All Rise...

God tells Appellate Judge Daryl Loomis to eat cheese.

Editor's Note

Our review of God Told Me To, published February 23rd, 2004, is also available.

The Charge

The killers have one explanation…

The Case

The first half of the directorial career of Larry Cohen (The Stuff) was truly something to behold for B-movie fans. Starting with his ridiculous and hilarious debut in Bone all the way to The Stuff, his work was fantastic politicized schlock like few before him or since could produce. After that, well let's just say that he continued writing successfully, but we're focusing on the good here and, specifically, on one of his very finest pieces of work, God Told Me To. Innovative and strangely, sadly prescient, it's one of his most surprising films, both for the realistic grimness of its setup and the strange places that it takes its audience.

On a random day in New York, a man sits atop a water tower, rifle in hand. All of a sudden, he opens fire, leaving random person after person dead on the street. When detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco, Blood Ties) arrives on the scene, he climbs the tower to confront the shooter, who turns out to be a very polite young man. When Nicholas asks him why he's killing, the man replies that God told him to. That disturbs Nicholas, but not as much as the second or third or fourth mass murder under the same directive. Soon, his investigation reveals that "God" may not reside in heaven and that he isn't exactly what he always thought he was.

Boy, God Told Me To certainly doesn't go where you think it will. That's a good thing, as it's anything but predictable, but those closing minutes have always divided audiences. No doubt that it's weird and no doubt that it's unexpected, but there's also no doubt that it makes for a fantastically interesting story and one of the strangest cop movies you'll ever see.

The way it starts, though, is a classic bit of grim '70s realism, with that sense of realism found in movies like Dirty Harry and Death Wish. I really do love this era of American filmmaking, when the cinema world was allowed to be just an awful place, so grim that simply not getting shot and killed makes for a decent afternoon. It's this New York City of God Told Me To and Cohen makes the danger palpable with a somewhat documentary-like feel.

Eventually, though, the movie starts to verge into the absurd. As the attacks keep happening, completely at random, the city government and media start an outward conversation about why God is forcing people to take up arms and murder their fellow citizens. They quickly whip themselves into a panic, convinced that they have to figure out how to appease God, as though 1970s New York has suddenly been transported to 15th Century Incan territory.

After that, Cohen takes the movie fully into the bizarre, though I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie. I can't say that it makes any kind of real sense, but you've got to hand it to Cohen for allowing his story to go this direction. Even if one doesn't think the final act works, which would be fair, it's most definitely a unique and bold choice. It's too bad that I can't spoil it, because it's super fun to discuss, especially to get people's initial reaction to how it pans out, but alas, I cannot.

While Larry Cohen is most certainly a cult filmmaker, he does a really good job of working within his budget to make a totally compelling product. Tony Lo Bianco is excellent in that Italian cop movie kind of way; I'm can't really gush over his onscreen talents, at least not here, but he has a great gruff presence that fits especially well (read: oddly) with the journey his character takes. We also get some strong performances from Deborah Raffin (Death Wish 3), Sandy Dennis (976-EVIL), and screen legend Sylvia Sydney (Mary Burns, Fugitive). We also get a surprise appearance from an at-the-time up-and-coming comic named Andy Kaufmann (Taxi), who clocks his first screen time as a psycho cop at the St. Patrick's Day parade.

Although Bone and It's Alive certainly have their moments, God Told Me To is very likely Cohen's best film and, while its bare cinematic qualities might not reward repeated viewings, discovering the extent of its craziness certainly does.

God Told Me To arrives on Blu-ray from Blue Underground with a decent upgrade from their original DVD release. The 1.85:1/1080p image looks fantastic for the movie's budget. The picture is bright and clean, with crisp fine detail throughout the frame. It's especially impressive during the outdoor scenes, where the natural light looks brilliant on the frame. There is a nice, natural grain structure and deeply defined black levels. All in all, this is an excellent transfer.

The audio department fairs pretty well, too, with three separate tracks to choose from. My preferred is the original two-channel mono mix, which sounds really great for its limited range. Dialog is always crisp and clean, while the music is very well mixed in the track. The 7.1 Master Audio mix is also fair, but as usual, these kinds of broad new mixes can easily wash out the sound. This one isn't too bad, but it's not preferred. The EX track is not terrible, but not recommended.

Extras are strong, too, though not all are new for this disc. The audio commentary, for instance, is from the original DVD release and, while it's always great to listen to Cohen talk about his movies, I've heard it before. A new twelve-minute interview with Lo Bianco takes us to the film's star, who recollects some of the odder stories about the filming of the movie. Next, a ten-minute piece with special effects artist Steve Neill is also new and very interesting. The next two, totaling just over thirty minutes, are filmed question and answer sessions with Cohen. They're fun, though a lot of the information is also revealed in the commentary, so it's not all that valuable. Finally, a whole slew of promotional material under the film's various names round out the disc.

God Told Me To earns every bit of its cult status, starting hard and gritty and then morphing until it becomes unbelievably weird. It may not make a ton of sense, but there is hardly a moment in it that isn't completely compelling and, with this fantastic Blu-ray upgrade, this one is definitely recommended.

The Verdict

God told me to drop this case immediately.

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