Last night I watched “Priest”, a 2011 movie by Scott Stewart. I hadn’t read much good about it, but the storyline got me interested so I thought I’d give it a try, which I’m glad I did.
The movie tells the story of a priest – a vampire hunter with special abilities, trained by the church. Though, in order to return his kidnapped niece and simultanuously save the city from a vampire gang, he has to break with the church and consequently with God. However, after some time he discovers that there’s a difference between disobeying the church and disobeying God.
It may not have been a prime film, but I did enjoy it. It has a most interesting storyline, but also has some intriguing moralistic aspects in it. What’s more, the fact that the vampires in this movie aren’t portrayed as humanlike, sexy vampires, but as true monsters, mutations created by nature, got my sister a bit let down, but I liked it, since I’m kind of tired of the commercialised, romanticized vampire since the twilight series.. (no offense intended).
The creation of human vampires does occur, though. All vampires used to do was to slay humans, but for once the queen of the vampire hive feeds a human her blood and so the first humanlike-vampire ever was created. The disappointment of my sister was watered down a bit.
Another point to be quite positive about was the casting. Paul Bettany seems to be the perfect fit for the main character. His appearance represents the character very good.
A priestess who decides to turn against the church, too, is played by Maggie Q, whom I know from the new Nikita series. I thought casting her was a very wise decision, since the typical character Maggie Q plays, is also reflected in this role. In both Nikita and in the Priest, she plays the goodwilling girl, trying to fight for what’s right, daring to put at risk everything she’s got.
Overall I enjoyed it quite much. I found it an original storyline and it brought renewing views, which is important because these are things that are quite rare these days, in my opinion. I also quite liked the sphere the movie casted off,due to the strange combination of both futuristic/industrial and western elements. This put together with a science-fictional subject brought an extraordinary movie.
At least, that’s what I think of it and I know that many don’t and won’t agree with me.
Elise 