Kennec, Dave Christiano Films, Horror, IMS Productions, Jap Van Sickle, Jason Guess, Jim Hancock, John Nance, Kellee Robin, Larry Curry, Michael Rahhal, Psychological, Randy Reeman, Rebeka Bourk, Ric Sieben, Stephen Bowlby, Stephen Vidano, Suspense Leave a comment

Pray 2: The Woods (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After Laurie Curtis survives her harrowing night being stalked by an evil man, she writes a book about her experience and becomes an instantly popular bestseller.  She goes on talk shows and stuff, but little does she know that she is about to be captured again by her nemesis.  Meanwhile, some random youth group is having a camp retreat and they encounter the same evil she does.  Will they be able to run, hide, and pray?

 

Production Quality (-2 points)

The second installment of this deplorable series is just as bad as the first.  Production is still horrible in every way—video quality is bad and lighting is awful.  Audio quality is still a bust, including a loud, creepy soundtrack and bizarre sound effects throughout.  Camera work looks like a camcorder is mounted on someone’s head while they’re running and walking around.  Sets, locations, and props are as bad as can be expected.  Finally, there is once again no editing.  We are still very unsure what the intent of this series is, but it’s setting records for consistently horrible production quality.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

Besides this film’s rehashing and shameless plugging of Pray 1, there is little plot content in this film except for constant forced suspense, talk show sequences, and sequences of random dialogue and activities of daily living.  It’s basically in the same vein of the first installment, just with some different characters and ideas.  The villain character is still a total joke and there are no attempts at all to make the protagonists seem real or even remotely interesting.  There really isn’t even a plot to speak of here, which warrants more negative points.  If you were wondering, the ending of this film is a blatant attempt to get a third installment, which unfortunately worked.

Acting Quality (0 points)

Though this acting job is not as bad as the first, it still doesn’t have anything going for it.  The performances are either flat or over the top in attempts to be interesting.  We get to see more of the villain actor, which isn’t a good thing.  In the end, the Pray Trilogy is going down as one of the most half-cocked, nonsensical experiences in Christian film.

Conclusion

If you fail at something, try a little harder next time.  I guess they did try harder in Pray 2, but they’re still not out of the red.  If something is bad the first time, don’t make three versions of it.  Yet apparently, nobody told this team that what they are making is garbage, because we need more Christian films or something.  Actually, we need more quality Christian films, not trash like this.  Flooding the market with this yard sale fodder isn’t going to cut it.

 

Final Rating: -3 out of 10 points

 

August 24, 2017January 7, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2008, Amy Mitchell, Andrea Moody, April Kruger, Audrey Battah, Brennan Scott Clark, Brian Harris, Callie Chaffin, Christopher Houldsworth, Clay Naylor, Colleen Ann Guest, Cross Shadow Productions, Delvin Brooks, Gezell Fleming, Gregory Bennett, Hayley Ogas, Heather Mae Wilson, Horror, J.T. Allen, Jacques K. Gilbert, Jody Vines, John Lewis III, Josh Smith, Lea Bonné, Matt Mitchell, negative points, Pray Trilogy, Psychological, Suspense, Tiann Kruger, William White 1 Comment

Pray. [2007] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After a group of friends goes to a Christian rock concert, they return to their hotel and experience some creepy goings-on, thus they decide to abandon their trip early and return home.  However, even when she returns home, one them feels herself being stalked by an unknown entity.  Elsewhere, a new mother of a baby feels herself being watched by someone, but she can’t put her finger on it.  Will any of them be able to trust in God to overcome the evil?

 

Production Quality (-2 points)

So you want to make a Christian horror movie, huh?  How about you examine the ones already made (like this one) and do everything the opposite way of how they did it.  The production of each of these Pray movies couldn’t be worse.  From dizzying camera zooms to weird camera angles to generally shaky footage, it’s a harrowing experience for all the wrong reasons.  Video quality is mostly poor and lighting is very inconsistent.  The soundtrack is far too loud and the audio is better at picking up the background sounds than the actual dialogue.  Sets and locations are severely limited and there is no editing whatsoever to speak of.  In the end, this production is definitely among the worst.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

A ‘Dove-Approved’ ‘Horror’ film can’t actually exist, right?  This means anything ‘horror-like’ has been stripped from it, thus we are left with activities of daily living, local news sequences, television preaching sequences, and most laughable jump scares rivaled only by other films made by these people and the new Left Behind.  There is barely enough dialogue in this film, and what dialogue exists is mostly confusing crosstalk conversations.  With so many sequences of ‘regular life’, there is not enough real suspense.  Any suspense therein is bizarre and manufactured.  Finally, the ending of this film is one of the most laughable and head-scratching experiences ever.  We let asking whether or not it can get any worse than this.

Acting Quality (-1 points)

As if the rest of the movie wasn’t bad enough, let’s add an extremely amateur and awkward cast to this mess.  The performances therein are goofy and unsure.  There is far too much yelling and screaming.  It’s so sad that this many people were roped into this nonsense.

Conclusion

The Christian horror genre is among the worst of Christian film, and this should not be.  It’s inexcusable to have so many basement-dwelling films in one genre, especially when this genre offers such a great opportunity to reach outside the walls of the church.  Yet it’s a very difficult genre to pull off, so it would be better to not even attempt it unless you absolutely know what you’re doing.  But wait…there’s two MORE of these films?!?

