The Eighteenth Angel

The Eighteenth Angel is, at best, a very below par 'horror' film. I say this because, it's just not horrific. The storyline is essentially a standard 'evil cultists wish to summon Satan to Earth' type thing, something which has, to be honest, been done many times before. In addition, the cast, even the normally entertaining Cook, do nothing to raise the believeability level of this sad little film. The end result is that you find yourself A) Laughing at the film for it's flaws, and B) Not even giving a damn for the characters, neither of which should be results of watching a 'good' horror film (Check out Ring or Nightmare on Elm St.). So while this film does have many flaws, it's biggest letdown is that it is simply not scary, and what more should you be looking for in a horror film. In short, don't see it unless you're a big Cook fan.

I first saw this movie a couple of years ago. I liked walking around blockbuster and renting movies that had cool boxes. That's not always the best way to do it, but in this case, it was. The Eighteenth Angel is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The plot turns are exquisite, and i just loved it when I discovered the meaning of the title. I don't want to give away to much but I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it.

I just recently watched this movie and was really impressed with the acting job of Rachael Leigh Cook. She did a great job in this flick. The movie it self had a decent storyline and all the actors in it did a good job. Not that bad, but its all about Rachael Leigh Cook.

"The House of Yes", "Family Rescue", "She's All That": all decent movies starring Rachael Leigh Cook. That's why Rachael was the only reason I wanted to see "The Eighteenth Angel" (well, that and the fact it was shown just after The X-Files). The short version: not even Rachael (as Lucy) can save this disaster.

Here's the longer version: Some of the acting is so bad it's more frightening than the horror plot (a Satanic church wants the Antichrist back and all they need is a demon clock saying when they should sacrifice 18 angelic children). The worst performance is given by Maximilian Schell: instead of acting like a satanic priest he acts like he's the evil penguin in a children's story. When he recites the satanic verses, you think he's reading the recipe for pork chops. The more the story evolves the more ludicrous it gets. If you know the horror cliches, all you have to do is make a list and wait for it to come. Oh look, spikes: somebody's bound to get killed by them. (check) Oh look, nice horses: they are probably going to kill someone. (check) Let's wait for the cameo of a cemetary. (check) Etc etc. (check) Watch out for painful mistakes: father Simeon is praying to the Devil in a pentagram (check), but apparently the makers of this movie didn't know what a pentagram is. It certainly isn't what they used a movie. (If you don't know what a pentagram looks like: watch Jacob the Liar: in that movie they needed a Jewish star, but they used a pentagram.) Add the final ingredient: referring to and stealing from other movies. Maybe they can get away with referring to Brian de Palma's Obsession (the church scene), but it's hard not to spot they borrowed some ideas from The Exorcist. Once again: bad copying only makes a bad movie worse.

So it's best to skip this movie? Yes, unless you like watching Rachael Leigh Cook. In this movie she is a teenage model, so there's lots of posing and looking nice. But she was much better in the movie list I started this review with, so that's not really an argument. Also, skipping The Eighteenth Angel means you don't have to see the ending of a movie which gets worse every scene. You'll clap your hand when the titles get there: not because the movie was good, but because it's finally over.

Far from a great movie, but at least it's better than "The Ninth Gate" and "End of Days" (the two movies it reminded me most of). Rachel Leigh Cook is stunningly beautiful, and gives a performance that makes some poor writing almost work. Christopher McDonald is surprisingly good even though (perhaps because) he is not playing the comedic jerk character he's played in almost everything else he's been in. Maximillian Schell should have just stayed home; he doesn't bring anything new or even interesting to the film. All in all, it's worth renting (or buying for three dollars, as I was lucky enough to do), even though the ending is one of the most cliched, predictable bits of cinema I've seen in a long time. The menacing glare straight into the camera at the last shot just doesn't seem as clever as it used to be. For that matter, I'm not convinced it ever was clever.