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Evening
Standard by Alexander Walker, 11 April 2002**
Writer-director Stuart Urban's Revelation has a brain behind it. It's
an occult thriller with the pleasures of a good treasure hunt through
history. It begins with Christ's crucifixion and fast-forwards through
two millennia. It artfully and playfully - and sometimes plausibly -
stitches together all sorts of arcane phenomena: religious heresy, chemical
alchemy, sacred geometry, secret societies from the Knights Templars
to the Masons, the CIA and the Vatican. It is a film that plays games
with the genre on a board that stretches baroquely from Languedoc to
Malta and the farthest Patmos. You're not to take any of it seriously,
and yet ... the notion of cloning Jesus Christ from a fragment of DNA
may some day become a "given" of genetic engineering - who knows? Terence
Stamp, grey and cavity cheeked, plays a billionaire, Lord Magnus Martel
- "enobled by the Prime Minister", we're told (which tells us all that's
needed) - who's sweating blood over a sacred relic, a box called the
Loculus. Udo Keir, last seen in Roman times, is his demonic adversary,
flitting through time, space and even stone walls to get hold of this
artefact that can do "great evil or great good". Evil, mostly, judging
by the body-strewn pursuit of Stamp's cryptographer son (James d'Arcy)
and alchemy student Mira (Natasha Wightman). Derek Jacobi and Liam Cunningham
are collateral victims; Ron Moody's Isaac Newton brings a brief touch
of the Harry Potters to the tale. Urban and his producer, Jonathan Woolf,
take the story at a clip, Sam McCurdy's photography feeds on history
in stone and landscape of eerie romance, the dialogue toys seriously
with esoteric knowledge and flip-pantly with received wisdom. ("Newton
was an alchemist? I thought he discovered gravity." - "Oh, all that
was a sideline.") The SFX are exceptionally fine, with an avalanche
of sand that takes out a main character as unexpectedly as Janet Leigh
in another kind of shower. Occult thrillers are hard to bring off today:
the genre has been exhausted by SFX that suck the life out of the story,
and thus exhaust us. Revelation sends us wittily back on a refresher
course.
*
- good, **
- very good, ***
- outstanding
Daily Star, 12 April 2002
This zestful occult shocker delivers enough chills and thrills to satisfy
most horror fans as James D'Arcy and alchemist Natasha Wightman race
against time to find a strange sacred relic and save Mankind from the
diabolical Udo Kier. Director Stuart Urban's fascinating script seethes
with sinister conspiracies and even more sinister characters. He creates
strong suspense, stages "jumping-in-your-seat" shocks (including Terence
Stamp being flayed alive) and showcases Derek Jacobi's unintentionally
camp comic turn to perfection.
Daily Record by Alan Morrison,
12 April 2002
"For almost 2000 years, a religious relic has been fought over by forces
of good and evil. It might look like a bit of wood to you and me, but
to the Knights Templar, it's a sacred artefact whose secrets, if unlocked,
could unleash great power. Just before he gets spectacularly mashed
up, Magnus Martel (Terence Stamp) passes the task of searching for the
relic on to his computer hacker son, Jake (James D'Arcy). As Jake's
quest continues, he rubs shoulder with a sexy alchemist, ninja-style
fighters and an over-acting bad guy in the shape of Udo Kier. The film's
odd mix of historical conspiracy theories and secret societies appeals
to the paranoid streak in us all. But there's just a bit too much information
being pushed at us. Fewer words and more action would have really made
it essential viewing.
Empire
by Kim NEWMAN***
This ambitious horror/adventure drama revisits the territory of The
Omen with an added emphasis on cutting-edge Biblical archaeology, historical
conspiracies and DNA research. Hacker James D’Arcy competes with ninja-like
Knights Templar, led by Udo Kier (who seems to control the Vatican,
the E.U. and the Pentagon), to track down a sacred relic. Terence Stamp
and Celia Imrie — D’Arcy’s parents — get hung from hooks early on, leaving
our hero with only wild-haired alchemist Natasha Wightman as an ally.
The plot unfolds in random snatches, with a great deal of running about
Europe in search of clues concealed in churches, as sides are drawn
up for a battle between Christ and Antichrist that paves the way for
a sequel.