 

Final Rating: -4 out of 10 points

 

August 24, 2017January 7, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2007, Alpha-Omega Publications, Amy Mitchell, April Kruger, Audrey Battah, Bonnie Johnson, Christopher Houldsworth, Colleen Ann Guest, Cross Shadow Productions, Dave Ferrise, Delvin Brooks, Horror, Josh Smith, Lea Bonné, Matt Mitchell, negative points, Pray Trilogy, Psychological, Suspense, Tiann Kruger 2 Comments

Unwanted Presence (Movie Review)

Deliver us from stupid Christian horror films

Plot Summary

When Lindsay Parker moves to a new area for a new job, she looks forward to living in her newly-purchased home.  However, the longer she lives there, the more she realizes that evil is afoot in her home.  Things are moved on their own and she encounters strange noises and presences.  There is an ancient evil there she has no idea how to handle, so she turns to so-called paranormal ‘experts’ for help.  However, little does she know that only faith in God can save her now.

 

Production Quality (0 points)

So you set out to make a Christian horror film and you make sure to use the worst production quality possible.  Like many other independent Christian horror flicks, Unwanted Presence is an unwanted production.  Video quality is blurry and camera work is randomly shaky.  Lighting is also quite inconsistent.  Audio quality is terrible as it’s sometimes too loud but other times too quiet.  The soundtrack is also very cheesy and there are some screeching noises and ‘sound effects’ throughout.  Other special effects relating to the horror genre are also very stupid and juvenile.  Sets and locations are limited to basically one or two houses and the props are pedestrian.  Finally, there is no editing here as all possible content is included.  Basically, there’s  just nothing good to say here.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Is there such a thing as a good Christian horror film?  They are always either extremely cheesy and obvious or too vague.  The portrayal of spiritual elements and ‘quirky’ characters in this movie is so laughable that one has to wonder if this is another one of those parody films.  But in all seriousness, the spiritual circumstances portrayed in this story are downright unrealistic and actually suggest some dangerous practices.  Besides this, there is barely enough plot content to sustain a full-length film and the subplots are completely disjointed.  There are too many sequences depicting activities of daily living or some zany character’s antics.  None of the characters are believable or accessible.  Whether or not this film is to be taken seriously, it’s still awful.

Acting Quality (0 points)

This cast oscillates from being very robotic, practiced, and overly enunciated to downright mumbling their lines.  Facial expressions are not an issue dealt with very often, but the ones used by this cast are extreme and atrocious.  Emotions are flat and empty.  Need we say anything else about this mess?

Conclusion

Spiritual activity in a house is not something to play around with.  If this were actually happening to someone (it’s not likely to happen in the fashion this movie suggests), then I would advise them to move out because a haunted location is not something you can just pray away, unless for some reason God has given you special authority over an area.  For this movie to suggest this is childish and dangerous.  Regardless, Christian horror is a lost and confused genre that should probably be put on hiatus until someone can come up with a real story that is actually funded.

 

Final Rating: 0 out of 10 points

 

August 4, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 0 points, 2014, Angela Brown, Claire Hollis, Danielle Moceri, Dennis Wilson, Fay Stephenson, Hollis Productions, Horror, Jason Moceri, Lee Carson, Linda Friedt, Michael G. Barrett, Psychological, Sherry Morris, Suspense, Wanda Thomas, zero points Leave a comment

The Visitation [2006] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When a stranger comes to a small town begins performing miracles, he gains an immediate following.  However, a Baptist pastor and his friends are skeptical of the man, especially as his work grows more and more sinister.  As the town descends into spiritual chaos and demons take over people’s minds, will the Christians be able to stand against the growing evil that threatens the very soul of their town—or they be sucked into evil themselves?

 

Production Quality (-1 points)

As an early 2000s Fox Faith production, this team had the resources to make this film at least somewhat professional.  However, the production is neither respectable nor presentable.  It’s an absolute wreck full of cheesy special effects, constant jumps, and epilepsy-inducing flashes.  Camera work is extremely shaky and video quality is very blurry.  The lighting is very inconsistent and the sets, locations, and props are very cheap-looking.  Finally, as previously mentioned, the editing is atrocious, which makes for an unpleasant experience.  In short, there is nothing good whatsoever to say here.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

Frank Peretti was known in his time as a ground-breaking author who wasn’t afraid to breach different genres, but that doesn’t mean he always wrote good stories.  The Visitation is extremely thin on plot and character development in general.  It is beyond cheesy and includes tons of ridiculous horror elements that make for an extremely confusing and dizzying experience.  It’s really unfair to make someone watch this train wreck of a movie, as it jumps from one thing to the next, leaving the audience in a dazed wake.  It doesn’t even seem like this plot is trying to present a real story but is instead checking the box of having a Christian horror film for the sake of having it.  Needless to say, it doesn’t work—not in the least bit.

Acting Quality (0 points)

It’s probably safe to say that any cast that involves Randy Travis already has something wrong with it.  Otherwise, this cast is extremely dramatic, with lots of yelling and extreme emotions.  If they were going for a C-grade horror movie, they reached their goal on every single level.

