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Eighteenth Angel, The
Columbia/Tri-Star // R // March 18, 2003
List Price: $24.95 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
Near the end of a millenium
Satan shall return
And walk amongst us
Not as beast but beauty
- Etruscan Book of the Dead
Prophecies tell of the events that must unfold before Satan can step foot upon the earth. Hoping to hurry the timetable up a bit, an Etruscan cult offers the devil a series of genetically-engineered host bodies, each clad with the severed angelic face of a murdered child. Eighteen hosts are required in total, and Father Simeon (Maximilian Schell) has spotted the ideal final form while on a trip to Boston. As the movie is titled The Eighteenth Angel and features Rachael Leigh Cook prominently on the cover, you can probably guess where all this is going.
The lovely Ms. Cook stars as Lucy Stanton, a young aspiring model who's still mourning the inexplicable suicide of her mother. Her father Hugh (Christopher McDonald) is reluctant to let her travel to Italy to learn the craft alone, especially so soon after his wife's untimely death. When Hugh is conveniently tapped to tackle some research in the area, he reluctantly takes the opportunity to grant his daughter her wish. While there, he stumbles upon some eerie connections between the creepy monastery next door and the research his wife was conducting before she took her fatal plunge. Hugh follows the trail of corpses to the truth, but his discovery might not come in time to save his daughter from the grip of Satan.
The Eighteenth Angel was penned by David Seltzer, who'd covered similar territory with The Omen some twenty years earlier. This retread passes itself off as a suspenseful horror movie without really providing much of either. In any other film, the premise would've remained a mystery, slowly unveiled throughout the bulk of its length. The Eighteenth Angel explains the entire scenario in detail during the title sequence, dulling any sense of mystery or intrigue that could have otherwise been present.
The body count is frightfully low, excluding the exceedingly brief and artfully photographed snippets of some of the other 'angels', and none of the handful of deaths stack up to anything seen in The Omen. There's nothing as instantly memorable as "It's all for you, Damien!", but that doesn't stop The Eighteenth Angel from having one of its female characters taking a similarly suicidal leap. The first swipe of a paw as a woman is mauled by cats made me cringe, but the remainder of the attack doesn't even rank with the worst of Lucio Fulci. There's a great sequence involving horse reins and strangulation, but it almost seems like too little, too late. A couple of jump scares are tossed the audience's way, and only two -- a mutant rat roaring back to life and an attacker leaping up from behind -- managed to achieve the desired effect.
The Eighteenth Angel doesn't seem like David Seltzer's long-awaited return to religious horror so much as his attempt to recapture the success of The Omen with as little effort as possible. The parallels are too numerous to name, right down to its twist ending. The movie takes a half-hearted stab at blending science in with the religious aspects, but this potentially interesting angle is squandered. There's also a subplot involving Lucy's morbidly obese cat, Mozzy, that is of absolutely no interest whatsoever and isn't really paid off. Oh, and speaking of which...Lucy? Lucifer? Ho ho! How clever! It reminds me of the six-year-olds who think they're each the first person to ever sketch a cartoon character named Al E. Gator. The Eighteenth Angel plods along at a fairly sluggish pace, lacking anything approximating originality or enthusiasm. Stanley Tucci's brief role as Hugh's best friend was the second most memorable aspect of the movie for me, putting in perhaps the movie's single best performance. As for the most memorable, well...my bias towards Rachael Leigh Cook is not a closely-guarded secret.
Originally slated for a theatrical release in 1997, the $25 million production trotted directly to video store shelves after the film division of Rysher Entertainment (House Arrest) was shuttered. The Eighteenth Angel is now making its debut on our shiny 5" discs of choice, but its release on DVD isn't any more remarkable than the movie itself.
Video: Though The Eighteenth Angel bypassed a theatrical release stateside, this DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Reportedly, The Eighteenth Angel was originally shot with anamorphic lenses, meaning this DVD is cropped from 2.40:1 or thereabouts, but I personally didn't notice any panning or awkward framing as a result. Shortly after popping in this DVD, the image struck me as being a touch on the soft side, and black levels teetered on anemic. Just about as soon as I could reach for my pen to scribble down some vitriol, its appearance quickly improved. The slightly grainy photography is a bit inconsistent in that respect. Some shots, such as an early scene of Lucy and company preparing for her father's birthday party and a close-up of Mozzy at a funeral, are razor-sharp and stunningly detailed. Clarity isn't nearly as strong in substantial chunks of the movie, though I'd be hesitant to refer to them as "soft". There's also a block of several minutes where the footage is riddled with a few too many specks for my tastes. Though a handful of shots look spectacular, I'd characterize the presentation as a whole as fairly average.