SIGHT AND SOUND by Mark Kermode,
May 2002
"A mysterious figure, the Grand Master, appears at Christ's crucifixion
and at a number of significant events of religious persecution over
the next 2000 years. England, 2001. Former convict Jake Martel is reunited
with his estranged billionaire-father Magnus, who has dispatched an
ally to hide a legendary box, known as the 'loculus'. Jake meets Mira,
a student of alchemy who is assisting Magnus, and he escapes with her
after the Grand Master kills his father and mother. Enlisting the help
of prison chaplain Father Connolly, Jake and Mira decode a message left
by Magnus, using ancient astrology, they chart a course to France. Malta
and a small Greek island, finding the loculus buried in a church catacomb.
Jake and Mira make love. Father Ray arrives and the trio divine the
meaning of the loculus, it contains the nails of the crucifixion still
contaminated with Christ's DNA. Father Ray traps the couple in the catacombs
and takes the box to the Vatican where it falls into the hands of the
Grand Master. Jake and Mira are trapped by the Grand Master's henchmen.
Jake sacrifices himself saving Mira who has concluded that her name
is a derivative of Mary Magdalene. The Grand Master fuses his own DNA
with that of Christ to spawn the anti-Christ, hailed as the second coming
by the Vatican. In private, Mira gives birth to the true messiah. When
poor old mad John sat down to pen "Revelation", he could not have imagined
that one of the principal results of his ramblings would be a plethora
of fanciful horror movies some thousand years hence. Ever since the
mid-1970's when Omen screenwriter David Seltzer introduced cinema audiences
to the joys of taking liberties with the "Book of Revelation", Hollywood
has been wise to the adaptability of this wackiest of source materials.
Like Shakespeare, John is a revered but long-dead author, and therefore
cannot argue about the misinterpretation of his work like Jane Austen,
his texts can be updated without anyone calling foul play. Over the
years, Revelationist movies have encompassed everything from the ooga
booga occult chills of "The Omen" to IV, to the anti-doctrinal imaginings
of The Rapture Now, to this already burgeoning genre we may add REVELATION,
a peculiar resurrection for the long-dead Romulus Films that owes a
passing debt to the third Omen film The Final Conflict (1981) but which
buries its rehashed trash roots under impenetrable layers of occult
mysticism and new-age spirituality. The result is a devilishly over-egged
affair in which everything is played mezzo forte from start to finish,
and in which Udo Kier has the rare distinction of being the most subdued
actor in the entire cast. Gone are the days of hauling blood-dripping
gall bladders out of cadavers in Paul Morrissey's Flesh for Frankstein
(1975). Nowadays, Udo only has to squint very slightly and utter some
gnomic -2- proclamation in that peculiarly Transylvanian accent for
the audience to understand that bad things are about to happen. While
any film that offers Ron Moody as Sir Isaac Newton may flirt with unintentional
comedy, the main problem with REVELATION is not that it is open to ridicule
(as are many great horror movies), but rather that it baffles the viewer
too often into disbelief. As our latter-day saints lurch from country
to country on nothing more than a wing and prayer, you start to hear
the creaky mechanism of the plot groaning under its own insurmountable
weight. By the time the central characters, Jake and Mira, start performing
the impregnation of Venus by the light of the lost ark, one genuinely
starts to wonder where on Earth (or elsewhere) this will all lead. Sadly,
this extravagant case of over writing shackles a film which is both
visually arresting and atmospherically stylish, and which would have
benefited enormously from some stiff editing at the outset. Having made
his feature debut with the uninspiring Preaching to the Perverted ,
Stuart Urban seems to have found his directorial feet with REVELATION,
working with director of photography Sam McCurdy to conjure numerous
eerie vistas and sinister screen locales perfectly in keeping with the
film's ethereal subject matter. There is a degree of home-grown pizzazz
too in the CGI effects which are used both to enhance some well-chosen
scenery (particularly St Michael's Mount in Cornwall) and to magic-up
some otherworldly beasties. Add to this Julian Rodd's frenzied editing,
which occasionally makes the film resemble Mary Shelley's Frankstein
in its rush to keep up with the plot, and only the most ardent cine-atheist
could deny the film's visual achievements. All in all, then an ambitious
step in the right direction after such recent homegrown horrors as Long
Time Dead , but not nearly coherent or compelling enough to convert
world-weary disbelievers to its flamboyant cause.
