"False Prophets" (2006) is about a young pregnant woman, Maggie (Lori Heuring), who gets mixed-up with an apocalyptic group who want her baby. She begins to question the adoption arrangement and finds succor with an old radio preacher, Isaiah (Tucker Smallwood), and his spiritual son, Manny (Antonio David Lyons). Patrick Bergin plays the staunch leader of the cult who are willing to go to extreme measures to get their supposedly Messianic baby.
The film maintains an impressive reverent vibe throughout and relays a story that has spiritual depth. It may be a micro-budget, independent film but the cast and crew rise to the challenge and pull it off. It's nothing spectacular, but it at least shoots for depth, and largely achieves it in an indie film kind of way.
I rarely ever listen to director/writer's commentaries, but occasionally there are some worthy ones, like the writer's commentary on the "First Blood" DVD, which is outstanding. The DVD of "False Prophets" also has a worthy commentary by writer/director Robert Kevin Townsend. He explains parts of the story that you may have missed. For instance, ***MINOR SPOILER*** Isaiah is a type of someone who WORKS to please God whereas his adopted son, Manny, is spiritually gifted. One represents the frustration of laboring to please God and the other represents someone who has God's grace to serve. As a matter of fact, you would think that the title of the film refers to the fundamentalist weirdos, and it does, but it also refers to Isaiah. Take, for example, when he's preaching on the radio in his garage and the blather he shares, mixing truth and error. He's a false prophet too; he just doesn't know it. And that's why he's frustrated; he's serving in his own strength and fleshly anointing. Manny, by contrast, has God's grace and is a true prophet of the LORD. ***END SPOILER*** The film was shot in the Nashville area and -- you might find this strange -- but I like the way the movie features the night sounds of the woods, i.e. crickets and the like.
In any event, "False Prophets" is a good movie if you're in the mood for a Southern Gothic film with a flare of black spirituality, like "The Apostle" (1997), "Mississippi Burning" (1988) or "Waterproof" (2000). It's not as good as the first two, but it's at least as good as the third one. Like I said, this is a small film with an obvious minuscule budget but the themes and the passionate performances make it worthwhile.
The film runs 85 minutes.
GRADE: B
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