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From the brand-new Robomonkey Productions comes Sinners and Saints by Melantha Blackthorne (aka: Countess Bathoria). Robomonkey is a new Cult Film company owned by filmmakers Jason Cavalier and Melantha Blackthorne (of course) with plans of producing obscure horror, action and exploitation sci-fi films and this is the first film to come out of that collective. We'll say it right here - if this movie is a taste of things to come, horror fans are in for some major treats! There are so many reasons that Sinners and Saints rocks... This entire film centers around the "God Squad" and the many battles they must face in their quest for righteousness. The leader is Father Carmichael Drake (played by Jason Cavalier), a Catholic priest who just happens to kick demon ass in his spare time. On his quests, he's joined by the sultry Sister Jordan Merrick (Liz Faure) who is also highly trained in the art of hand-to-hand combat and the use of firearms. Apparently young girls are being abducted and used in ritual sacrifice and as luck would have it the police are involved (aren't they always?). Father Drake is on the case and right from the beginning the viewer is treated to a great action sequence between the two divine avengers and the cultic cops. Blood and squibs fly! As one can already tell, this is gonna' be a good movie. Meanwhile Hell is undergoing an almost silent mutiny while many of the demons kneel at the feet of the beautiful Necrotia and others secretly wishing for rebellion. Being the Queen of Hell with unimaginable powers, Necrotia summons Father Carmichael Drake to help in regaining order to Hades (not that there was even much of a threat to begin with). Up on Earth, the evil Officer Stryker (Jan Pivon) has snagged himself up the fertile schoolgirl Suzy Mills (Lucy Locas) and drags her off to the graveyard for a little rape under the blade of an ancient ritual knife. Looks like it's time for The Brimstone Milkman! The Brimstone Milkman (Tony Watt) knocks on the door just as Father Drake is settling in for nice bowl of Christos (see: Greek #5547) cereal. Being a divine messenger of sorts, The Milkman delivers the news of the pending rape to the hungry Drake by way of a milk carton (they're always the first ones to know after all). Drake must stop the crazed Stryker from using the knife on another innocent victim to avoid an evil split in our very existence! Talk about intense! This begins a major showdown between the two which involves lots of skillfully choreographed martial arts segments. These are not to be missed! We did feel that Sinners and Saints had a rather anti-climactic ending but have to give it mad props for hitting us out of nowhere! Larry the Hell-battling Lounge Lizard is played by the memorable Michael Brunet and what's with that Tigger Johnson? On a technical note, all true gothic themes and colors are represented in this movie. For the most part, this 87 minute film is bleached out with highlights on red tones (mostly blood), the dimension of Hades is represented in opaque and during the major battle scene between Necrotia and Drake it suddenly bursts into full-scale October Rust! All God's creatures love the dead month. Very gorgeously rendered and captured with ample use of haze, filters, fast forward effects - the whole tool shop! We love it! The editing and the manner in which Sinners and Saints is presented is downright inspirational putting it in a class of its own. Lots of attention has been paid to shot composition and every frame of footage is in context with the story. The martial arts are extremely impressive with demon competitors bouncing off of walls and ample use of wires is visually apparent. For being an independent offering, Sinners and Saints feels like a rather huge undertaking mainly due to the fact that a vast majority of the film takes place in Hades (or: The Wasteland). It plays a lot like an extreme comic book but at the same time doesn't rely on cheesy jokes to amuse its viewers - what isn't spoken is funny in this film. Overall, Sinners and Saints is an extremely professional movie that doesn't give its viewers a chance to get bored. This could almost be considered every "sploitation" combined. Quite a task! We'll admit it. Sinners and Saints has some of the most beautiful songs to ever grace a motion picture with an almost entirely (classical) death metal soundtrack. From start to finish Bathoria has hand-picked perfectly accentual tracks that range from extreme black metal during action sequences to less extreme grindcore during slower moments. Included are tracks from Tvangeste, Season of Mourning, Festerguts in addition to tons of others. Trust us - this is one astounding soundtrack to say the least.
