The Eighteenth Angel

Last updated
The Eighteenth Angel
The Eighteenth Angel Movie Poster.jpg
Movie Poster
Directed byWilliam Bindley
Written by David Seltzer
Produced byDouglas Curtis
William Hart
Starring
Cinematography Thomas E. Ackerman
Edited by William Hoy
Music byJeff Eden Fair
Starr Parodi
Distributed by Rysher Entertainment
Release dates
  • December 6, 1997 (1997-12-06)
(Japan)
  • October 6, 1998 (1998-10-06)
(USA)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Eighteenth Angel is a 1997 American horror-thriller film, starring Christopher McDonald, Rachael Leigh Cook, Stanley Tucci, Wendy Crewson, and Maximilian Schell. It was directed by William Bindley and written by David Seltzer.

Contents

Plot

An ancient Etruscan prophecy claims that the return of Satan will be precipitated by the arrival of eighteen physically perfect beings. To enable the prophecy to come to fruition, a secret sect of monks joins an obsessed geneticist to create the perfect specimens artificially.

Music scholar Hugh Stanton lives in America with his wife Norah and their teenage daughter Lucy. Lucy's good looks are beginning to attract attention, and she dreams of becoming a professional model, but Norah is opposed to this.

Norah dies in an unexplained fall from the roof of a tall building, seemingly a suicide, after a brief meeting with a mysterious Etruscan priest, Father Simeon. In the aftermath of her death, Hugh receives an invitation to visit a Roman church which allegedly contains "the world's oldest church organ". He and Lucy move to Italy, where they settle down in the former Etruscan areas north of the Eternal City.

With little to do while her father is at work, Lucy begins to explore her surroundings - in particular an old monastery, despite warnings from locals. A scientist (who was fired after performing unethical experiments on corpses) now works in the old building. As it transpires, he has been hired by the Etruscan priest who, it is insinuated, may have arranged the death of the girl's mother, in order to trick Hugh and Lucy into visiting the ancient land of the Etruscans.

In the old building, seventeen young girls are clinically brain dead, but kept alive by the scientist. The scientist, unaware of his employer’s true intentions, is just glad to be able to continue his questionable experiments, regardless.

According to the Etruscan prophecy, the number of eighteen special girls are required for it to be fulfilled. Could Lucy be number eighteen?

Cast

Reception

Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club was critical of film writing that the "mixture of the Satanic and the mundane results in a number of conceits and juxtapositions generally more silly than terrifying" and that it fails "to create the atmosphere of Old Testament dread that the material so desperately needs." [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob</span> Regarded Patriarch of the Israelites

Jacob, later given the name Israel, is regarded as a patriarch of the Israelites and is an important figure in Abrahamic religions, such as Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, and Islam. Jacob first appears in the Book of Genesis, originating from the Hebrew tradition in the Torah. Described as the son of Isaac and Rebecca, and the grandson of Abraham, Sarah, and Bethuel, Jacob is presented as the second-born among Isaac's children. His fraternal twin brother is the elder, named Esau, according to the biblical account. Jacob is said to have bought Esau's birthright and, with his mother's help, deceived his aging father to bless him instead of Esau. Later in the narrative, following a severe drought in his homeland of Canaan, Jacob and his descendants, with the help of his son Joseph, moved to Egypt where Jacob died at the age of 147. He is supposed to have been buried in the Cave of Machpelah.

<i>Shanghai Knights</i> 2003 film by David Dobkin

Shanghai Knights is a 2003 American martial arts action comedy film. It is the sequel to Shanghai Noon, and the second installment of the Shanghai film series. Directed by David Dobkin and written by Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, it stars Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Donnie Yen and Aidan Gillen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Janet Leigh</span> American actress (1927–2004)

Jeanette Helen Morrison, known professionally as Janet Leigh, was an American actress. Her career spanned over five decades. Raised in Stockton, California, by working-class parents, Leigh was discovered at 18 by actress Norma Shearer, who helped her secure a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucy Pevensie</span> Fictional character in The Chronicles of Narnia

Lucy Pevensie is a fictional character in C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia series. She is the youngest of the four Pevensie children, and the first to find the Wardrobe entrance to Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Of all the Pevensie children, Lucy is the closest to Aslan. Also, of all the humans who have visited Narnia, Lucy is perhaps the one that believes in Narnia the most. She is ultimately crowned Queen Lucy the Valiant, co-ruler of Narnia along with her two brothers and her sister. Lucy is the central character of the four siblings in the novels. Lucy is a principal character in three of the seven books, and a minor character in two others.

<i>The Crow: Salvation</i> 2000 supernatural superhero film directed by Bharat Nalluri

The Crow: Salvation is a 2000 American superhero film directed by Bharat Nalluri. Starring Eric Mabius as Alex Corvis and the third installment of The Crow film series, based on the comic book character of the same name by James O'Barr. After its distributor cancelled the intended wide theatrical release due to The Crow: City of Angels' negative critical reception, The Crow: Salvation was released direct-to-video after a limited theatrical run.

<i>Elizabethtown</i> (film) 2005 film by Cameron Crowe

Elizabethtown is a 2005 American romantic tragicomedy film written and directed by Cameron Crowe and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Its story follows a young shoe designer, Drew Baylor, who is fired from his job after costing his company an industry record of nearly one billion dollars. On the verge of suicide, Drew receives a call from his sister telling him that their father has died while visiting their former hometown of Elizabethtown, Kentucky. Deciding to postpone his suicide and bring their father's body back to Oregon, he then becomes involved in an unexpected romance with Claire Colburn, who he meets near the start of his journey. Elizabethtown stars Orlando Bloom, Kirsten Dunst, Alec Baldwin, and Susan Sarandon.

