STIGMATA (1999)
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Dick Latessa, Rade Šerbedžija, Jack Donner
Directed by Rupert Wainwright
Father Andrew Kiernan is the Vatican's top investigator (with a scientific background making for a contradictory combo) who is in Sao Paolo following up on reports of the Virgin Mary's face having appeared on the side of a building. Turns out it was just a rust stain. While in the city, he inadvertently hears of a bleeding Virgin Mary statue in a church and visits. A revered priest, Father Paolo Alameida, has just died and during his funeral service, a young boy steals the dead man's rosary and sells it as a souvenir to a female American tourist out in the street. Anxious to study more, Kiernan returns to Rome where the Vatican are disinterested and hostile to his findings. High-ranking Cardinal Houseman abruptly orders him to drop the matter. Back in rainy Pittsburgh, Frankie Paige, is a young hairdresser in her early 20's (whose cutting edge salon also does tattoos, well before the merging of ink and cosmotology was prevalent). She is an atheist and thinks she might be pregnant (but isn't). She opens a small gift package from Brazil sent by her mother. It's the rosary. From that moment, she begins having strange visions such as a woman tossing a baby into a busy street, and starts suffering violent, invisible attacks. They are the work of stigmata -- Jesus' crucifixion wounds. When punctures in her wrists result in an Emergency Room visit, she is accused of self-inflicted cutting made as a suicide attempt, and medical staff discuss if she may have epilepsy. Another attack occurs on the subway when her back is whipped, and these lacerations are witnessed by a Priest who immediately informs the Vatican. When they get word of Frankie's situation, Houseman sends Kiernan to report on the case that is drawing uncomfy attention, that all the same is oddly regarded as insignificant.
Meeting her for the first time (via haircut), he is at first skeptical of the authenticity of her afflictions, and explains that stigmatics are the truly devout worshippers who experience this phenomena from their profound reverence. So why is party girl Frankie getting her butt kicked and hospitalized by these bloody assaults? [Maybe some exposition involving St. Francis of Assisi said to be the first true stigmatic, and Frankie's near-sounding name positioning her as a fellow recipient, might have something to do with it]. Her next seizure-like attack occurs at a nightclub with injuries to her forehead and blood streaming down her face, as if wearing a crown of thorns. In her apartment, Kiernan then witnesses her possession when she talks in a foreign tongue, in a man's voice -- speaking and then writing on her wall in Aramaic (the alleged language and text of Jesus). These observations further test Kiernan's already troubled spirituality for as he has become doubtful & disillusioned with his calling, there is an implied determination of him to restore his conviction and remain firm in his profession. As he steps up as protector, there is nothing miraculous in Frankie's plight as far as she sees it. This torment of Jesus' worst day is an equally torturous nightmare being visited upon her, and undergoing such a painful, terrifying and even humiliating ordeal, is slowly killing her. To her credit, she tries to maintain a normalcy the whole time, where others would have completely imploded at this stage from the inability alone to grasp what is happening to them. As the severity of Frankie's wounds & worsening physical harm increases, Kiernan's worry about her vulnerable condition becomes less concerned with proving or debunking any miracle, and more about saving her life.
Kiernan sends voice recordings & pictures of her scrawlings to a colleague in the Vatican, Father Delmonico, but Delmonico's warning of the translation indicating dangerous content for the Catholic Church, is overheard from a phone call to Kiernan, with the eavesdropped chat told to Houseman. Kiernan realizes something malevolent is using her as a vessel for an extraordinary life-altering message that threatens the very foundations of the Church. And the implications of this secret point to a cover-up, as well as a fight for Frankie's very soul. In another incident, she levitates with full arms outstretched as if on the most famous cross in all of human history [and perhaps amazingly, the scene is not accompanied by Soundgarden]. The 2 have an obvious mutual attraction. She flirts & makes passes at him, and he has charisma. But for each, it's more due to an intellectual connection in the chemistry (thin as it is). While she wants him in bed, he doesn't succumb to temptation. And seductive symbolism is laid on thick that even with sex on offer, their association transcends getting busy between the sheets. Houseman and some cronies show up in Pittsburgh telling Kiernan to send Frankie to the Archdiocese to be cared for, but the Cardinal has her prepared for the casting out of what they treat as Satanic chicanery. Kiernan meets with Marion Petrocelli who tells him of a secret gospel found near Jerusalem, reputed to be the actual words of Jesus which nullifies the need for the Church. Alameida had stolen the document and was ex-communicated by Houseman. Naturally, the bigwigs in charge would want this shocking discovery and its ramifications stifled. At any cost. Kiernan races back to the Archdiocese, throws down with Houseman, and offering himself in exchange for Frankie (it is Alameida possessing her), he steps through literal flames of damnation [Byrne in Hell?] to free her.