Shadows
on the Wall by Rich Cline***
This rather decent biblical-themed thriller has a clever plot that slowly
but surely draws us into the intrigue and drama. It's a bit unambitious,
but it's also nice to see a suspenseful film that keeps us hooked without
ever going over the top. Basically, it's about a lost religious relic,
the key to the Knights Templar and their quest for world domination.
A renegade knight (Stamp) passes on the task to his estranged son, the
young ex-con Jake (D'Arcy), who teams up with a priest (Cunningham)
and a sexy alchemist (Wightman) to find the relic, figure out its secret
and stop the Grand Master (Kier) from doing whatever he plans to do
with it. The incessant conspiracies, secret codes, underground societies
and scientific magic that litter this film keep us absolutely gripped.
Well, we have to pay attention just to figure out what's going on! But
Urban has put the film together so coherently that we never get lost.
Instead, he lures us into the story with a smart script that gives us
just enough information when we need it, setting us up nicely for each
surprise and never resorting to cheap theatrics or a big apocalyptic
climax. The result is one of the more intelligent thrillers in recent
memory, done on a small scale that makes it all the more believable
(well, sort of). The production design is excellent as well--we never
feel like we're on a movie set or in the grip of overwhelming special
effects, while the heroes (especially Cunningham) are authentic people
we can identify with. Meanwhile, Kier does a lot of effectively evil
grimacing ... and there's also that fabulously silly wig in the early/flashback
sequences! Yes, it does all feel a bit small for the big screen--more
like a TV movie than a proper feature film. There's never that overpowering
sense of doom and gloom--it's much more character-based, in that sense.
And it's also one of the better thrillers in cinemas at the moment.
NOWTORONTO
by John Harkness
This is a mind-bending
thriller that spans a couple thousand years of Christian mythology and
criss-crosses half of Europe. James D'Arcy and Natasha Wightman are
fleeing the powerful remnants of the Knights Templar while trying to
find a relic of the Crucifixion that apparently holds apocalyptic power.
It's like Robert Ludlum with an eschatological edge, so if you thought
Memento was confusing, you may be in trouble here. Excellent performances,
particularly by Terence Stamp as a billionaire who decides to double-cross
the Templars and pays the price, and the always outré Udo Kier as the
head bad guy.
Methodist Recorder by Moira Sleight,
11 April 2002
Take a secret society
in search of a sacred relic, add alchemy and astrology, cyber skills
and cryptography, shake up with murder and mayhem, sprinkle with romance
and you have Revelation, the new occult thriller from Romulus Films
(certificate 15) Billonaire Magnus Martel, played by Terence Stamp,
is desperate to find and destroy an ancient relic before it is used
for sinister purposes and seeks the help of his estranged son, Jake,
played for James D'Arcy in his task. In pursuit is the secret society's
Grand Master, played by Udo Kier, whose quest is to seize the relic
and harness its devastating power and knowledge. Jake in turn
seeks the assistance of student of alchemy Mira, played by Natasha Wightman.
Weaving together facts, fiction and suppositions, the film links the
legends of the Knights Templar to contemporary life and develops the
mediaeval Cathar heresy that Mary Magdalene was Christ's bride. Written
and directed by Stuart Urban, a tale unfolds of sacrifice and ruthlessness,
love and hate, good and evil. From the opening scenes of Christ's crucifixion,
religion permeates the film but this is not the religion of orthodox
Christianity but of a darker, supernatural mysticism. A fine cast, including
cameo roles for Derek Jacobi and Celia Imrie, and a taut script make
this a slick film, but the gruesome - and realistic - scenes of murder
and torture will be too much for some readers even if they can put up
with the nudity. The fact that this film has been made suggests that
its backers have acknowledged and hope to profit from the great interest
there is in religion in today's society. Young people may not be crowding
into the churches, but many have a real interest in spirituality - especially
the more exotic sorts features in this film. This film is provoking
and do not even think of going unless you want to be provoked - and,
indeed, have a strong stomach for blood and gore. :Revelation a Cyclops
Vision Production for Romulus Films opens on April 12.
