Reviewed by Kevin Scott
MoreHorror.com
God Told Me Too (1976)
Written by: Larry Cohen
Directed by: Larry Cohen
Cast: Tony Lo Bianco (Peter J. Nicholas), Deborah Raffin (Casey Forster), Sandy Dennis (Martha Nicholas), Sylvia Sydney (Elizabeth Mullin), Richard Lynch (Bernard Phillips), Andy Kaufman (Police Officer).
This film is unquestionably one of the most unique films that I have watched or reviewed. I don’t just throw that statement nonchalantly out here. It was written by Larry Cohen, who horror fans will primarily know from the “It’s Alive” films and the really eclectic sequel to “Salem’s Lot”. He’s done everything, and is a prolific writer and director. One of my all-time favorites of his is “The Stuff” about some killer yogurt, and I don’t mean “killer” as in it just tastes good. I’ve seen a lot of his work, and “God Told Me To” has to be the most complex.
Detective Peter J. Nicholas becomes embroiled into a case where seemingly ordinary citizens go on killing rampages for no apparent reasons. The film begins as people are being picked of non-discriminately by a sniper on a water tower. Peter goes up to try to talk the sniper down and discovers that he has no motivation for what he did other than God told him to. After he tells Peter this, he jumps to his death. During the investigation, it’s discovered that the gun he was using was a janky, mail order gun with a bad scope that could have never pulled off the shots he made.
Another incident occurs where a seemingly normal middle aged guy leaves home and goes on a stabbing spree at the supermarket. Before he dies in the hospital, he also tells Peter that God made him do it. The case gets more visibility when one of New York’s finest goes on a shooting spree during the St. Patrick’s Day parade. What makes things even more peculiar is that Peter got an anonymous tip that this would happen. The caller uses cryptic terms like “he wills it” and says the shooter has not yet been chosen. Peter finally gets a lead in that all of the people who have perpetrated the crimes were all seen with a young man in his 20’s with long blond hair. What happens next goes deep down a very strange rabbit hole beginning with young man’s mother being a virgin when she gave birth to him.
I’ve got to give some props to the Larry Cohen for the screenplay. This is a horror film at its core, but deals with some really heavy religious dogma. Peter is a devout Catholic, who was adopted by a respectable Catholic family. He really doesn’t know where he came from. He has a girlfriend, but keeps his wife, in name only at a separate house because he doesn’t believe in divorce. Both women know about each other and it produces a really uncomfortable vibe when they all eventually end up in the same room. I don’t mean to be cryptic myself, but facets of the plot go “Da Vinci Code”, with a little bit of “Scanners” and a crossroads of the extraordinary and the divine collide in a really trippy exposition that leaves more questions than answers. I can’t say that all will be explained, but I can guarantee that whether you are digging the film as you are watching it or not, you will have to hang around to see how it ends
Legendary character actor Richard Lynch is in this film, and I’m sure that he never before or after played a character quite like this one. Also look for the late, great Andy Kaufman as the policeman shooter in the parade scene. This film is a strange, underground classic that twists and contorts subplots into an amalgamated mass of crime drama, religious horror, and science fiction that’s best left all tangled together.
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