[Interestingly enough, Byrne's next film role was playing Lord Lucifer himself in END OF DAYS released that same year]. It is impossible not to find the landscape of STIGMATA familiar: it plays as a slanted Gen-X version of THE EXORCIST, swirling with resemblances of an innocent victim seemingly under demonic possession, and the Priest with good looks out to rescue her from an entity literally tearing her apart. Frankie and Kiernan are cut from the same cloth as Regan MacNeil and Father Damien Karras. Even the cliché of a growling beast with sexual taunting is not spared. Some pretentious, clergy discussions aside -- whether in Rome or in the climax of last confrontation -- yeah, STIGMATA has problems. What it lacks in being engaging, is just as lacking in Frankie's weak dialogue, and the rather huh?-logic of the fiery (and conventional) finale is muddled. Upon its release, there was some complaining within a few pious circles calling the movie anti-church, and the Church got their feathers ruffled causing a minor uproar saying the movie was anti-establishment. In its defense, finding anything here to be offended & outraged by is quite laughable. A theme of mysticism vs. cynicism manages to be thought provoking, as does the idea/forgotten concept of individualism being more important than institution. Alameida's spirit carrying on as a sinister deliverer is puzzling. His immortal true message for the removal of barriers between Man and God sounds simple enough in layman's terms, but the unfolding of events in direct relation to him are confusing & mishandled. It's unclear how much (or even if) he preached this doctrine to his parishioners while stationed in Brazil but now an invested Kiernan, and an especially indifferent Frankie are the happenstance tools of theology meant for her to house and profess this holy creed -- not through peaceful divinity but instead by a dark force of wicked belligerence, that incredibly is not 'evil' but is infused as such. Right.
And strangely, with Frankie as the 'chosen one', she really isn't; not in the sense of a deliberate intention seeking her out. But thus is her depiction nevertheless. It's by pure chance of receiving the rosary that she undergoes her agony. [Which in itself is creative license as stigmata cannot be transferred by object]. And her portrayal is a sympathetic transformation, albeit predictable: a lost member of the flock who by movie's end has changed almost as if gracefully reborn into purity. She has to endure excruciation before experiencing the blissful ecstasy of all sins forgiven. And nothing says love like a gentle dove. Also up front is how the movie's jarring editing has too much of an arty MTV feel for some sequences. With heavy-handed, slick splatterings of blurred/bleachy/muted/hued dream-like frames that onslaught the senses, the cuts of disturbing montage imagery of hammered spikes into flesh, and deeply marked skin from flagellation, look very music video-ish. Speaking of which, the movie was scored by Billy Corgan and the soundtrack features Massive Attack, David Bowie, Bjork, Chumbawamba, Sinéad O'Connor, and Natalie Imbruglia. Lastly, STIGMATA's end post-script is controversial for lending itself to conspiracy. There are just as many who will agree about the inference of corruption to suppress a real history and keep it from the public, as those who won't. An alternate ending has Kiernan back in the Sao Paolo church, unrolling an unearthed, papyrus scroll (Ta-dah! The sacred lost gospel) with the exact script Frankie had written on her wall, and him placing a framed picture of her on an altar, suggesting her death. With this final scene of the manuscript, what is left at the very least (whether you discredit or not) is still a post-discussion on modern religion through personal faith, reason, the power of belief, and ecclesiastical politics. Overall, it's a mixed bag but if you liked 1988's THE SEVENTH SIGN, you might dig this also as it makes for an adequate companion piece that continues the conversation.
FALLEN (1998)
Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Embeth Davidtz, Elias Koteas, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Gabriel Casseus
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
The movie starts with Philadelphia detective John Hobbes in voiceover mentioning how he almost died during the ordeal we are about to view. An imprisoned serial killer named Edgar Reese, whom Hobbes helped capture is about to be executed. In his death row cell during a final talk, Reese reaches for a handshake, speaks in a foreign language (later identified as Aramaic, which he couldn't have possibly known), and hints at revenge. Once he's strapped in the gas chamber, he sings The Rolling Stones 'Time is on My Side' and is declared deceased. We then cut to Hobbes with his sidekick partner, Jonesy, as they celebrate in a bar with another officer. Both men are investigating copycat murders that lead to Gretta Milano, a theology professor whose father was a former cop that committed suicide 30yrs prior after being blamed for similar-themed killings. After finding books about demonic possession and the name "Azazel" scrawled on the basement wall in the Milano cabin home, Gretta tries to warn Hobbes off the case but after a scary encounter with a stranger on the street, she tells him that the real culprit responsible for the slayings is the same Azazel, a fallen angel whom through simple touch can body jump into anyone and possess their souls, with his passing spirit using the unfortunate hosts as new vessels to continue his killing spree (hmm... similar shades of SHOCKER, anyone? Or THE HIDDEN? All be it each in different fashion?) Like a domino effect, each person passes on to a completely new stranger. Hobbes becomes more aware of the supernatural activity and because he was touched by a possessed Reese but was unable to be affected, he now faces Azazel stalking him in trying to ruin the detective's life for nothing other than being a mischievous & malicious game. Azazel shows up at Hobbes' precinct and tauntingly body jumps into several officers while singing The Stones tune.
