I wouldn't bother with this tale of yet another serial killer working his way across Canada and disrupting the quiet life of police officer Susan Sarandon. It's completely implausible and except for Susan Sarandon's performance it just another piece of serial killer junk with Christopher Heyerdahl as the priestly murderer trying to kill a dozen people in order to raise his brother, now soaked in formaldehyde, from the dead.
There is some Latin mumbo jumbo about an ancient Christian blessing that is difficult to connect to the story. Even less comprehensible is the requisite clues that the killer leaves behind -- the mouths of his victims shaping the Latin expression for "free us." Nothing in the secret blessing about that, but plenty about it in the script. The killer must always leave behind some puzzle for the police to figure out, whether it's in the shape of a pentagram or quotations from "Through the Looking Glass." How can the murderer shape the vocal organs -- the tongue, the teeth, the lips -- of his victims before rigor, you ask? There are some things man was never meant to know.
Sarandon does her usual professional job. She's aging but there's a certain elegance in aging features and a thin line between beauty and baseness. Ellen Burstyn is pretty good too, as Sarandon's earthy mother. Heyerdahl, groomed in such a way as to make his skull seem abnormal, will make your hair stand on end. Aside from that, the film isn't worth going on about.
There is some Latin mumbo jumbo about an ancient Christian blessing that is difficult to connect to the story. Even less comprehensible is the requisite clues that the killer leaves behind -- the mouths of his victims shaping the Latin expression for "free us." Nothing in the secret blessing about that, but plenty about it in the script. The killer must always leave behind some puzzle for the police to figure out, whether it's in the shape of a pentagram or quotations from "Through the Looking Glass." How can the murderer shape the vocal organs -- the tongue, the teeth, the lips -- of his victims before rigor, you ask? There are some things man was never meant to know.
Sarandon does her usual professional job. She's aging but there's a certain elegance in aging features and a thin line between beauty and baseness. Ellen Burstyn is pretty good too, as Sarandon's earthy mother. Heyerdahl, groomed in such a way as to make his skull seem abnormal, will make your hair stand on end. Aside from that, the film isn't worth going on about.