GOD TOLD ME TO (1976)
Director: Larry Cohen
Blue Underground

In the early months of 2003, a pair of mysterious snipers struck all over Northern Virginia, Maryland, and other parts of the United States, picking off innocent pedestrians. The entire time the news was covering this horrific front-page drama, I was immediately reminded of a similar opening scene in Larry Cohen's chilling GOD TOLD ME TO, a horror film whose title may ward off the curious. In fact, when the culprits were apprehended, I was almost positive they would proclaim "God told me to!" as news cameras followed their every move! Thankfully, the true-life terror ended, but I was left curious to revisit Cohen's look at unexplainable big-city terrorism, a film which has developed a small cult following which will hopefully grow a little larger with the long-awaited release of the film on the digital format. Previously issued on VHS by Anchor Bay with a transfer subsequently stolen by Brentwood for inclusion on a number of movie multipacks, GOD TOLD ME TO has finally made its debut on DVD, looking spiffy and featuring a number of cool bonus features.

Tony LoBianco (THE HONEYMOON KILLERS) is Peter Nicholas, a grizzled New York City police detective and devoted Catholic cheating on his neurotic wife (Sandy Dennis) with a younger woman (Deborah Raffin). He begins investigating a series of bizarre, apparently motiveless murders occurring all over the city, with all of the culprits muttering the same thing: "God told me to." He tracks down who may be responsible for this rash of homicides, a mysterious Bernard Phillips who was conceived in a virgin birth which might have been induced by an alien rape. What power does Phillips hold over these people and how is he connected to these atrocities? And how is Peter connected to these events himself?

Opening with a positively horrifying sequence of oblivious New York City pedestrians being shot and killed by a hidden shooter on top of a water tower, the audience is jolted awake and made well aware GOD TOLD ME TO is not your run-of-the-mill horror film. And coming from Larry Cohen, responsible for the killer baby in IT'S ALIVE and the winged serpent in Q, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Only this time Cohen has written a tale of monsters we never see, creatures who may be responsible for religion as we know it and who have now created human forms of Good and Evil, who must battle it out by the finale. Several memorable horror sequences stick out, including the infamous St. Patrick's Day Parade shooting spree, starring none other than late comedian Andy Kaufman as the psycho policeman, an out-of-left-field attack in a dark hallway by the crazed mother of a suspect, and LoBianco questioning an indifferent father who has just murdered his entire family with a shotgun. This last sequence is particularly unnerving. Larry Cohen's subtle sense of humor is still on-hand, with lines such as "The Irish have been waiting all year for this day, you're not going to ruin it for them!" In the end, GOD takes a while to start making sense (if it ever eventually does), with plenty of intrigue to please those seeking something different. The characters and performances are not up to par with Cohen's other horror films, but the script is still wholly captivating, with more plot twists than an Argento giallo. I was continually surprised by the developments of the religious angle and the secret alien inseminations, colliding into one singular plot that few horror films would attempt before or since. You will either be confused and upset by this film or you will wonder how a talent like Cohen still remains virtually unnoticed. I belong to the latter camp. An interesting supporting cast includes Mike Kellin, the camp owner in SLEEPAWAY CAMP, and the wonderful Sylvia Sidney, silver screen star of the 1930s who is better-known for her appearances as the chain-smoking case worker Juno in BEETLEJUICE and wise-cracking grandma in MARS ATTACKS!. The biggest surprise is George Patterson, the black maniac Rollo in I DRINK YOUR BLOOD, as a knife-wielding pimp who stabs a crooked policeman to death and writes GOD on the wall in the dead man's blood!!

Blue Underground's widescreen transfer of GOD TOLD ME TO is miles ahead of Anchor Bay's out of print VHS edition. AB's print was only mildly letterboxed, with bland colors. BU's transfer is correctly letterboxed at 1.85:1 with an anamorphic transfer and is much brighter. Certain scenes are still very dark, usually interior sequences, but this seems to be a problem during the original shoot. A fair amount of grain appears, but nothing intrusive or to fret over. Like their release of Q, BU has included a number of audio tracks, including a 6.1 DTS track, a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround track, a 2.0 Dolby Surround track, and the original mono mix. All are acceptable, but since the film is a dialogue-driven piece, only a few sequences will benefit from the extra attention paid by the surround sound mixes.

The extras kick off with a brand-new Larry Cohen audio commentary, moderated by BU head honcho Bill Lustig. Cohen is a warm and engaging commentator, and rarely runs out of things to say. He still remains proud of the film, regarded as his least accessible, and tells some really great behind-the-scenes stories, including pointing out where stock footage occurs, working with the great cast, and fascinating tales of shooting on-location in New York City. Interestingly enough, Bernard Herrmann was to compose the musical score and saw GOD TOLD ME TO on the last night of his life before passing away, allowing Frank Cordell to take the reigns. It's another incredible commentary that is consistently fascinating, and Cohen is fast becoming one of the best audio commentators out there. Also on hand is the theatrical trailer, which packs all the best action into one neat little package. Witness seven (!!!) TV spots, all of them different and exciting. I'd see the movie based on these hard-sell exploitation ads! The posters and stills gallery offers some nice surprises, including the original GOD TOLD ME TO one-sheet (making it look like a disaster movie!), the re-release poster under the title DEMON (which was the cover art for Anchor Bay's VHS), the original tie-in paperback novel, a slew of publicity stills and lobby cards, behind-the-scenes snapshots (some great ones of Sylvia Sidney in action and Sandy Dennis smoking a huge stogie), the full-length U.S. pressbook, and video covers. The Larry Cohen bio, which appears on all three of Blue Underground's Cohen discs, is a well-written piece by Dennis Daniel (who strangely isn't credited on this disc), including quotes from a Cohen interview discussing almost all of his films!

A good number of points are knocked off this release for the uninteresting cover art, but the positives far outweigh that single negative. GOD TOLD ME TO is not a film for everyone, but I have no problem recommending it to adventurous horror film fans, and this is the definitive edition in which to experience it. (Casey Scott)

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