<i>The Prophecy II</i> 1998 American film

The Prophecy II is a 1998 American fantasy-action-horror film and the second installment in The Prophecy series. Christopher Walken reprises his role as the Archangel Gabriel. It was directed by Greg Spence and written by Spence and Matthew Greenberg.

<i>Addams Family Reunion</i> 1998 television film directed by Dave Payne

Addams Family Reunion is a 1998 American comedy horror film based on the characters from the cartoon created by cartoonist Charles Addams. Directed by Dave Payne, the film was intended to serve as a pilot for a new proposed television series produced by Saban. The film stars Daryl Hannah and Tim Curry as Morticia and Gomez Addams respectively while Carel Struycken and Christopher Hart's hand are the only ones to reprise their roles from the last two films. The film's plot focused on the eccentric, macabre aristocratic Addams family mistakenly arriving at the wrong family reunion and encountering a man who seeks to commit murder in order to inherit a fortune.

<i>Last Man on Earth</i> (album) 2001 studio album by Loudon Wainwright III

Last Man on Earth is the sixteenth studio album by American singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III, released on September 24, 2001 on Red House Records. Recorded in the wake of Wainwright's mother's death and the collapse of a romantic relationship, the album thematically addresses feelings of grief and loneliness. In 2012, Wainwright noted, "Last Man on Earth was written right after my mother died, so a lot of the material on that record has to do with that momentous event. The life circle was present on a lot of those songs."

<i>Wildcat</i> (musical) 1960 musical by Carolyn Leigh and Cy Coleman

Wildcat is a musical with a book by N. Richard Nash, lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, and music by Cy Coleman.

<i>The Haunting of Molly Hartley</i> 2008 American film

The Haunting of Molly Hartley is a 2008 American supernatural horror film written by John Travis and Rebecca Sonnenshine and directed by Mickey Liddell. The film, starring Haley Bennett, Chace Crawford, AnnaLynne McCord, and Jake Weber, was a critical failure but a mild commercial success.

<i>Kids by the Dozen</i> American TV series or program

Kids By The Dozen is a reality television series about large families. The series was produced by Powderhouse Productions.

<i>Sweet Tooth</i> (Vertigo) Comic book series by Jeff Lemire

Sweet Tooth is an American comic book limited series written and drawn by Canadian cartoonist Jeff Lemire and published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. Dubbed by some as "Mad Max meets Bambi", it takes place in a mostly rural post-apocalyptic setting where some creatures are human/animal hybrids. The original 40-issue series, of six sub-titled segments, ran from November 2009 to January 2013. A six-issue sequel, sub-titled The Return, ran from November 2020 to November 2021. A television series adaptation was released on Netflix in June 2021, with a second season released in April 2023. The following month, Netflix announced that a third and final season will be produced.

<i>Sleeping Beauty</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Julia Leigh

Sleeping Beauty is a 2011 Australian erotic drama film written and directed by Julia Leigh in her directorial debut. The film stars Emily Browning as a young university student. She takes up a part-time high-paying job with a mysterious group that caters to rich men and women who like the company of nude sleeping young women. Lucy is required to sleep alongside paying customers and be absolutely submissive to their erotic desires, fulfilling their fantasies by voluntarily entering into physical unconsciousness.

Gerry Becker was an American theatre, film, and television actor.

<i>All I Wanna Do</i> (1998 film) 1998 Canadian-American comedy film by Sarah Kernochan

All I Wanna Do is a 1998 American comedy film written and directed by Sarah Kernochan. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Gaby Hoffmann, Monica Keena, Heather Matarazzo and Rachael Leigh Cook in an ensemble cast as students of the fictional Miss Godard's Preparatory School for Girls, and Lynn Redgrave as the school's headmistress. The film takes place in 1963 and focuses on several students' plotting and sabotage of a proposed merger for the school to go coed.

<i>Yoga Hosers</i> 2016 film by Kevin Smith

Yoga Hosers is a 2016 American comedy horror film written and directed by Kevin Smith. It is a spin-off of Smith's 2014 horror film Tusk and stars Smith's daughter Harley Quinn Smith, Lily-Rose Depp, and her father, Johnny Depp. The second film in Smith's True North trilogy, it had its world premiere on January 24 at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival before being released on September 2, 2016, by Invincible Pictures. The film was a commercial flop and was panned by critics, who viewed it as a low point in Smith's career.

<i>Life with My Sister Madonna</i> Book by Christopher Ciccone

Life with My Sister Madonna is an autobiography by American artist, designer and interior decorator Christopher Ciccone and author Wendy Leigh. The book is a memoir and tell-all book about Ciccone's life, with heavy focus on his relationship with his sister, the American singer-songwriter and actress Madonna, and was released on July 14, 2008, by Simon Spotlight Entertainment. It details Ciccone's life spent with Madonna, as well as unknown aspects of the singer's life. The relationship between Ciccone and his sister had deteriorated over the years following the singer's refusal to employ him as her tour director. Writing the book was considered "cathartic" for Ciccone, and he contacted Leigh, a biographer, for help and advice. Together they developed the project secretly and offered it to Simon Spotlight Entertainment for publication.

<i>Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces</i> 2014 feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Twin Peaks: The Missing Pieces is a 2014 feature-length compilation of deleted and extended scenes from Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, a 1992 film directed by David Lynch and written by Lynch and Robert Engels. It was released over twenty-two years after the movie and the original series ended and three years before the revival, Twin Peaks: The Return, aired.

References

  1. Rabin, Nathan (29 March 2002). "The Eighteenth Angel". The AV Club. Archived from the original on 24 November 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019.