Official
Link
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.
Admit ably, 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 Saints 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%
Directed
by Melantha
Blackthorne
Action
Direction by
Jason Cavalier
Starring
Jason Cavalier, Melantha Blackthorne, Jan Pivon, Dean Leslie,
Liz Faure, Michael Brunet and Tony Watt
Orginal Music by Michael
and Natalia Chirva
Music
by
Tvangeste, Ashes To Ashes, The Evil Boys, Bordello, Festerguts,
Atargatis, Season Of Mourning
Running length
87
minutes
Year
made
2003
Film website www.robomonkey.net/sinnersandsaints/into.htm