Conclusion

It’s one thing to breach a new genre in Christian film, and it’s entirely another to butcher a film so badly that it creates a laughingstock.  Non-Christians might watch this film because it’s a horror flick, but they will find a total disaster with the name ‘Christian’ stamped on it.  To date, Christian horror is a genre that greatly suffers, but perhaps someone will turn it around one day…soon…

 

Final Rating: -2 out of 10 points

 

July 20, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2006, 20th Century Fox, Bobby Downes, Bobby Neutz, Brian Godawa, Brian W. Foster, Clement Blake, David A. R. White, David Bergeaud, Debi Kalman, Don Swayze, Edward Furlong, Elizabeth Hatcher-Travis, Ellen Geer, Fox Faith, Frank Clem, Frank Peretti, Geoff Ludlow, Hillary Tuck, Horror, James Horan, Jerry Rose, Jhey Castles, Joe Goodman, Joe Unger, Joshua Popke, Justin W. Hill, Kelly Lynch, Kelly Neutz, Kevin Downes, Leikos, Lew Temple, Lin Ciangio, Martin Donovan, Michael Webber, Mike Hamilton, Namesake Entertainment, negative points, Noah Segan, Priscilla Barnes, Psychological, Ralph Winter, Randy Travis, Richard Tyson, Robby Henson, Ron Hughart, Ruben Moreno, Scott Derrickson, Signal Hill Pictures, Suspense, The Total Living Network 1 Comment

Bells of Innocence (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When their small plane crashes in a weird little town that appears to be controlled by a Satanic cult, three men try everything they can think of to escape the madness as their townspeople, especially their creepy children.  But they find themselves taken captive by them and saved only by a mysterious man who appears to have power over the evil in the town.  He tells them that he has brought them to the town for a purpose—to drive out the evil and save the children.  Will the men be able to dig deep and find faith in the midst of evil?

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

As some production elements are fine while others are definitely not, Bells of Innocence is mostly an average production.  Video quality, camera work, and audio quality are fine, even though there are some overused and cheesy sound effects.  The soundtrack is average.  Sets, locations, and props are pedestrian.  There are too many montages and choppy sequences designed to waste time, but by far the worst production element is the use of very stupid and cheap-looking special effects that are supposed to be ‘horror-themed’.  They put a huge drag on the movie and make it seem like a joke.  In short, it feels like this film was just slapped together for the sake of having a horror plot featuring Chuck Norris.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

As we have mentioned before, horror is extremely difficult to pull off properly.  It must be done with the right motives and must never be taken lightly.  Bells of Innocence appears to be taking the issue lightly with this very bizarre idea that has a fixation on creepy children.  The premise is extremely juvenile and eye-roll-inducing.  As the writers try very hard to make this a ‘scary’ horror plot, it only comes off as desperate, wacky, and outright ridiculous.  The characters are completely empty and the villains are beyond cheesy.  Dialogue only serves the purpose of dumping information on the audience.  There are too many leaps in logic and time jumps for there to be any shred of sense or understanding of what is happening.  If you were wondering, this is another failed horror effort.

Acting Quality (0 points)

Who knew that there was a movie cast that included David A. R. White, Carey Scott, and Chuck Norris all in one package?  This collection of jokers is simply too much, considering the already absurd horror elements present.  Everything they do is overly dramatic and cardboard, like usual.  There are some other cast members too, but they are mostly irrelevant, like this movie is now.

Conclusion

The White\Scott\Norris collaboration has collectively and independently tried a little bit of everything to sell Christian movies just for the sake of being called Christian.  They dabbled into all kinds of different genres to cover the Christian entertainment market with their products.  It matters little at this point what their actual return was, because the legacy they left in their profit-seeking wake was a laughingstock and a blight on Christian film.  Hopefully, as new film makers are succeeding in the market, we can move past this unfortunate era of movies that produced garbage like Bells of Innocence.

 

Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points

 

July 4, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 1.5 points, 2003, Alin Bijan, Alyssa-Jane Cook, Amin Emam, Carey Scott, Chris Bessey, Chuck Norris, David A. R. White, Gabby Di Ciolli, Grant James, Horror, Julie Arebalo, Marcus Moziek, Marshall R. Teague, Matthew Greer, Mike Norris, Norris Family Films, Norris Film Works, Psychological, Scarlett McAlister, Scotty Veale, Sonia Pourmand, Tara Di Leva, Tony Arbelaez 1 Comment

Awakened [2011] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When Jacob Harker loses his job as a newspaper reporter, he and his wife Haley are forced to move to a small rental house so they can regroup.  While Jacob looks for a new job, he becomes fascinated with some of the belongings left in the rental house’s basement, especially a strange record player that contains hypnotic recordings of a singer that draw Jacob in.  The more time Jacob spends with the recordings, the more he and Haley are attacked by an evil spirit.  Who will prevail in the end?  Will they ever escape the clutches of evil that are hidden in the recordings?

 

Production Quality (.5 point)

Making a horror movie is not an excuse to cut corners on production.  Awakened doesn’t even attempt to use the found footage crutch; it’s just one bad production.  While video quality if fine, basically only one set is utilized in the entire film, and with it comes poor lighting and unprofessional camera work.  Audio quality is also below standard, including overdubs and an almost non-existent soundtrack.  Editing is very much lacking as the runtime is very linear.  Unfortunately, there is not really much positive to highlight here; this is just another example of a lazy production effort.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Horror is already a very difficult genre to pull off.  Adding in typical cheesy Christian movie elements is not a winning combination.  First of all, why do we care about this obscure collection of recordings from an unknown artist?  Second of all, is this plot actually supposed to be scary?  Most of the time it seems like it’s trying to suggest horror elements without actually going all the way.  Hardly anything happens in this lame story as the clueless characters mindlessly sit around and do random things.  The premise and the coincidences therein are so trivial that this movie is more unintentional comedy than horror.  As the story goes on, things get more and more bizarre and thus are likely isolate most Christian audiences.  It’s one thing to go after a niche audience and it’s another to make people roll their eyes at another sloppy effort.

