God Told Me to (Kill)

Larry Cohen

Blue Underground

R0 NTSC DVD

Larry Cohen is one of the small breed of successful yet independent filmmakers. He has written, produced or directed a range of rather strange and challenging cult classics such as Q:The Winged Serpent and God Told Me to and written many others, including the highly successful recent release Phone Booth.

God Told Me To (Kill) is certainly a very strange film. It's a normal day on the streets of New York with businessmen scurrying back and forwards and the streets awash with people. A bullet comes out of nowhere and is followed by a volley of shots, each seemingly reaching its goal and killing its target. On a lonely water tower we see a sniper shooting at random. Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) against orders wants to talk the killer down and tries to reason with him. The sniper seems normal and untroubled, yet he has killed a whole lot of people, when Nicolas asks why he did it, he says “God told him to” and jumps to his death. At first this just seems like “kook” talk, but Nicholas then comes across a range of other killers all with the same motive, indeed described in the very same words. There is the man who went on a knife spree and another who shot his family.

As Nicholas digs deeper, he tries to find a common motive and hears about a strange young effeminate man with long blonde hair who was seen talking to each of the killers before their explosions of violence. The young man Nicholas chases after is named Bernard Phillips, yet when Nicholas sees her autopsy it states she was a virgin ! The story gets progressing more interesting with alien abduction stories, a religious sect who seem to blindly obey the blonde homicidal messiah and the true story of Nicholas’ own birth.

The acting is solid and the strange script keeps you guessing. There are some very disquieting scenes and much of the violence is implied rather than seen. The scene where the father dispassionately describes killing his family is especially uncomfortable.

The DVD from Blue Underground is amazing. The colours are bright, the clarity is superb and the 16x9 enhanced vision is a real winner. Sure there is some film damage here and there but it is very minor especially considering the age of the film and its underground vintage! The soundtracks are all remixed with a great DTS EX surround experience. There are also Dolby Digital 5.1 EX Surround Sound, Dolby Surround Sound and Monaural Sound tracks.

Extras include a trailer, TV spots, still gallery and a Larry Cohen Bio. There's also a feature length audio commentary with Larry Cohen and Bill Lustig, which informative and gives some great reflections on the hard life of an Indie filmmaker.