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All-Reviews.com Movie/Video Review
Stigmata
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 out of 4
| *Also starring: | Gabriel Byrne, Nia Long, Patrick Muldoon, Jack Donner |
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Review by Susan Granger
1 star out of 4
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In a season when there have been some really scary horror
pictures ("Blair Witch Project," "Sixth Sense," "Stir of Echoes"),
this garish, overwrought hodge-podge of symbols, icons, and loud
sound-effects just doesn't measure up. Stigmata are bleeding injuries
that resemble the wounds inflicted Jesus' head, hands, feet, an back
during the crucifixion. The occurrence of stigmata is neither well
understood nor extensively documented in Christian mythology but those
afflicted are usually deeply religious, often hysterical, and regard
their condition as a gift from God. The story begins as Patricia
Arquette, as a sullen 23 year-old Pittsburgh hairdresser, an atheist,
receives an old rosary as a souvenir from her mother, who was
vacationing in Brazil. Within 24 hours after she touches the ancient
circlet of black beads, she experiences a painful, deep puncture wound
in each wrist, the first of five stigmata. The second, a
criss-crossing of her back with the lashes of an invisible whip,
occurs while she's riding on a subway - to the horror of a nearby
priest, who contacts the Vatican about the bizarre incident. A
sinister Cardinal, played by Jonathan Pryce, sends a Jesuit Father,
that's Gabriel Byrne, to investigate what turns out to be the
supernatural channeling of a malevolent spirit. At the bottom of it
all, screenwriters Tom Lazarus and Rick Ramage, along with director
Rupert Wainwright, assert that there's more corruption in the
contemporary Catholic church than anyone wants to admit. On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Stigmata" is a gruesome, grisly
3. It's a bloody bore - and an insult to those who have faith in the
Catholic doctrine.
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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