Acting Quality (2 points)

Though this cast is tiny, they are actually the bright spot of the film as they make the most of the little help they are given.  There are not really any glaring errors to point out here as they are mostly professional.  Some emotions seem overdone, but on the whole, this is a surprisingly respectable acting and casting job.

Conclusion

There is definitely a place for Christian horror films in the field, but this is definitely not the way to make one.  Whenever you deal with spiritual matters, especially the demonic, it’s not to be taken lightly.  Horror can be used to reach people outside of typical Christian entertainment circles, but only when it’s done with purpose, prayer, and redemption.  Willy-nilly nonsense like Awakened isn’t going to cut it.  Stuff like this only produces more laughs at the expense of Christian entertainment’s already-flimsy reputation.

 

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

 

July 3, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie ReviewsTags: 2.5 points, 2011, Brian R. Reed, Charles E. Lee, Crossing Hollow Films, Eugene Cuevas, Gwendolyn Edwards, Hannah Hughes, Horror, Jessica Walston, Mia Frost, Michael Monks, Michael Stiles, Noah Lance Holcomb, Rob Boltin, Robert W. Hill, Sandra Ellis Lafferty, Scott Perkins, Terry Boyer Leave a comment

The Veritas Project: Hangman’s Curse (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

The Veritas Project consists of the Springfield family—their job is to work with local law enforcement undercover in order to discover the origins of unusual happenings in small towns.  Their next job is to go undercover at a high school that seems to be haunted by the curse of a teen who hung himself inside the school one night.  Seemingly random deaths keep happening that are tied back to the hanging and to dark happenings at the school.  Will they be able to get to the bottom of it before it’s too late?

 

Production Quality (1 point)

Like many early 2000s productions distributed by Fox Faith, Hangman’s Curse has its high points and its issues that keep it from being all it could be.  For example, the video quality is unnecessarily grainy and there is poor lighting throughout.  However, the sets, locations, and props are realistic and appropriate.  Audio quality is fine except for the cheesy soundtrack and the cheap sound effects that are dubbed on top of the normal audio.  There are also a lot of very juvenile horror-related special effects that are actually quite annoying.  Finally, the editing is fairly choppy as scenes end abruptly, off-screen content is referred to often, and transitions do not flow well.  In the end, it’s possible that this production team’s budget was not ready to handle a sci-fi\horror film, so they might should have rethought this effort.

Plot and Storyline Quality (.5 point)

Though Frank Peretti knows how to craft an interesting enough Christian horror\sci-fi plot, Hangman’s Curse crams too much content into a short amount of time.  This stunts character develop and forces dialogue to be rushed and packed with information.  Sometimes the premise of this ‘horror’ concept is hard to believe and is even a little silly at times.  We are supposed to treat the issue as serious, but it is difficult to do so because it all seems too shallow.  There are too many very cheesy half-attempts at horror that are more annoying than effective.  Like too many sci-fi plots, this one relies too heavily on the ‘twist’ and the concept revealed near the end rather than actual character development.  It’s hard to care about what’s going on when it all rushes by so fast all in the name of solving the mystery in under two hours.  In the end, some will find this story interesting, but it does not appeal to every audience.

Acting Quality (2 points)

The casting and acting of this film are definitely its strong suit.  Though there is nothing truly dynamic about the cast members’ performances, they are also not detracting or negative.  Their emotions are mostly believable and their line delivery is professional.  This should be the baseline for acting in Christian film.

Conclusion

Frank Peretti has always been a genre pioneer in Christian entertainment.  He went where other Christians were afraid to go and opened up a whole new world for both writing and movies.  While there is nothing inherently wrong with his work, this particular film does not capture it well, and this could be due to the early days of Christian productions.  Perhaps if this film were made today, it would be better.

 

Final Rating: 3.5 out of 10 points

 

May 31, 2017January 8, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, Sci-Fi, SuspenseTags: 2003, 3.5 points, Alexander Deeney, Andrea Morris, Bobby Brewer, Bobby Neutz, Cecil Ellsworth, Daniel Farber, David Bergeaud, David Keith, Debbie Calman, Douglas Smith, Edwin Hodge, Fox Faith, Frank Peretti, George Humphreys, Horror, Jake Richardson, Jerry Rose, Jesse Kendall, Joe Goodman, Kathy Mackel, Kelly Neutz, Kristin Cowan, Kristopher Higgins, Leighton Meester, Liz Schilling, Margaret Travolta, Mel Harris, Mystery, Namesake Entertainment, Nehemiah Zilar, North by Northwest Entertainment, Paul Lucas, Psychological, Rafal Zielinski, Ralph Winter, Rich Cowan, Ryan Flanery, Sci-Fi, Stan Foster, Stephanie Brush, Steven Buhai, Steven J. Barry, Suspense, Teresa Suter, The Total Living Network, Tom Wright, William R. Moses Leave a comment

Deceived [2002] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

When a secret space observatory in Nevada picks up a mysterious and erratic signal from outer space, a powerful billionaire who owns the observatory forms a team made up of his spiritual guide, two investigative reporters, and his company’s computer technician to fly out to the observatory to find out what happened.  Some of them believe they have been contacted by intelligent beings from outer space, while others believe something more sinister is going on.  The signal also draws the attention of a specialized squadron of troops, some of whom have questionable abilities.  As they all meet up at the observatory, who will prevail?  Will they ever discover the truth of what is really out there?