The Librarian Christian Fellowship Newsletter
by Graham Hedges
11 April 2002
Film reviews do not often appear in LCF publications. However, the present
notice may be of interest since films that are shown on cinema screens
this month will be appearing on public library shelves in video or DVD
format in a few months time. In addition, this production may be of
particular significance to LCF readers as it is based on controversial
theories about Christianity that were considered - and rejected - by
Rev.Lionel Fanthorpe, presenter of Channel 4's Fortean TV, in his lecture
to the Fellowship back in October 1998. REVELATION is the latest attempt
to transfer some of the wilder speculations about biblical prophecy
onto the cinema screen. In that respect it belongs to a genre of popular
films which includes such productions as "The Omen" which combined horror
and fantasy with a lurid portrayal of the life and times of the coming
Anti-Christ. Unlike those earlier films, however, Revelation draws most
of its inspiration not from evangelical flights of fantasy about the
coming apocalypse but from a currently fashionable genre of popular
literature which combines religious speculation with arcane theories
about the Knights Templar, the Cathar heretics and the so-called "bloodline"
of Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene. Your local library or bookshop will
probably be full of books like The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail, The
Tomb of God, and Bloodline of the Holy Grail, which expound these particular
theories. In the early moments of the film, high-tech business tycoon
Lord Martel (played by Terence Stamp) assembles an unlikely team of
scientists and occultists on his island headquarters who work on a mysterious
project. After the entire team is murdered by unknown assailants, Martel's
son - Jake, an expert on computers and secret codes - has to go on the
run with the beautiful Mira, a student of the ancient art of alchemy.
Their mission is to find the Loculus, a mysterious wooden box built
from remains of the True Cross, and to prevent it from falling into
the hands of a secret Masonic-type society derived from the Knights
Templar of the Middle Ages, who plan to use its powers for evil. The
storyline is fast moving and the action quickly moves from St. Michael's
Mount, off the shores of Cornwall, to the French village of Rennes-le-Chateau,
and then to the isle of Patmos, where St.John saw his visions. Along
the way Jake and Mira (played by James D'Arcy and Natasha Wightman)
are joined by a gun-toting former army and prison chaplain who is not
above using strong arm tactics to keep the Loculus out of the hands
of the opposition. Mira turns out to be a card-carrying devotee of the
New Age movement who believes that the "age of dogma" is over and that
men and women now have to find salvation within themselves. As the film
progresses there are some entertaining moments among the blood and violence
- as when Jake and Mira meet a rather officious and pedantic Cambridge
Librarian (Derek Jacobi, in a cameo performance) who is, nevertheless,
in league with the enemy. As a librarian, I had some sympathy with Jake's
question, "How can you be so stupid and be a librarian?" There is the
usual love interest - though the inevitable sex scene, which takes place
in a church and combines Christian imagery with references to the pagan
cult of the goddess Venus, will strike many Christian viewers as gratuitous.
Without giving too much of the storyline away, I will simply record
that the film gives uncritical support to many of the sensational theories
about Christian origins mentioned above. These include the idea that
Jesus probably did not die on the Cross, but survived to marry Mary
Magdalene and became the ancestor of the early Merovingian kings of
France. Alchemy, sacred geometry and various branches of occult lore
also feature prominently in the story. At last the Loculus is located
in the crypt of a church on Patmos and the designs of the enemy become
clear - a rather improbable plot to clone Christ from samples of his
DNA still clinging after two thousand years to the nails of the Crucifixion.
The film ends with the nativity of the Anti-Christs - and with the birth
of the last descendant of Jesus and Mary, whose destiny is to become
the second Messiah and win a further victory over the forces of evil.
Publicity material for the film claims that it deals with "the crossover
of science and religion in the new millennium" and that it is "an astounding
adventure into the supernatural, the metaphysical and the profound"
The production is written and directed by BAFTA winner Stuart Urban
and represents a return to feature film making on the part of Romulus
Films, the independent company responsible for such screen classics
as "The African Queen" and "Room at the Top" REVELATION can be enjoyed
as a fast-moving adventure story, but many Christians will be disturbed
by the film's use of occult themes and its easy acceptance of wild theories
that find little support from the mainstream academic community or from
the Christian churches.