The demon then attacks Hobbes' family, first through his nephew, Sam, and then mentally challenged brother, Art. When chased into the street, Azazel inhabits a teacher and pulls a gun on Hobbes resulting in the detective shooting the innocent host infront of a shocked group of onlookers. The demon then tells him that even if the person he possesses is killed, he can still body jump into a new host in the immediate vicinity without the need for touch. Hobbes is then thrown for a loop when Lieutenant Stanton tells him that because his fingerprints were found at a copycat murder scene, and because of the suspicious teacher shooting, he is now the prime suspect for all the killings. Lt. Stanton believes the copycat murder has been a cop all along. Azazel then enters a bunch of witnesses to give false testimony of the teacher shooting being unprovoked, to further set up the detective and make him appear guilty. The demon returns to Hobbes' home where he kills Art and physically scars Sam. When Sam is brought to Gretta for safety (her apartment is filled with angel imagery), she tells the detective that if Azazel is brought out of a host body, he can only remain a spirit for the length of one breath and if unable to possess another body in that time, he will die completely. Now on the run, the implicated Hobbes returns to the Milano cabin (deep in the snowy wilderness of nightfall) and calls Jonesy whom arrives with Lt. Stanton to arrest him. Jonesy however has been possessed by Azazel, and after the demon kills Stanton, he prepares to shoot himself in order to body jump into Hobbes, thus taking him over at last. But Hobbes attacks Jonesy and in the skirmish, shoots his partner who dies, forcing Azazel out. He has also tricked the demon by having drank poison as a brave decision in a self-sacrificing move to trap & eliminate the evil once and for all, with Hobbes knowing a final attempt will be made to control him.
Azazel tries to reside in the detective but without firm grip, attempts to scamper out of his body only to fatally perish from the poison. Having reached our end, we are brought back to the voiceover of Hobbes only to discover that in the attack, Hobbes was properly possessed. The movie's entire POV in this wraparound has shifted to reveal it is Azazel who has been speaking all along, describing himself that almost died. Hobbes like every other victim before him has been lethally consumed. In closing, a tabby cat surfaces from beneath the cabin and makes its way back to the big city, to the close of The Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil'. In the 90's, Denzel was no stranger to a few roles in the horror realm, or having dealt with nightmarish killers such as those in RICOCHET, VIRTUOSITY, and THE BONE COLLECTOR. In FALLEN as the morally upright Hobbes, he conveys charm, credibility, sympathy and grapples with paranoia as his honed sense of experienced judgment is thrown into disarray that mentally messes with his intuition; like his confusion after recognizing a murder victim found in a bathtub (while the killer calmly ate breakfast cereal) who had walked past him the night before, and his initial scoffing that turns into stunned belief. With it's slight mixture of NYPD Blue police procedural meeting The X-Files [which incidentally also used Azazel in a season 2 episode entitled 'Die Hand Die Verletzt'] delving into Satanic manifestation, the movie's grim plot of good vs. evil juggles a little biblical prophecy (seeing as the end of the millennium was nearing), and some spirituality with Hobbes in fighting for his life, having to invest in faith to carry out a decisive mission of hope. For edgy and suspenseful dark fare in the depressing vein of SEVEN, the more unusual presentation in this picture plays on dreary and creepy, opting to swap out normally expected terrifying violence which is kept considerably in check.
Every possessed and smirking host with their out-of-place penchant for singing The Stones (meant as our intruder alert) serves to heighten a stressed situation of tension, and claustrophobic cave-in seething with crowded aggression; for seemingly anyone at any given moment can be the sudden, sinister, wicked presence to emerge without warning. But this danger of crossing paths does have a tendency to veer into territory of gimmicky mockery about how the ordinary can instantly morph into far-fetched perversity. FALLEN does suffer from slowness, a bit of tangled logic, and a few weakly written characters, but the increasing threatening nature of Azazel's cat & mouse hostility, and the detective's bewildered drive to understand the unsettling bizarreness, and to stop him, are energetic injections that get past the flaws and help pick up the pace (in other words, a testament to Denzel's fine acting). While Hobbes may appear too subdued and not vulnerable enough at times for the heaviness taking place, in the absence of whatever deemed sense of urgency however, there's still also an effective measuredness about him being confident, and not prone to panicking -- even as he eerily echoes Gretta's father and must avoid a same tragic outcome. And then there's the conclusion: an unexpected twist that is sly and Machiavellian. Overall, a good movie with an intriguing concept that could've been a lot better, and I can see where audience frustrations may lie: horror fans who find it too tame, and mainstream watchers who find it too dull. Maybe the best both sides can compromise on is to view this one a 50/50 scale, and I'm curious at how FALLEN would've played out had there been plenty more of Reese, and what we would've gotten had Hobbes been played by the originally approached Arnold Schwarzenegger (hmm, 1999's END OF DAYS perhaps?)
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