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

As an early 2000s Cloud Ten production, Deceived is mostly average in its production quality.  the biggest detractors are the grainy video quality and poor lighting in most scenes.  There are also too many cheesy special effects that are used in an attempt to be different and sci-fi.  However, the sets, locations, and props seem realistic enough.  Audio quality is also fine and the soundtrack is intriguing.  Finally, the editing job is decent and overall rounds out an average production.  It certainly could have been better, but it could have also been worse.  However, there is not much we can say for the plot.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

With a cheesy sci-fi premise that’s full of technological mumbo-jumbo and empty dialogue, Deceived tries to be creative and different, yet misses the mark badly.  There is far too much time wasted on petty conflicts and not enough time spent on character development.  While some of the characters could be interesting, we barely get to know them in the midst information dump dialogue and monologuing.  The Christian characters are too perfect while the non-Christian characters are too flawed.  There are also too many spiritual elements that come off as a bizarre in an attempt to bridge the horror genre.  The ending is quite confusing and seems like the writers just ran out of ideas.  In the end, this is a very disappointing story that could have been interesting.

Acting Quality (1 point)

With a cast made up of semi-professionals, these cast members have their good moments, but unfortunately, the bad moments outweigh the good.  There are too many overly dramatic and theatrical performances.  Emotions are hard to connect with.  In the end, they do not live up to their full potential.

Conclusion

The early 2000s era of Christian film had some noble attempts to bridge different genres Christian film had never bridged before, and John Patus and Cloud Ten Pictures were on the forefront of this attempt.  However, for the most part, these attempts did not fulfill their fullest potential and settled for half-measures, probably because the market was so thin then.  Much has happened since these films came out, but they can certainly serve as an example of how and how not to expand Christian film into unique genres.  Yesterday’s disappointments can certainly be remedied in the future.

 

Final Rating: 2.5 out of 10 points

 

April 24, 2017January 9, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Horror, Movie Reviews, Sci-Fi, SuspenseTags: 2.5 points, 2002, André van Heerden, Apocalyptic, Bill MacDonald, Cloud Ten Pictures, Darius Films, Deborah Odell, Gary Koftinoff, Horror, Jason Knight, Jefferson Mappin, John Patus, Judd Nelson, Louis Gossett Jr., Melissa Haller, Michelle Nolden, Mike Realba, Nicholas Tabarrok, Paul Fauteux, Paul Lalonde, Psychological, Ramona Milano, Sci-Fi, Shoreline Entertainment, Speculative, Stewart Bick, Suspense 1 Comment

The Watchers: Revelation (Movie Review)

Yup.

Plot Summary

Creatures claiming to be extraterrestrials are controlling the world’s leaders by revealing information on weapons to some.  The humans who know about this are either controlled by the beings or are ordered to be killed.  It seems that no one stands a chance against these alien forces, but a small group of Christians claims to have to tools necessary to fight these creatures.  Thus, it comes down to a battle between good and evil inside a warehouse (where else?), where all will be revealed, including some end times stuff.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

So another random company sets out to create a Christian sci-fi\horror film with a very limited budget.  These are the most difficult genres to craft, so doing so with a limited budget makes it nearly impossible to do properly.  Sets, locations, and props in this film are very cheap and limited.  There is poor lighting in some of the scenes, although camera work, video quality, and audio quality are mostly okay.  One of the biggest detractors in this production is the existence of ridiculous and over the top special effects that come off as very juvenile.  Finally, the editing is horrible as scenes cut from one thing to the next, leaving the audience very confused as to what is happening.  In short, no care was given to this production as it was just slapped together for the purpose of pushing an agenda.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Filled with heavy-handed propaganda messaging and isolating information dump dialogue, Watchers: Revelation is a real doozy.  The characters are very empty and only exist to robotically download ideas and theories the writers have, which are actually quite absurd and childish.  There are also a lot of conversations about things that happen off-screen as the storyline jumps all over the place with no continuity.  Things just randomly happen that leaving the viewer scratching their head.  On a lighter note, this plot has an interesting spiritual concept that is of course wasted and used improperly.  However, this fact is not enough to overcome all of the other glaring errors here.

Acting Quality (0 points)

This film contains the most robotic acting I have ever witnessed.  The overly practiced line delivery sounds like a computer is talking instead of a person.  Thus, there are zero emotions and many cast members do not have a future in acting.  There are also some amateurish makeup errors.  Basically, this entire film is a wash.

Conclusion

It never pays to use a cheap film to push your personal propaganda.  It also is a bad idea to try to make your first movie a complex idea that requires special effects and explanation of foreign ideas to the audience.  Also, if you’re going to write a sci-fi plot, please make sure it’s actually a good idea and not some half-baked theory that invites unintentional comedy and mockery.  Writing a story because of a theory never pays off, so please don’t continually clutter up Christian entertainment with it.

