I just picked up this DVD for resale, so, I'm doing it... The story goes like this... A priest from the Vatican is sent to Sao Paulo, Brazil, to investigate the appearance of the face of the Virgin Mary on the side of a building and then hears of a statue of the Virgin Mary bleeding tears in a small town outside of the city! Meanwhile, a young woman in the U.S. begins to show signs of stigmata, the wounds of Christ. The priest from the Vatican finds her and then cares for her as she becomes increasingly afflicted. Her ranting and raving finally begins to make sense to the priest and he starts to question what his religion has stood for for the last 1900 years. Filmed at Greystone Park & Mansion, Beverly Hills, CA.
The movie stars Patricia (ED WOOD) Arquette, Gabriel (GOTHIC) Byrne and Jonathan (BRAZIL) Pryce in this tale about the influence of the living Christ...
Our gal Frankie has just died on the operating table, but, miraculously comes back to life right before everyone's eyes! What in the Hell's going on?!
When she's riding on the subway, she becomes possessed and the train goes out of control. She assumes the pose of a crucifixion and everything goes off the rails!..
And, Frankie ends up in the hospital again, this time she's treated for whip lashes on her back! But, how in the Hell did she get those wounds?!
Later, at an office party (she's a hair dresser) Frankie goes through another phase of stigmata, then, runs out into traffic on a rainy night, creating much confusion and many wrecks!
Frankie becomes obsessed with writing a massive message in ancient script. That's when Father Kiernan meets up with her and wants to help her deal with her unearthly powers. The beautiful photography is fairly amazing throughout the movie.
Then it happens, Frankie falls for the Father and things really heat up!......
But, Father Kiernan doesn't exactly see it that way, so, she literally beats the crap out of him! She even tosses him the Hell into walls and furniture to get her point across.
She threatens the Father with that knife but ends up cutting through her own wrist, the place where a big old nail would be if she was being crucified!
All Heck breaks loose and Frankie assumes the crucification position while floating in air!
Father Kiernan must save Frankie from the horror and takes her out of the room of illusions.
Later, the Father finds an ancient scrolls and discovers that it has the same messages that Frankie had written on her wall... What the Hell?!!.. Anyway, check in tomorrow when Eegah!! will have a special post, all for us fellow Ruskies, da?!
Those messages in the movie (seen above) are scribed in what is generally called "Paleo-Hebrew," not likely to be anything from the time of Christ, but from long before. If I'm not mistaken, it looks a bit like ancient Phoenician, so it possibly goes way back.
ReplyDeleteI never saw this movie (not much into either religious or horror films, let alone both), so I'm going by the screen captures posted here.
As the saying goes, YMMV (not YHWH). ;)
Yeah, I'm agnostic myself and do not identify with this flick in any way, it's just another title in the old Dungeon Cyclopedia...
ReplyDeleteBelieve me, I hear you. I had my temporary religious brain-fart, but am once again an agnostic, just like you... As I was before, and as I am now. FILM is my true religion, and FILMMAKING is the practice of that religion! Praise be to sprocket holes! (Now wait, that sounded a little...um?)
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