Prime Time: God Told Me To (1976)

A film that has long been a major omission in my journey through cinema, considering how much praise I have seen heaped upon it over the years, God Told Me To is, as I am sure you are already aware, another excellent film from writer-director Larry Cohen. Sometimes I might use a movie review to highlight some other work from people involved, either behind the camera or in front of it, and to contextualise different stages of their career, but Cohen is someone that I just encourage everyone to check out for themselves. His ideas were often brilliant, and his creativity and daring helped elevate his material into genuinely great movies that were able to overcome fairly limited budgets.

Things begin here with a man sniping random people. He will kill others and then kill himself. Before he completes that last task, however, he explains himself to Detective Peter J. Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) by saying “god told me to.” More people start to commit random murders, and they often offer the same explanation, which leads Detective Nicholas down a strange rabbit hole that has him encountering the enigmatic Bernard Phillips (Richard Lynch), as well as his own past.

Considering the many ways in which God Told Me To could have gone, the film that we ended up getting is one of the most brilliantly bonkers ‘70s American horror movies you will ever see. And I implore people not to leave it as long as I did to get around to this. I watched this film a few days ago and am still processing various moments, plot points that now feel like a fever dream. Whether it’s Andy Kaufman appearing as a killer in the middle of the St. Patrick’s Day parade, tales of alien abduction and virgin births, or the many moments that somehow retain a small ounce of ambiguity, despite what viewers are told and shown about the power of the figure at the heart of the film, God Told Me To is many different things, but dull is not one of them.

Lo Bianco is very good in the lead role, a very typical New York cop who ends up on a most extraordinary journey. It helps that he is cast in front of many familiar faces making up groups of his colleagues and peers, all adding that grounded realism that Cohen often used to underpin even his most fanciful stories. Lynch is as strange and riveting as usual (and so good in this kind of role, which he played on a few different occasions), and the scenes between him and Lo Bianco have enough intrigue and energy to distract from elements that would seem more preposterous if not handled by actors committed to playing the whole thing straight. Deborah Raffin and Sandy Dennis both do well in their small roles, and both Sylvia Sidney and Jo Flores Chase portray women who may have greatly influenced the lives of the two main characters.

Maybe not a film I would recommend to people looking to check out their first film from Cohen, thanks to a potent mix of heady ideas that may leave unprepared viewers feeling a bit blindsided by the whole experience, this is definitely one that everyone should get to once they have dipped their toes into other highlights from his filmography. It’s a crudely-assembled masterpiece, underlining how great Cohen was at playing to the strength of his writing, and I could happily sit down and rewatch it right now.

9/10

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Shudder Saturday: Just Before Dawn (1981)

Some traditional “hillbilly horror” shenanigans, Just Before Dawn puts a bunch of characters in the middle of nowhere, has them being targeted by some uncivilised people who seem to live in the woods, and sets up some set-pieces that have people killed off while the survivors slowly realise that they are now being hunted.

Directed by Jeff Lieberman, who also wrote the screenplay with Mark Arywitz, fleshing out a concept by Jonas Middleton, Just Before Dawn isn't a bad example of this type of thing. It has everything in place that you'd expect, from the characters all peeling off from the crowd to be isolated and easier to kill to a small twist when the main killers are revealed. It has killers who are very basic in their killing methods, and oblivious "city folk" who don't have any idea of the kind of danger they're putting themselves in.

Unfortunately, it's not half as mean as it could be. Considering the slasher movies of the era, as well as the brutality of films that preceded it (such as Deliverance and The Hills Have Eyes), this is a disappointingly tame affair that doesn't even decide to wallow in some of the pain and bloodshed. It doesn't even make you feel properly uncomfortable as certain characters act in some way that you know is just for the benefit of luring in another victim.

The cast doesn't help, with nobody really standing out for the right reasons. Gregg Henry and Deborah Benson are Warren and Constance, who may or may not be selected to survive until the end credits roll, and Chris Lemmon and Jamie Rose play Jonathan and Megan, two characters who we sense are more ill-fated than the others once they go skinny dipping. Ralph Seymour is Daniel, who gets to do very little before things turn dangerous for him, and Mike Kellin is Ty, the character warning people that he has witnessed a gruesome murder, but is also rambling and drunk. Then you have George Kennedy, playing a forest ranger named Roy McLean. Kennedy is a welcome presence onscreen, despite making a lot of dubious film choices throughout the 1970s and '80s, but his character comes perilously close to being a deus ex machina when he becomes more involved in the unfolding events.

It's a shame that this doesn't do any more than the bare minimum throughout, from the kills to the audio work, because the bare minimum is done well enough, and presents what viewers of this particular sub-genre have come to expect. There's no more here though, and it's odd to see that this is a film with a reputation that has grown over the past few decades. It's competent, which is never the word I want to end a movie review on, but here we are. Just Before Dawn - completely competent.

5/10

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