 

Final Rating: 1 out of 10 points

 

April 5, 2017January 10, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, Sci-Fi, SuspenseTags: 1 point, 2013, Angela Tomaselli, Annie Williams, Apocalyptic, Carissa Dallis, David Gaylor, Donnie Piper, Ensignmedia, Eugene Pridgett, Floyd Schierholt, Gregory Patrick Agnew, Horror, Jason Wilson, Jeff Wilson, John Grewell, Kaitlin Lory, Kyle Hotz, Patti-Dale Wood, Psychological, Rachel Barkalow, Russell Williams, Sci-Fi, Shannon Combs, Speculative, Suspense, Theus Aspiras, Titus Young Wolverton, Tom Dallis, Tyler Trent Leave a comment

Apocalypse 3: Tribulation (Movie Review)

Creepers…

Plot Summary

Tom Canboro doesn’t believe in God or the supernatural, but his sister does and insists that he should before it’s too late.  However, one day, his brother-in-law begins to go insane, along with other people around the world.  Then Tom falls into a coma and wakes up to an entirely different world.  Everyone is following a world leader and receiving his required mark.  Will Tom turn to God before it’s too late?

 

Production Quality (1 point)

Not much about production changes throughout this agonizing series.  Though video quality has finally improved, the film is filled with unwatchable and dizzying action scenes.  Audio quality is fine, but the soundtrack is cheesy.  Sets and locations are somewhat limited and there is some poor lighting in certain scenes.  In keeping with the theme of this series, Tribulation is full of more product placements from Jack Van Impe, John Hagee, and even T. D. Jakes for some reason.  Finally, the editing is all over the place and causes a confusing plot development.  In short, though tiny improvements are being made, it’s just not enough.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

This installment is perhaps the most bizarre and sensational as it includes a lot of horror and creepy spiritual elements.  There are a lot of strange and bizarre sequences of violence, including sensationalized demonic activity.  The occult is portrayed in a childish manner yet there is still an obsession with the satanic.  All of this is combined with the forceful and ridiculous apocalyptic worldview that is being propagated in the midst of this madness.  The storyline is very incoherent as it jumps all over the place and fills time with information dump dialogue.  Most of the characters, especially the antichrist, are extreme strawmen and really have no potential.  In short, it feels like this movie was only made for the sensational appeal rather than anything meaningful, and it’s still horrible.

Acting Quality (.5 point)

In keeping with the theme of sensationalism, emotions are over the top and obnoxious.  Line delivery is mostly forced.  While there are some good factors, this cast seems overall disingenuous, especially when one finds out that a handful of these cast members didn’t even know they were in a Christian movie when they agreed to this lunacy.  I guess they should have known that a movie this bad would be labeled as Christian.

Conclusion

Besides everything else, how does this installment fit into the series?  There are some connecting elements, but this ridiculous series as a whole really has no continuity or sense whatsoever.  If PureFlix had been named as a contributor to this mess, I would have believed it.  Constantly pushing TV preacher talking points and products transposed on top of a C-grade horror film is only a recipe for disaster.  Once again, scaring people into Christianity is a failing strategy and only serves to feed someone’s obsession with the sensational.  But don’t worry, there’s only one more of these…

 

Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points

 

March 8, 2017January 10, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Horror, International, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 1.5 points, 2000, André van Heerden, Apocalypse Film Projects Inc., Apocalypse series, Apocalyptic, Beki Lantos, Blair Johannes, Cloud Ten Pictures, Costa Kamateros, Darren Josephs, Erik Knudsen, Gary Busey, Gary Koftinoff, Gerry Quigley, Heather Hodgson, Horror, Howie Mandel, International, J.D. Nicholsen, Jack Van Impe, Jack Van Impe Ministries, James Brinkley, James Downing, John Hagee, John Hagee Ministries, Joseph Ziegler, Lawrence Bayne, Leigh Lewis, Margot Kidder, Nicholas Tabarrok, Nick Mancuso, Nicolas Swan, Nicole Nordeman, Nigel Shawn Williams, Patrick Gallagher, Paul Lalonde, Peter Lalonde, Phillip Jarrett, Psychological, Randy Butcher, Rexella Van Impe, Rothaford Gray, Roy Lewis, Sci-Fi, Sherry Miller, Speculative, Sugith Varughese, Suspense, T.D. Jakes, Wayne Best 4 Comments

Charge Over You (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

After Sarah’s mother tragically dies, she begins to lose her sense of purpose in life.  Then, in a moment of weakness, she allows herself to be influenced in a dangerous way and finds herself being pursued by a dark and mysterious man who suddenly takes interest in her.  Life becomes more confusing for her when her father tells her his future plans.  She wants to believe that there is more to life than she can perceive, but as the darkness closes in, she has nowhere to turn.

 

Production Quality (1.5 points)

For a low budget production, Charge Over You is great, though it still has some issues.  Video quality and camera work are mostly good, though the opening sequence is pretty roughly done.  The audio quality is sometimes too poor, including loud background noises, but the soundtrack is superb.  Sets and locations are realistic, but some of the inside scenes are too dark.  There also tends to be too much silence throughout, along with too many wasted sequences.  However, it is clear that thought was put into this effort as there is plenty of positive to find here, especially for a first time work.

Plot and Storyline Quality (1 point)

Despite the confusing opening sequence, Charge Over You makes excellent use of flashbacks and well-constructed dialogue that is centered around the debate of logic versus spirituality.  Though this film deals with the demonic and the Satanic, it handles the issues differently than most films, although we would have liked to see a deeper storyline to accompany it.  There are great ideas embedded into this plot, but they need more development and complexity, as do all of the characters.  Dialogue ranges across many topics, but more focus is needed to give this film a sense of direction.  The mysterious elements in this film are commendable, but they also seem to waste too much time—more content was needed to make them effective.  While there is a good message in this film that is not overly-preachy, there are some cheesy characters to derail it.  Also, the ending sequence is fairly amateurish and leaves something to be desired.  In short, this is a great effort and has tons of potential; cultivating this will lead to great things.

