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Reviews
God Told Me To (1976)
Great Concepts which have been ignored due to poor editing and small budget SPOILERS
SPOILERS This film has quite a bit to offer: police drama, conspiracy, social commentary, horror, and science fiction. Sadly a low budget, some bad editing, and flat acting by some minor characters kept it from gaining any recognition. I see that some of this is because of Cohen's real-time guerrilla filming technique.
I'm sure reviewers wrote it off as a cheap gore-fest but the story asks many difficult and controversial questions. Does god exist in a modern world that seems to be full of violence and decay? The faith of a true believer is tested as first god's message seems to be one of murder and destruction, then second as what "god" really is turns out to be a farce of aliens toying with us. In addition the mystery of faith and miracles such as virgin birth are reduced to freakish tricks. The vagina on Bernard Phillips chest is a blasphemous version of Christ's wound on the cross. The fact that his face cannot be seen is similar to the "burning bush" or the way Mohamed is pictured in art. The "messiah's" influence over people also questions the role of destructive cult-like leaders, i.e. Hitler using religious ideas and imagery to influence the masses and abuse that power.
What was the purpose of alien's placing their mixed-breeds on Earth? Was it an experiment? An attempt to improve humanity? Or a virus intended to destroy the earth? The film leaves these open to interpretation. Is the "messiah" a new step in evolution or a hideous perversion(see X-Men)? Many of the remakes these days are really really bad and are obviously done just for money. None of the remakes contain the elements that made the originals so interesting. But this is one movie that could be redone if done properly because the story has so many bizarre and though-provoking ideas.
The film also uses techniques that remind one of other films of the period like "The French Connection(which also cast Tony LoBianco)." It also has some elements similar to a Brian DePalma film. See this film but don't expect to be wowed by the quality, rather think about the story, something which is lost in many films today.
UFO's Are Real (1979)
Creepy
This movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. I remember watching it alone on TV and not being able to sleep afterward. It seems like a silly, campy movie now but it is still entertaining. The grainy documentary style makes it even creepier. That alien-autopsy video has nothing on this. Another good one is "Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot", along with the old "In Search of..." episodes. Many of these movies that used "real" events were much scarier than scripted horror movies. Not scary, but a good creepy 70's documentary is "F is for Fake" by Orson Welles. I think Oliver Stone borrowed heavily from these styles to make JFK. These tapes may be hard to find at your video store.