Audio: The Dolby Digital stereo audio, despite not having six discrete channels at its disposal, sounds very nice. Rears remain active throughout, thanks in part to the number of scenes set in echoey churches, museums, and hospitals. Surrounds also effectively reinforce the atmospheric score by Jeff Eden Fair and Starr Parodi, which features the obligatory ominous choral pieces and a healthy amount of bass. The low-end is reasonably impressive for a stereo track, and slamming books, chamber doors, fiery explosions, and the clanking of the Astronomical Clock are all accompanied by a decent rumble.
Closed captions have also been provided, as have subtitles in both English and French.
Supplements: Extras are sparse on this DVD release of The Eighteenth Angel, and none of what little is provided has anything to do with the movie itself. The disc's supplements are limited to a pair of trailers. John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos (misspelled on the menu as '...Vampire:...') runs two minutes and seven seconds, sports a 192kps stereo track, and is letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Urban Legends: Final Cut (2:22) gets more respectable treatment, presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and sporting Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The Eighteenth Angel features static 16x9-enhanced menus, and the movie has been divided into twenty-eight chapters.
Random Bitching: The cover art for previous VHS releases was appropriately dark and creepy, and I was disappointed to find it replaced with a lackluster Photoshop job when this DVD rolled around. Admittedly, I can see why the original art may not have won the adoration of Columbia/Tri-Star's marketing department: it looks like it would be comfortable tucked away on store shelves in the anime section, sandwiched somewhere between Eight Man After and various volumes of Escaflowne. Is a soft, sepia-tinged collection of random, unappealing shots of the cast a vast improvement, though? I'm not generally in the camp that's rabidly fanatical about maintaining original art, and for all I know, the image to the right of this rant isn't original either. Still, the newly-created cover art for The Eighteenth Angel looks like laughably cheap bargain-bin fare.
Conclusion: A movie I'm wholly unable describe in terms more glowing than "okay, I guess", The Eighteenth Angel is probably best suited to a rental. Even then, only devotees of religious horror and fans of the talent involved will want to bother. Rent It.
Related Links: I'll give the comprehensive fansite rachaelleighcook.net another well-deserved plug.
Satan shall return
And walk amongst us
Not as beast but beauty
- Etruscan Book of the Dead
Prophecies tell of the events that must unfold before Satan can step foot upon the earth. Hoping to hurry the timetable up a bit, an Etruscan cult offers the devil a series of genetically-engineered host bodies, each clad with the severed angelic face of a murdered child. Eighteen hosts are required in total, and Father Simeon (Maximilian Schell) has spotted the ideal final form while on a trip to Boston. As the movie is titled The Eighteenth Angel and features Rachael Leigh Cook prominently on the cover, you can probably guess where all this is going.
The lovely Ms. Cook stars as Lucy Stanton, a young aspiring model who's still mourning the inexplicable suicide of her mother. Her father Hugh (Christopher McDonald) is reluctant to let her travel to Italy to learn the craft alone, especially so soon after his wife's untimely death. When Hugh is conveniently tapped to tackle some research in the area, he reluctantly takes the opportunity to grant his daughter her wish. While there, he stumbles upon some eerie connections between the creepy monastery next door and the research his wife was conducting before she took her fatal plunge. Hugh follows the trail of corpses to the truth, but his discovery might not come in time to save his daughter from the grip of Satan.
The Eighteenth Angel was penned by David Seltzer, who'd covered similar territory with The Omen some twenty years earlier. This retread passes itself off as a suspenseful horror movie without really providing much of either. In any other film, the premise would've remained a mystery, slowly unveiled throughout the bulk of its length. The Eighteenth Angel explains the entire scenario in detail during the title sequence, dulling any sense of mystery or intrigue that could have otherwise been present.
The body count is frightfully low, excluding the exceedingly brief and artfully photographed snippets of some of the other 'angels', and none of the handful of deaths stack up to anything seen in The Omen. There's nothing as instantly memorable as "It's all for you, Damien!", but that doesn't stop The Eighteenth Angel from having one of its female characters taking a similarly suicidal leap. The first swipe of a paw as a woman is mauled by cats made me cringe, but the remainder of the attack doesn't even rank with the worst of Lucio Fulci. There's a great sequence involving horse reins and strangulation, but it almost seems like too little, too late. A couple of jump scares are tossed the audience's way, and only two -- a mutant rat roaring back to life and an attacker leaping up from behind -- managed to achieve the desired effect.
