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Desperation starts out as a promising thriller that plays like a combination of The Hitcher (1986) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). A couple driving through the Nevada desert are being harassed and soon arrested by a menacing deputy, suitably overacted by Ron Pearlman. Suddenly however, the movie turns into something much less exciting. Not to give too much away, the focus of the plot turns to a young boy named David, hell-bent on religion.
Horror films have a great, inherent potential for dealing with religious themes in an intelligent way. Unfortunately, Desperation screws it up. The worst part is not the painfully obvious references to the Bible, such as multiple close-ups of sardine cans (mirroring the feeding of the five thousand), but the feeble, folksy theology preached by the ever-praying David. The endless one-liners and dialogues concerning God's qualities are about as profound as a Jesus Saves!-bumper sticker in purple Comic Sans.
David doesn't even seem to be scared of the supernatural villain, but faces it and its enslaved minions with a strange resolve reminiscent of a parody of Jesus. Courage is not the absence of fear, said Ambrose Redmoon. And after we learn that God is on their side, we cease to care about the characters, recognizing that they will emerge as victors even in the case of gory death.
(There is a scene involving an old, black-and-white film, which could be genuinely spooky that is if it did not yield in to modern cinematography and CGI.)
score 4/10
johnny-ramstedt 8 May 2008
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1870921/ |
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2-4-2021 03:20:10