So I'm really excited about God Told Me To. It's the closest I've come so far to a hidden gem. Now, it's presumably not very difficult to track down, but I legitimately thought I was sitting down to watch a generic TV movie from my Possession Budget Pack. Even more, the credits list a Guest Star - not sure how that works for a movie, but whatever. Once we got to "Directed By Larry Cohen" I let out an audible "Cool!" I love Q: The Winged Serpent and The Stuff, and now I'll go so far as saying I love God Told Me To as well. It's well acted, well directed, has a good story, some creepy religious overtones, and a significant amount of WTF'ery.
The movie opens in New York City, where a sniper is picking people off at random from a water tower. You don't see any splatter or anything - it's actually an interesting visual, with people just dropping like rag dolls in the midst of a large crowd. Our hero is Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco), a homicide detective who bravely/stupidly puts his gun aside and climbs up the water tower to speak to the shooter, who ends up being a creepy but calm young man. When Nicholas asks him why he did it, he responds with the titular "God told me to." Nicholas follows up with several other heinous crimes - the only connection being they were all committed by otherwise peaceful people, and they all claim they killed because "God told them to."
Despite being a long time veteran of the NYPD, Nicholas is really troubled by this case. The facts don't add up. (For instance, the sniper guy had no former training, and was perfectly accurate. As if guided by the hand of God). We learn that Nicholas is also (secretly) a devout Catholic - he sneaks off to mass every morning is hesitant to grant his wife a divorce (much to the dismay of his live-in girlfriend - I guess he picks and chooses which tenets he believes in. Don't they all!) In other words, since he loves God... the killers have MADE IT PERSONAL! I don't want to ruin anything, but it's not much of a spoiler to tell you that Nicholas finds more than he bargained for.
What I Liked
The story is just solid. It's a good mystery about faith, loyalty, and family, and poses some truly thought provoking questions. Yeah, there is a little religion bashing here and there (a cop says "people who are too god damned religious cause a lot of problems for everyone") but other aspects of Nicholas's faith are treated with respect. Cohen (who also wrote it) manages to make things slowly escalate through the film, so you get a good steady build instead of peaks and valleys.
Even though it goes to some truly weird places it is more or less a serious film. No one is going to mistake this for a roller coaster ride - at the end of the day God Told Me To is still a moody 70's horror flick.
The performances are really good as well. Lo Bianco basically carries the film - I'd bet he's in over 80% of it. He gets the job done - his acting isn't too flashy, but it doesn't need to be. You really get to sympathize with this guy, wanting to do right by his beliefs and his upbringing, but having to confront the fact that they might not be everything he thought they were.
And the supporting performances are probably the creepiest parts of the movie. The "God Told Me To"s - the otherwise normal people who are driven to murder in the name of the lord - are good across the board. This is as much a credit to the actors as to the way the characters are written, but the nonchalant way they describe their violent acts was really disturbing. Probably the worst is a man who has just shot his entire family, and seems almost proud of it. ("He guided my hand... I didn't even have to aim...you're thinking that he asked too much of me, but you don't love God the way I do.") Heavy stuff.
I also learned about the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac because of this movie - one of the killers says that "God asked Abraham to kill Isaac - why not me?" Well, it turns out that God did it as a test - just after Abraham had tied up Isaac (!) and was getting ready to stab him, God intervened. So God Told Me To was a little misleading there - it may not be a good substitute for Sunday School. But Andy Kaufman has a small role in it!
Getting too much more into it would spoil the fun. If you aren't inherently against older movies (some people might think this is slow... whatever), check it out! If you know me, ask and I'll let you borrow it!
I would heartily recommend this film.
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