Acting Quality (2.5 points)

The casting and acting are the strongest points of this film.  Though these are mostly ‘amateur’ actors and actresses, they do a great job.  Line delivery is effective and emotions are believable.  The only caveat to highlight here is some cheesy acting by one particular cast member, but it’s not enough to hurt this effort.  This portion is a job well done.

Conclusion

The CitiPointe Church team has a lot of potential and creatively waiting to be tapped into.  They handle spiritual warfare issues fairly well, though this movie is overall an unfinished idea that desperately needs a remake.  Nonetheless, this low budget production shows promise and the casting is excellent.  Therefore, it will be interesting to see if this team has any more productions planned for the future, because they could be onto something big.

 

Final Rating: 5 out of 10 points

 

January 23, 2017January 11, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, Psychological, SuspenseTags: 2010, Brenton Thwaites, Citipointe Church Brisbane, Dan Shuker, Danya Cox, Dominic Deutscher, five points, Gabriella Di Labio, George Salloum, Horror, Jacqui Hall, James E. Lee, Julia Matthews, Miriam Bell, Phase 4 Films, Psychological, Ray Croft, Regardt Steenekamp, Samantha Sword, Triumphant Dreams Productions Leave a comment

Divination [2011] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Jason and Jessica are a young married couple excited to be having their first child.  But soon after they discover the good news, they begin being tormented by strange people and beings.  Jason cannot stop seeing evil spirits in his mind.  A spiritual battle based on ‘intel’ ensues as angels and demons battle over the minds of this young couple.

 

Production Quality (0 points)

Though the cheesy opening credits sequence suggests that Divination was meant to be the first in a series, that was thankfully not the case.  On the whole, this production is a mess, starting with strange video quality and shaky camera work that looks like it’s from a camcorder.  The audio quality is inconsistent and full of echoes, including weird sound effects.  Lighting is poor in many of the limited sets.  To top things off, there are tons of terrible special effects and CGI used throughout the film.  Basically, this is a horrid effort.

Plot and Storyline Quality (-1 points)

Besides the fact that there are too many things going on in this so-called storyline, it’s filled with purposely creepy spiritual elements.  There are many bizarre elements and twists and turns that defy logic and sense.  The plot is very in-your-face and obvious when it comes to the demonic and spends far too much time focusing on demons.  In other areas, the dialogue is very forced, thus creating wooden characters, and the ending makes no sense.  Overall, this alleged plot is so annoying that it warrants negative points.

Acting Quality (0 points)

It seems like some effort was taken to coach this cast, but it was done all wrong.  The actors and actresses are far too theatrical and come off as over-practiced.  Emotions aren’t very believable and line delivery is wooden.  In short, this rounds out a very weird and disappointing creation.

Conclusion

Someone needs to address spiritual warfare in the context of Christian film, but at this point, we have yet to find anyone who has done so properly.  Films like this are always far too focused on the demonic and the Satanic and generally expose the fact that their creators have no idea what they’re doing.  Attempts to be sensational and to get attention are evident in movies like Divination, and this is clearly not the message that needs to be communicated.  It’s disappointing when interesting concepts like spiritual warfare are wasted, but hopefully someone can learn something from this mess.

 

Final Rating: -1 out of 10 points

December 26, 2016January 13, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Horror, Movie Reviews, PsychologicalTags: 2011, Ben Andrews, Ben Pohl, D'Angelo Midili, Eric Riedmann, Horror, J.P. Giuliotti, James David Grixoni, James Tobin, Katarina Choi, Lisa Coronado, Natasha Sims, negative points, Nick Denke, Philipp Aurand, Psychological, Tucker Boggio 4 Comments

The Remaining (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

Jack, Dan, and Allison are excited to be a part of the special day for their friends Tommy and Skylar, who are marrying each other.  Dan looks forward to capturing the day with his camera.  However, the wedding reception is interrupted by an unexplainable cataclysmic event—thousands around the world are turning up suddenly dead.  As if this was not enough, natural disasters begin occurring one after another, driving the five friends to seek shelter along with millions of others as darkness descends on the planet.  They must come to grips with the Christian beliefs they have long been ignoring in order to survive the chaos.

 

Production Quality (0 points)

This is intended to be a found footage production, but the movie does not stick with found footage for the entire duration, even though multiple characters are shown filming with various devices.  In conjunction with this, the camera work is expectedly shaky, probably to add some kind of sensational feel.  Since this is supposed to be a horror movie, there are also obligatory cheesy jump scares, cheap dark action, and poor special effects.  Multiple scenes have constant flashing lights or piercing noises, making for a cringing watch.  In addition, there are multiple scenes that repeat over again due to characters watching the footage they have already recorded.  In summary, the production is C-grade; do not watch if you have epilepsy or dizziness problems, because this movie will not be kind to you.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

What is the plot?  The Remaining falls in line with many apocalyptic action and horror movies that discard the plot and exchange it for sensationalism.  There is no driving purpose except for trumped up drama.  There too many characters, and they are all empty, neglected in a quest to attempt to entertain young audiences, we are guessing.  The dialogue is stock and forced, like it was added just because the characters had to say something.  The Biblical elements of the movie are juxtaposed on top of an overdone horror concept.  No matter where you stand on end-times prophecy, the succession of the judgments is sped up to suit this movie’s runtime.  Furthermore, the end of the movie is extremely perplexing, like they just ran out of ideas.

