A couple of years back Clive Barker created a series of comic books for Marvel that were supposed to be his take on a sort of horror-superhero hybrid universe. They weren't going to cross over with the standard Marvel stuff, so no guest appearances from Spider-Man or Wolverine, instead these characters would keep to themselves. This line didn't last too long, but one of the titles I remember picking up at the time was Saint Sinner.

Recently, Barker has resurrected the basic premise for the Sci-Fi Channel, and with the help of director Josh Butler, we now have a made for cable TV movie that tells the story of one Brother Tomas. Set in and around Seattle in 1815, Tomas is a young monk who, with some help from his brother, accidentally unleashes a pair of evil succubi on the world. His brother pays for this with his life, and the two demonesses escape into the future by traveling through the Wheel of Time. Tomas is convinced by his superiors to go after the two and stop them from wreaking havoc in the new world, and to avenge his brothers death. He also believes that God has chosen him for this mission, so off he goes into the Wheel of Time after the two evil doers.

Tomas is armed with a mystical dagger that will point him in the direction of his foes, which helps him to track them down. Of course, when he gets to where they're hiding out, they've already killed and drained a poor sap of his lifeblood, and the cops show up to find Tomas on the scene and bring him in as a suspect.

While in custody, Tomas meets Detective Rachel Dressler. At first she thinks his story is ridiculous, and who can blame her. A time traveling monk? But soon, when things start to get really weird and Dressler finds that the succubi are not a figment of Tomas' imagination, she learns that he's telling the truth and the two of them have to work together to figure out how to stop them. To complicate things further, it turns out that only a saint can use the dagger to kill the two succubi, and Tomas is not a saint.

Clive Barker says in his commentary that horror is all about breaking taboos. Sadly, while Saint Sinner showed some promise both in concept and in execution, it doesn't break enough taboos to really be scary. It has a few eerie moments and a couple of decent gross out effects that look better than your average low budget made for TV film, but it doesn't quite go far enough to shock or unnerve. This has a lot more to do with the format it was made for than the skills of either the performers or the crew, but it is a detriment none the less.

The other problem with the movie is some large, gaping logic gaps. When Tomas travels over two hundred years to our present time, he's barely shocked at all by what he sees and has no problem or hesitation at all in taking a ride in a truck from a complete stranger. He's not shocked by the police procedures or the very different world around him. He also seems to have little difficulty convincing a few cops and locals of his dilemma despite the fact that he is, well, a time traveling monk from the past who is chosen by God to defeat two evil succubi with a penchant for seducing and then eating the local male populace. Add to that some very unlikely cooperation from a Catholic nun towards the end of the movie and by that point, the potential that the movie did show in the opening scene is more or less gone, undone by a few too many scenes that are just too difficult to accept. When you're unable to suspend you disbelief even a little bit, it's hard to get into the movie.

That being said, the movie does have its moments. It looks very good and makes great use of some eerie sets and set pieces. While the succubi do sound like drag queens, they look moderately spooky, giving off a nice vibe of sexual menace. The film looks slick, performances from the leads are halfway decent, and the slimy 'food scene' effects are pretty effective.

Video:

Saint Sinner is presented on DVD in a nice 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Colors look nice and distinct, and the black levels are strong and deep. There is some edge enhancement on the picture, mostly noticeable along the front grills of trucks and cars, but it is minor and I didn't notice anything other than the smallest trace of mpeg compression artifacts. There's a nice level of detail in the image and the period sets with their gothic torch lit hallways in the opening of the film look quite nice indeed, the reds and oranges specifically. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural, and the movie looked considerably better on this DVD than I figured it would.