Night 5 of 31 Nights of Horror

This is one of my favorite movies. Wanna know how good it is? My wife told me she was going to bed, so I started the movie playing. She was putting away her laptop as the opening voice-over started and asked me what it was about, then stayed to watch until the end.

It’s weird. I was twenty when this film came out, but I don’t recall it coming to the theatre, or any advertising for it. It must have, but the first time I remember seeing it was at the video store, which is kind of shocking given how absolutely stacked the cast is. Elias Koteas, Virginia Madsen, Eric Stoltz, Viggo Mortensen and Chrisopher freaking Walken. Even the periphery characters are memorable. Steve Hytner, Amda Plummer, and Adam Goldberg may not be names you can place immediately, but you’ll recognize their faces when you see them.

The plot is about one angel’s plan to end the stalemate of a millennia old war in heaven. You don’t need to know a lot about the bible or Christianity to follow the story, it’s all explained very well and done organically as the movie unfolds instead of in big exposition dumps.

It’s not a heavy special effects or action driven film, although the makeup and what effects there are are very well done, but it’s the performances that really sell it. Thomas’ pain and hurt when he describes no longer hearing God’s voice, the utter disdain and hatred Gabriel has for humanity and whenever I do see people talking about the movie, it’s usually when they’re listing best portrayals of the devil in film, and putting Viggo’s near the top.

My wife asked today at lunch what other movie like that we could watch and I’m wondering the same thing myself. Constantine she’s already seen and Legion is probably more action oriented that she would like. Maybe Ninth Gate or Seventh Sign? Lords of Illusion isn’t very biblical, but I’ve always felt it had a similar feel. Any other suggestions I might have missed?