Customer Reviews

Child of Darkness Child of Light [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A priest is sent from Vatican city to investigate two virgin births that were promised in a letter that hadn't been opened until the last decade of the 20th century. The promise is that one of the virgin teenagers will give birth to a child who will give goodness to the world, and the other virgin will give birth to the anti-Christ. Although filmed very well, nicely laid out and containing a few dedicated performances, this isn't nearly as good as those similar, theatrical films from earlier in time like "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Omen." Fine score by Jay Gruska enhances the experience here. It is a TV movie, however, and for that, I must give it credit for being quite effective and entertaining. Sela Ward steals the show in this so-so Catholic chiller.

This is one of those AntiChrist movies. Similar to The Seventh Sign and The Omen. It's about two pregnancies of two unwed mothers who are virgins of course and one is pregant with an evil antichrist and one is pregnant with a Christ like child.Your just suppose to figure out which is which. And enjoy it because it is pretty good.

This film was made from the novel Virgin, which is a messy, clunky piece of work...the film version is much better. The film has a gritty, realistic surface, a believability...and a genuine startle factor which is hard to come by. The imagery is beautiful and disturbing in a manner that the novelist never intended and the novel never approaches. There's a scene involving a shed full of pigeons that I remember with envy, wishing that I could write something that frightening and good.

Kristin Datillo, who's finally getting some press, was very young when she acted in this film, and heart-rendingly beautiful. It's strange that her work in this film didn't get her more critical and popular attention, for she turned in a very strong performance.

I liked this movie. And I'm not usually a fan of this type of movie. The scene where the priest is seducing the nun is incredible and the frightening scenes will grab you when you leaast expect it.

This movie is a reasonable adaption of the James Patterson novel, "Cradle and All". As with most adaptions, there have been changes made - some significant and some not so much - but overall the effect makes for a nicely chilling religious thriller.

Needless to say, the book is far more involved than the film could ever hope to be, but both are equally enjoyable.

We are presented with an old prophesy, and two girls who have been blessed/cursed by the apparent phenomenon of a virgin pregnancy; and a young priest is sent to investigate each one to determine which girl is carrying the Christ child and which is carrying the Anti-Christ.

There are a couple of nice plot twists towards the end of the film, which I won't give away here. Personally, I never saw the major twist coming, partly because I'd never read the book and partly because I was rather young when I saw the film and simply wasn't expecting it.

Give this movie a chance, if you have the opportunity to see it. Whilst not on par with classic thrillers like The Exorcist and The Omen, or even Rosemary's Baby, this movie is still good enough to give a few sound scares, and the closing scene is pretty cool as well, if slightly corny.

Arophecy is proving of deep concern to the vatican-it foretells two virgin births ,one will prove to be the new Christ and the other will be the Anti-Christ.Which is which -that is the question troubling the clerics

One child is due to the daughter of a family in an impoverished milltown in Pennsylvania while the other will be born to the daughter of monied Bostonians .A personable young priest and an equally attractive yopung nun are sent to investigate and reach a conclusion.The usual portents of evil gather around both impending births-ravens ,a sinister black garbed man seen only in silhouette etc
This is a decently made movie but one hamstrung bu the TV movie format which prevents things from getting quite as disturbing and edgy as they really need to be for this kind of subject.The script is no great help either as it often takes up issues only to drop them unceremonniosly before the debate gets too weighty ;there is a virus that may or may not portend apocalypse and after a short discussion (which clearly raises the AIDS issue ,is dropped).Likewise a debate between the relationship of religion and science raised by a Doctor is taken up and quickly dropped .
Acting is bland and direction is routine .The movie is not bad by any means -just a lightweight version of The Omen or The Seventh Sign .those movies are better bets if you want movies exploring similar themes

This movie is about two virgins getting pregnant, one with God's child and the other with the Devil's. Great story line and plot. It keeps you guessing who is pregnant with what child and the ending is great.

Although the premise of this TV-movie is interesting, I thought the plot overall got bogged down in bad-horror-movie silliness: Evil priests, insane nuns who show up to family dinner naked, Catholic school cliches, and oh yeah...two girls who are virgins yet obviously pregnant. One is carrying the next child of God, while the other is carrying the spawn of the devil. I got a bit bored about halfway through and started fast-forwarding through some of the more plodding plot devices. I don't remember the name of the actor playing the lead priest (Dennison I think is the last name), but Sela Ward is the nun, Kristen Datillo plays one of the pregnant girls, and in his acting debut (give or take a guest role on TV shows), Josh Lucas, plays one of the girls' boyfriend, who may or may not have had sex with her. All do a fine job with the material, although how much range do you need to look 1) concerned, 2) frightened, 3) indignant, 4) self-righteous, etc. I have to admit, I bought the movie to complete my Josh Lucas collection. He doesn't do a great job, but he definitely shows promise here and is believable as a high school jock who lies about his sexual conquests to his buddies, at the risk of making the evil force angry. It's hard to believe that this kid barely out of high school (He was 19 or 20 when this was made) is now starting get lead roles and critical acclaim.

Being a made-for-TV movie does have its drawbacks. The atmosphere could be a little more foreboding, although these Catholic boarding schools look like ancient mansions with dark staircases, hedgerows out of the shining, creepy crows flying around (to symbolize the evil force), etc. Also there are some nasty killings (one student falls from the roof while pulling a prank on one of the two pregnant girls, and is impaled on lightning rod -- shades of the Omen huh?). The housekeeper attempts to chop her own fingers off under the evil influence, a dog tries to attack the girl carrying the evil child. And in a surprisingly gory moment(for TV), Josh's character gets his comeuppance after confessing to the evil priest, by starting to bleed from just about every (visible) orifice, and collapses at lacrosse practice spitting up blood and complaining of muscle cramps all over (no onscreen death scene here but it's mentioned later he dies at the hospital). Again, I can see where the TV restrictions would hold back some of the more religious and sacrilegious aspects of the story. My overall impressions were "Let's take the best of every Antichrist novel or film and throw them in a big pot and stir" There are references to Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Agnes of God, you name it. By the time the evil priest gets it (I didn't see that one coming), the plot is so convoluted I had trouble following it. And then the little epilogue scene in which the good kid and the bad kid psychically fight (with different colored glowing eyes) over the soul of a nun who's just been hit by a car was so laughably dull, I wanted to throw the remote through the screen.

Final verdict: Not a bad choice but not the best.