Acting Quality (0 points)

The acting is cheesy and amateurish.  Most of the time, the actors are either trying too hard or not trying at all.  Horror acting is already bad enough, and this cast took it to a whole new level.  We feel that even coaching would not have helped because of this movie’s clear lack of direction.

Conclusion

The Remaining feels like a group of college students got together and wanted to make a horror movie.  When they were rejected by mainstream producers, they decided to slap a Christian message on it and hope it stuck.  Why this movie was distributed is beyond Box Office Revolution.  It should have been stripped of its funding early in the production process.  It will forever be remembered as one of those cheesy Christian apocalypse films that never made any real impact.

 

Final Rating: 0 out of 10 points

January 30, 2016January 18, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Apocalyptic, Drama, Horror, Movie Reviews, SuspenseTags: 0 points, 2014, Affirm Films, Alexa PenaVega, Apocalyptic, Brad Luff, Bryan Dechart, Casey La Scala, Chris Dowling, Erin Murphy, Horror, Italia Ricci, John Pyper-Ferguson, Johnny Pacar, Judd Lormand, Kimberley Drummond, Liz E. Morgan, Marc Bienstock, Nathan Whitehead, Nina Repeta, Peter Schafer, Ravi Naidu, Rusty Martin Sr., Shaun Sipos, Suspense 5 Comments

Left Behind [2014] (Movie Review)

Plot Summary

All Rayford Steele really cares about is his job as a pilot.  He’s disillusioned with his family due to his wife’s Christian faith and due to his daughter’s growing absence.  That’s why he’s buried himself in his work, overlooking the fact that both his wife and his daughter desperately want to see him again, as does his son.  After briefly reuniting with his daughter, Ray’s job once again takes in a different direction.  Chloe Steele returns home only to conflict with her mother over Christianity.  But before any of them can reconcile, a global tragedy rocks their worlds.  Before long, they realize that their lives will never be the same and they must grapple with the bigger questions they have been ignoring all along.

 

Production Quality (1 point)

The production of this Left Behind redo is the only remotely positive element.  However, the only good aspect of the production is the semi-decent camera work, including average angles and video quality.  However, the movie is also replete with cheap action sequences and poor special effects.  The soundtrack is a stock suspense score.  The editing is confusing, cutting in and out of scenes for no particular reason.  There are also a number of stupid jump scares that give the movie a very odd feel.  Unfortunately, the weirdness doesn’t end there.

Plot and Storyline Quality (0 points)

Where to start?  The dialogue is among the worst, ranging from Christian clichés to action-adventure clichés to isolating technical lingo.  Thus, the characters are either bland or unbearable.  Also, there are a number of unnecessary characters that only seem to fill time in the already too-long story.  Besides all of this, there is unsolicited profanity and suggestive content throughout.  Overall, the plot line is aimless as it jumps from one trumped up action scene to the next and fills the rest in with wasted time, just trying to set up for a sequel.  There is no driving point as the movie drags on, making the viewer want to get to the end as quickly as possible.

Addendum: With John Patus involved in both movies, this new version of Left Behind is basically the same plot as The Mark.

Acting Quality (.5 point)

A word of advice: never cast Nicolas Cage for an action movie.  Some of the other actors are not awful, but overall, the delivery of lines is vanilla and unconvincing.  Jordin Sparks is a decent actor and deserves a second chance.  Moreover, there wasn’t much to work with, but the acting just gives the movie an overall B-grade feel.

Conclusion

The creators of this new Left Behind won a court battle with Tim LaHaye over using his concepts in a different way.  Box Office Revolution has to wonder why they couldn’t just create their own characters, but we can affirmatively say that winning the copyright way did not pay off.  This movie was really not worth making in any sense.  The creators now blame everything on ‘Hollywood taking away the Christian message.’  BOR holds that this is not the whole truth.  All that has been proven in this movie is that independent Christian films, except for the few exceptions, continue to contribute to their negative reputation by rolling out more and more unnecessary movies.  A word of advice: if you don’t have the budget for and\or a lot of constructive critical feedback on your movie, then don’t make it.

 

Final Rating: 1.5 out of 10 points

January 27, 2016January 6, 2019 by Box Office Revolutionary Categories: Action Adventure, Apocalyptic, Drama, Horror, International, Movie Reviews, SuspenseTags: 1.5 points, 2014, Alec Rayme, Apocalyptic, Apocalyptic Plane Plots, Cassi Thomson, Cell Phone Coverage at 20000 Feet, Chad Michael Murray, Cheesy Jump Scares, Ed Clydesdale, Gary Grubbs, Georgina Armstrong, Han Soto, Jack Lenz, Jerry B. Jenkins, John Patus, Jordin Sparks, Kamryn Johnson, Lance Nichols, Lea Thompson, Left Behind Saga, Lolo Jones, Major Dodson, Martin Klebba, Matthew Florida, Michael Walker, Nicky Whelan, Nicolas Cage, Paul Lalonde, Quinton Aaron, Stephanie Honoré, Stuck on a Plane, Suspense, Tim LaHaye, Vic Armstrong, William Ragsdale 7 Comments