The acting in this movie is all-around good on the part of the entire cast with Melantha Blackthorne (The Night They Returned) being the most polished. This is one multi-talented woman to say the least. Each character is perfectly dry in delivering their lines and is at the same time believable in their over-the-top performances. We should mention that the cast is also the crew. Admitably, Sinners and Saints has some extremely hardcore content but we found the manner in which it was presented rather artistic and for the most part not placed there for mere shock value. At times almost reminiscent of Clive Barker's Hellraiser and at others reminding us of Razor Blade Smile by Jake West, these are thin comparisons considering this film takes the all the elements we like from the two and does them better! Remarkable. There's no extras on this screener disc as Sinners and Saints just premiered at the international Fantasia Film Festival on July 15th of this year. More or less a new movie that we're glad to have reviewed and amazingly one of the sickest, perverted and most politically incorrect movies we've seen at the same time! We add this to our top ten list without hesitation. This is the film that Dark Angel: The Ascent tried (unsuccessfully) to be! We like Gonadius! Sinners and Saints is presented in the widescreen format with stereo sound. We recommend Sinners and Saint to our readers, period. If you're like us and enjoy seeing films that take lots of risks and go against all things conventional - you'll love this movie. To put it bluntly, every now and again (about 3% of the time) a title lands in our hands that makes the task of reviewing movies a more worthwhile experience. It's those obscure gems that the mass populace sometimes never get to see that make it all meaningful and Sinners and Saints is such a film. This is gothic goodness right here. See This Movie! [ 4½ puffs! ] 90%
Horrorwatch An incredibly twisted, dark, and often humorous “fuck
the establishment” style film about a “God Squad” priest and nun
team, who are summoned to Hades by the mega-hot Necrotia; to do her
bidding and squelch an evil coup of hellish proportions. Political
incorrectness is the special of the day as we get wicked jabs at
organized religion, politics, and law enforcement.
FILM THREAT When reviewing a film, any film, you have to ask one simple question: "Did it accomplish what it set out to do?" “Sinners & Saints” isn't trying to be anything else but a very cheap time waster and not only does it succeed, but also manages to be a bit more. It's that "bit more" that makes it interesting. Father Charmichael Drake and Sister Jordan Merrick are members of the Religious Enforcement Division, a secret branch of the Christian church that battles evil with Kung Fu. We open the film as the leather bound nun and padre embark on a chase. It seems that some Satan worshipping kidnappers (policemen no less) have taken an innocent schoolgirl hostage and are planning to sacrifice her. Using a tracking beacon connected to the Vatican GPS satellite our duo finds the baddies and proceed to teach them a little scripture, old school style! During the ensuing battle, showcasing some pretty damn convincing martial arts, the school girl hostage turns into a demon and mysteriously aids our fellow holy ass-kickers. By the time the battle ends, the demon has disappeared back to the netherworld, leaving our pair wondering what the hell that was all about. Soon the father is receiving visions of the Queen of Hell herself, Necrotia, who was the "hostage" earlier on. She asks him to join her side. It seems that Hell is on the verge of a revolution by rogue demons that are using the blood of sacrifices to gain power. If they win, both earth and hell will suffer. None of this would work without the filmmakers’ sense of humor. There are Batman type fades, TJ Hooker impersonations and helpful montages explaining what's going on in a dry training video voice. I've seen this type of movie before (way too damn often if you ask me) and I have to admit that I was shocked that this was any good. Not only is this entertaining, but it's actually quite clever. Usually the credo of the porn/gore is "Let's throw some blood and tits at the screen and hope that people don't notice that this sucks." But this movie never degenerates completely into that. Sure, “Sinners & Saints” has a fair share of flaws. There's a little too much exposition at the end, the film never does shake its porn-flick-with-a-story vibe and the low budget is evident throughout. However, these don't detract from the overall fun and when compared to the flaws of almost every single other film in this genre they seem like minor annoyances at worst. What I'm trying to express here isn't so much my enjoyment of the film but my sense of astonishment that the directors managed to pull off an actual honest to god MOVIE here. Care was put into making this film and it shows. In a sea of dull by-the-numbers super duper cheapie independently released DVD productions that makes it stand out from the pack indeed.
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