Bold but flawed

Which cinematic depiction of the devil most strikes home for you?

The silver screen has offered us myriad options, ranging from Wall Street banker Gabriel Byrne in The End of Days, to womanising Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick. Or, played by a woman, in The Passion of The Christ, or the classic Al Pacino performance in The Devil’s Advocate.

For those without a faith, the less serious Liz Hurley as the devil in Bedazzled as a figure of fun sometimes resonates. The Shift presents us with a devil who commands the screen, played by Neal McDonough. Far from a figure of fun however, he is ‘The Benefactor’, an embodiment of evil presented in a personable, well-dressed, blue-eyed form.

In a dark and complicated world, director Brock Heasley described his depiction as bringing ‘a humanity to the role that you don’t see coming’. With a voice sounding seductively reasonable, The Benefactor asks ‘if He cares so much, then why am I allowed to do these things to you?’. In a sci-fi film about faith, perhaps this very real question is the most terrifying aspect.

If you’re a fan of Marvel’s multiverse, then The Shift’s ambitious tale of faith tested to the limit may be just the (loosely) Biblically inspired film you never knew you were looking for. Here The Benefactor can shift people from one interdimensional reality to another. We watch protagonist Kevin Garner fall in love with future wife Molly (played by Elizabeth Tabish of The Chosen) and become ‘the Kevin who refused’.

There are no direct conversations with God, whose voice we do not hear save in the Bible quotes from the book of Job that appear onscreen. But this is a film that provokes reflections on choices, and on how we each remain steadfast when faced with trials. Kevin is tempted to renounce God but resolutely refuses to cease his trust in God’s timing. Friends ridicule him and he is told God is punishing him, but he continues to hold fast, even when prayer and Scripture are illegal and Christianity is forced underground.

Stylistically, The Shift is a mash up of genres (perhaps too many!) with elements of sci-fi, romance and allegory. Some of the sci-fi concepts may feel a little too ‘Latter Day Saints’ – Angel Studios are based in Utah, and four of their founders are brothers from a Mormon family. We are presented with a world where infinite parallel realities are possible, via a sort of satanic quantum-leap system. This leads to a truly bleak dystopian and authoritarian world, policed by stormtroopers, that feels almost reminiscent of A Handmaid’s Tale, as cable television transmits the latest updates on The Benefactor, including the ‘good news that, at long last, The Benefactor has returned’.

Shot and released the same year, this was put together at pace, and is director Heasley’s first full-length feature, which feels more evident around the middle of the film. He spent time studying the Book of Job before making the film, and there is a free, quite simple Bible study linked to the film, available on the Angel Studios website. While there are flaws in this film, and you may find yourself turning back to the Biblical account of Job to hear God’s actual voice – which is missing here – this is a bold attempt at a faith-based science-fiction film. It directs us to prayer over fear, sacrifice over self, and is focused on a character who will not let the devil win, telling him ‘everything that I have ever witnessed and everything that I have done and everything that you have put me through just makes Him that much easier to see’.

For a first film, it has much to recommend it, and I can’t wait to see what Heasley and Angel Studios move on to next.