Shouldn’t
all those snakes be on a plane somewhere? Oh, but this is the back hill
country, so these serpents have been provided for your worshipping
convenience. There will be a lot of
praising the Lord, but not enough passing of the ammo in Mitchell Altieri’s Holy Ghost People (trailer here), which releases
today in select theaters and on itunes.
Charlotte,
the recovering drug addict cocktail waitress, needs help rescuing her not-so
recovering drug addict sister from a messianic cult in the West Virginian
backwoods. After watching Mitchell, the
alcoholic Afghanistan veteran get the snot beat out of him in a bar fight, she
decides he must be the man for the job. With the help $200 in thoroughly
crumpled bills, she convinces him to escort her up Sugar Mountain to the Church
of One Accord, where Brother Billy preaches the Gospel for his cult-ish
congregation.
Brother
Billy looks a little nuts, but he has a way with words. However, he is a model
of stability compared to Smiling Bobby, who seems to aspire to be the worst
Dick Tracy villain ever. Everything about the place is seriously off, but
Charlotte still manages to talk her way into spending the night, ostensibly as
prospective new members. However, it pushes Mitchell’s nose out of joint when
everyone assumes he is Charlotte’s father. In fact, the tension between the
outsiders will grow steadily.
The
first ten minutes of HGP has a certain
degree of grit and the concluding showdown has its moments. Unfortunately, the
bulk of the film consists of vaguely sinister sounding Jesus talk and a fair
amount of snake handling. Frankly, it seems a little odd the film is still
launching today, considering the tragic and widely reported death of National
Geographic’s snake handling Pastor Jamie Coots. After all, whenever there is a
spree shooting, every film with firearms is duly postponed until the next year
the Rangers win the Stanley Cup. Of course,
there is probably a good chance you did not know a snake handling movie was
opening today until you read this review.
Regardless,
Emma Greenwell is not bad as the protagonist.
Co-writer Joe Egender has a real flair for fire-and-brimstone and chews
the scenery with appropriate relish.
Veteran TV character actor Roger Aaron Brown is also a steadying
presence as the not so nutty cult member, Brother Cole. Conversely, as Wayne, True Blood alumnus Brendan McCarthy
looks like he was dying for the film to wrap.