Psychic World by
Chan Chong
Ouiji boards, voodoo, ancient myths and symbols have all been used in
horror movies and thrillers but I don't think any film has ever attempted
to combine religion, the occult and alchemy (to name but a few of the
subjects) intertwining together in one film like Revelation, a modern
day supernatural thriller by Romulus productions. On the surface, the
film is about good and evil and a long battle between the forces of
light and darkness to find a secret relic that has been missing for
two thousand years. Terence Stamp plays billionaire Magnus Martel who
is desperate to find the relic and destroy it, with the aid of his reluctant
son Jake (James D'Arcy) and a team of experts, one of which is Mira
(Natasha Wightman), a student of alchemy. This relic can create great
consequences. The race is on to find it's location, and hot on their
trail is powerful and immortal Grand Master (Udo Kier) and his secret
society whose quest to find the relic for his own evil uses, means that
he quite literally slaughters anyone who gets in his way. An early death
for Magnus Martel leaves many questions unanswered for his son. He has
been left a huge task which he knows he must honour, but never quite
knows the full story. His code cracking and modern cyber skills are
simply not enough, and to discover and understand the relic, the ancient
arts of sacred geometry, astrology and alchemy and knowledge of cryptology
must needed too. Luckily, Mira, an expert in cryptology is the only
other person to survive the first slaughtering. This however, is where
the clichés end. The basis of many of the subjects in the film are a
combination of either known myths, recent and historical conspiracies,
heresies or historical fact. To his credit, Stuart Urban, the script
rewriter is said to have read every book that he could on the subjects
covered in the film. Apparently, everything in the film is coded and
symbolised correctly throughout so audiences, who might be familiar
with the Knights Templar, astrology, astronomy, sacred geometry, freemasonry
and modern conspiracies can work out the jigsaw puzzle clues if they
try. However, if you are like myself - it's probably best to leave it
to the two main protagonists. Their hunt for the sacred artefact takes
them to many impressive locations including France, Malta and Greece.
But it also becomes a journey of self-discovery and sacrifices. James
D'Arcy (better known for his TV roles in Nicholas Nickleby and Rebel
Heart) is great as the young and vulnerable Jake Martel and compliments
the performance of his co-star, newcomer Natasha Wightman. Wightman
is striking in the role of Mira. Throughout the film, she creates an
intense mood around her character which leaves the viewer guessing and
unsure of whether she should be trusted. The plot unfolds in a completely
unpredictable manner with many twists and turns, including a very interesting
theory about Isaac Newton. It manages to maintain a balanced level of
suspense and excitement right up to the very end, with great special
effects and make-up to match any Hollywood production. If you're interested
in any of these things, or if you just like a good suspense story, this
film has it all. Rarely do we see a film that explores the hidden aspects
of religion and the genuine occult, whilst opening up the ethical questions
that are raised in subjects such as Genetic Modification for debate.
With an unpredictable and thought-provoking ending, the Romulus team
have given us a clever, brave and original, well produced
thriller.
ScriptWriter
Magazine
A compelling picture in the great tradition of The Maltese Falcon
Fantasy.fr
L'IMAGINAIRE ONLINE
REVELATION (Stuart Urban - UK - Nuit Apocalypse- Apocalypse
Night) The frantic present day search for an ancient relic believed
to confer great powers on whoever possesses it in the new Millenium.
Fascinating, full of surprises and original, while down-playing any
sensationalism, this film gathers together all the elements of the fantasy
genre: Knights Templar, secret societies, alchemy, the occult, libraries
with old manuscripts containing forbidden knowledge, exotic rites (such
as the rituals of Roman torture), conspiracies between the powers of
religion, business and politics, betrayals... and the storyâs
(admittedly not unexpected) ending manages to impress with its ambitious
and spectacular climax. This film is a real pleasure to watch. A nice
surprise, and for those of you who are keen "role players",
a real treat for the Nephilim lovers·
SHIVERS
- FrightFest Review
It
is indeed a curious beast, and again, not a Horror film at all, although
there were some lipsmackingly gory moments. So if you’ve ever wanted
to see Celia Imrie flambéed or Terence Stamp skinned alive, then this
is the film for you. Directed by Stuart Urban, the film almost defies
classification. When it was previewed in Shivers #87 it was described
as a ‘quasi-religious mythical adventure, the thinking man’s Raiders
of the Lost Ark’.
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