2022’s Forgiving God opens with a seance.
Jon Moore (Matthew Utley) and his foster sister are fooling around with a Ouija board. Jon wants to contact the spirit of his little brother, Tommy (Jacob Pitoniak). Jon blames himself for his brother’s death and many of his subsequent problems can be linked back to the day that Tommy was killed in a mass shooting. The Ouija board seems to have a mind of its own, with the little pointer tool moving even when Jon takes his fingers off of it. Tommy’s face appear in a candle’s flame, blain Jon for his death and encouraging Jon to take his own life. Jon freaks out. Jon’s foster sister asks him if he’s stoned but otherwise, doesn’t seem to be too concerned about Jon’s suicidal tendences.
Jon’s subsequent attempt at suicide fails but it does lead to a both a huge fire and Jon getting sent to yet another foster family. Feeling lost and alienated and struggling to fit in with his religious community, Jon soon starts spending all of his time in the woods. Eventually, he meets a Native American girl named Isaka (Alexandra Sertik). At first, Jon fears that Isaka might be another demon sent to destroy him. Pastor Mark (Dean Cain) puts his mind at ease.
Jon is soon convinced that he’s in love with Isaka. He tells everyone about his new girlfriend and no one believes him. (That said, they’re rather tolerant of someone who claims to be spending all of his time with someone who they say doesn’t exist.) Jon starts to wonder why he never sees Isaka outside of the woods. Why has he never met Isaka’s parents? Why is Isaka always wearing the same clothes? Why does every picture that he takes of Isaka fail to develop? You can probably guess why. Isaka has a tragic story of her own and a lesson to teach Jon.
Forgiving God is a faith-based film that has a lot in common with the horror genre, from the Ouija-dominated opening to Jon’s fear that Isaka might be an otherworldly being sent to lead him astray. It’s actually a fairly intriguing story and, compared to most faith-based films, it’s actually told pretty well. Yes, there’s a few moments of awkward humor (faith-based films always seem to have at least one scene of awkward adult-teen dialogue) and some of the performance feel more professional than others. (Dean Cain, it must be said, classes up the joint in his small role.) There’s a sequence set at “bible camp,” which really made me happy that, when I was growing up, my family never stayed long enough in one place for anyone to suggest that my sisters and I should go to camp. That said, the cinematography is impressive, Matthew Utley gives a good performance as Jon, and there’s a fairly effective scene involving a grizzly bear. As far as indie religious films go, Forgiving God isn’t that bad at all. If anything, it continues Pennsylvania’s tradition of giving us independent cinema. George Romero gave us zombies. This film gives us bears and mysterious forest girls.
Through the Shattered Lens