The Eighteenth Angel doesn't seem like David Seltzer's long-awaited return to religious horror so much as his attempt to recapture the success of The Omen with as little effort as possible. The parallels are too numerous to name, right down to its twist ending. The movie takes a half-hearted stab at blending science in with the religious aspects, but this potentially interesting angle is squandered. There's also a subplot involving Lucy's morbidly obese cat, Mozzy, that is of absolutely no interest whatsoever and isn't really paid off. Oh, and speaking of which...Lucy? Lucifer? Ho ho! How clever! It reminds me of the six-year-olds who think they're each the first person to ever sketch a cartoon character named Al E. Gator. The Eighteenth Angel plods along at a fairly sluggish pace, lacking anything approximating originality or enthusiasm. Stanley Tucci's brief role as Hugh's best friend was the second most memorable aspect of the movie for me, putting in perhaps the movie's single best performance. As for the most memorable, well...my bias towards Rachael Leigh Cook is not a closely-guarded secret.
Originally slated for a theatrical release in 1997, the $25 million production trotted directly to video store shelves after the film division of Rysher Entertainment (House Arrest) was shuttered. The Eighteenth Angel is now making its debut on our shiny 5" discs of choice, but its release on DVD isn't any more remarkable than the movie itself.
Video: Though The Eighteenth Angel bypassed a theatrical release stateside, this DVD presents the film in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Reportedly, The Eighteenth Angel was originally shot with anamorphic lenses, meaning this DVD is cropped from 2.40:1 or thereabouts, but I personally didn't notice any panning or awkward framing as a result. Shortly after popping in this DVD, the image struck me as being a touch on the soft side, and black levels teetered on anemic. Just about as soon as I could reach for my pen to scribble down some vitriol, its appearance quickly improved. The slightly grainy photography is a bit inconsistent in that respect. Some shots, such as an early scene of Lucy and company preparing for her father's birthday party and a close-up of Mozzy at a funeral, are razor-sharp and stunningly detailed. Clarity isn't nearly as strong in substantial chunks of the movie, though I'd be hesitant to refer to them as "soft". There's also a block of several minutes where the footage is riddled with a few too many specks for my tastes. Though a handful of shots look spectacular, I'd characterize the presentation as a whole as fairly average.
Audio: The Dolby Digital stereo audio, despite not having six discrete channels at its disposal, sounds very nice. Rears remain active throughout, thanks in part to the number of scenes set in echoey churches, museums, and hospitals. Surrounds also effectively reinforce the atmospheric score by Jeff Eden Fair and Starr Parodi, which features the obligatory ominous choral pieces and a healthy amount of bass. The low-end is reasonably impressive for a stereo track, and slamming books, chamber doors, fiery explosions, and the clanking of the Astronomical Clock are all accompanied by a decent rumble.
Closed captions have also been provided, as have subtitles in both English and French.
Supplements: Extras are sparse on this DVD release of The Eighteenth Angel, and none of what little is provided has anything to do with the movie itself. The disc's supplements are limited to a pair of trailers. John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos (misspelled on the menu as '...Vampire:...') runs two minutes and seven seconds, sports a 192kps stereo track, and is letterboxed to an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. Urban Legends: Final Cut (2:22) gets more respectable treatment, presented in anamorphic widescreen at an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and sporting Dolby Digital 5.1 audio.
The Eighteenth Angel features static 16x9-enhanced menus, and the movie has been divided into twenty-eight chapters.
Random Bitching: The cover art for previous VHS releases was appropriately dark and creepy, and I was disappointed to find it replaced with a lackluster Photoshop job when this DVD rolled around. Admittedly, I can see why the original art may not have won the adoration of Columbia/Tri-Star's marketing department: it looks like it would be comfortable tucked away on store shelves in the anime section, sandwiched somewhere between Eight Man After and various volumes of Escaflowne. Is a soft, sepia-tinged collection of random, unappealing shots of the cast a vast improvement, though? I'm not generally in the camp that's rabidly fanatical about maintaining original art, and for all I know, the image to the right of this rant isn't original either. Still, the newly-created cover art for The Eighteenth Angel looks like laughably cheap bargain-bin fare. Conclusion: A movie I'm wholly unable describe in terms more glowing than "okay, I guess", The Eighteenth Angel is probably best suited to a rental. Even then, only devotees of religious horror and fans of the talent involved will want to bother. Rent It.
Related Links: I'll give the comprehensive fansite rachaelleighcook.net another well-deserved plug.
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