May 5, 2025
God Told Me To (Demon, 1976)
"You're probably too young. When I was around when Orson Welles told the people over CBS that the Martians were in New Jersey - and believe me, the show was not that convincing, not that good... and you want me to tell them that God is at 57th Street and Madison Avenue, coaching snipers?"
#god told me to#demon#1976#larry cohen#american cinema#tony lo bianco#deborah raffin#sandy dennis#sylvia sidney#sam levene#robert drivas#richard lynch#mike kellin#sammy williams#jo flores chase#sherry steiner#vida taylor#andy kaufman#lelia martin#george patterson#a singularly unique film‚ and i suspect one for which ymmv greatly‚ but to me this was something close to a masterpiece#working from a risible premise‚ taking absurdist left turns‚ delivering a plot that would have been basest exploitation fodder#in really any other hands; somehow Cohen approaches it all so sincerely and with such precision that he sells it completely and this#instead retains a sheen of Serious Cinema. art‚ even. touched by ideas of 50s paranoid sci fi and 70s conspiracy‚ as well as standard#police procedural and more traditional horror elements; this digs into many genres all at once but somehow comes out above them all#a film not without genre exactly‚ but beyond it. and of course there's Cohen's sharp‚ spiky satirical script. clearly a deeply talented and#fiercely original creator. this ends on one of the final shots to end all final shots‚ one of the most unsettling looks down the camera#I've encountered‚ and it's surely as much a challenge from the director as it is anything related to the character or the scene#my first Larry C but definitely not my last