Criticism of the film Pray for us: Marian terror

Criticism of Pray for us, a horror film directed by Evan Spiliotopoulos that adapts the novel by James Herbert and has Sam Raimi in the production. A proposal that mixes Marian apparitions and miracles with witch hunts. Premiere on April 3, 2021, and now available in the Netflix catalog.

Synopsis

Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is desperately looking for a sensational story to get back into the job market. That’s why she moves to the small town of banfield where a young deaf-mute seems to have found healing and also obtained supernatural powers, all after an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

Pray for us movie review

This week Netflix is ​​committed to continuing to increase its horror catalog by incorporating the movie pray for us. A title that unequivocally takes us to the closing of a mass in the Catholic Church, and we are not wrong. The tape uses the miracles around the Catholic Church to ask us the following question: what if these supposed miracles were not the work of God or the Virgin? What if they are the direct work of the Devil and he just wants to attract the faithful with them?

based on the novel shrine from 1983 by the English horror writer James Herbert, the film begins with a prologue in which we will experience the execution of a young woman in 1845. From this event will start the subsequent curse that seems to be reactivated in the small town of Banfield a tabloid reporter of the paranormal, Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan).

Marian apparitions reach the town

It cannot be said that we are facing a proposal of terror with a satisfactory result, far from it. But what is true, and it is the only thing we can highlight about this film, is that its plot, at first, can be original and attractive. A young deaf-mute named Alice (Cricket Brown) receives a visit from the Virgin Mary who works the miracle of curing her immediately, and from that very moment the girl will act as speaker of the messages she wants to convey among her faithful.

In this way the movie pray for us knows how to connect with two places of pilgrimage par excellence, Lourdes and Fatima, and points out the dark events that also occurred around the origin of these Marian apparitions. Also putting the focus on how beneficial these apparitions and miracles have been at an economic level, assuming that any country would be delighted to have its own place of pilgrimage for the faithful, although behind them more deception and scam than anything else were hidden.

seedy terror without effect

And so far the remarkably positive of the tape, since everything else is so shabby that few viewers will finish viewing it. The debut of Evan Spiliotopoulosbest known for his screenplays in films such as ‘Beauty and the Beast‘ (2017) or ‘The Snow White Chronicles: The Huntsman and the Ice Queen‘ (2016), leaves a lot to be desired. Completely overacted performances in most cases, very very crappy special effects, lack of rhythm throughout the narrative, pulse to direct the supposed scares, and a script loaded with morality and where nonsense reigns. And worst of all, it won’t get us to give a single start in the seat. We are facing a complete nonsense that does not work either as a paranormal investigation thriller or as a diabolical horror film. Effective zero terror.

Final opinion of the film Pray for us

The eternal struggle between God and the Devil in itself is nothing new, but some of the ideas that the proposal points out are the unquestionable and even radicalized faith, and the high economic benefits around the sacred places blessed by the Church; although she unfortunately fails to develop any of them accurately and adequately. For the rest, the movie pray for us It’s a completely expendable proposition that won’t even manage to entertain with a couple of good scares. Don’t be fooled by the implication of sam raimi in the project.

Artistic Sheet

Direction: Evan Spiliotopoulos
Script: Evan Spiliotopoulos. Novel: James Herbert
Music: joseph beshara
Photography: Craig Wrobleski
Distribution: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Cricket Brown, Cary Elwes, William Sadler, Katie Aselton, Christine Adams, Celeste Oliva, Diogo Morgado, Janelle Feigley, Marina Mazepa

Poster

Trailer