GOD TOLD ME TO (DEMON)

US, 1976, 91 minutes, Colour.
Tony Lo Bianco, Deborah Raffin, Sandy Dennis, Sylvia Sidney, Sam Levine, Robert Drivas, Mike Kellen, Richard Lynch.
Directed by Larry Cohen.

God Told Me To is an early film directed by Larry Cohen. However, Cohen was a prolific writer of film and television films from the 1960s – and who was still writing such films as Cellular in 2004.

Cohen was a master at exploitation films, working in the early 70s in the blaxploitation films. He made a series of horror films, It’s Alive. At this time he made God Told To, blending the police investigation genre with the horror films. Random people in New York City are murdering other people – and the only thing they have in common is that a Christ-like figure appeared to them and told them to kill. “God told me to.”

Tony Lo Bianco appears as the police investigator and there is a good supporting cast including Sandy Dennis and Sylvia Sidney.

Cohen’s next film was The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover. However, he continued to make a number of horror films as well as police films including Q the Winged Serpent and The Ambulance.

1. A film of the seventies, the interest in the occult? The reason for such audience interest? Audience belief in the other world, the transcendent? Superstition? Fear? The plausibility and credibility of such plots?

2. The quality of the production? Colour locations, credits and the religious music? The presentation of New York, action show, the contrast with the domestic scenes with the two women and the more, subdued score? The special effect with the angel? The sepia flashbacks?

3. The genres used? New York City drama, the police story and investigation and its conventions, the broken marriage, contrasting wife and mistress? The overtones of the mystery? The conventions of the occult drama? The story of madness? Audience identification, interest? how plausible did the conventions make the film?

4. The importance of the Catholic background? The theology of the Incarnation? Of the virgin birth? Its use for the impregnation of virgins by diabolical powers? The special children and their upbringing? The contrast of Bernard and his not being fully formed? Peter Nicholas and his being very ordinary? The purpose of the impregnation, the incarnation? Death rather than life? The contrast with Christ? The diabolical angel? Themes of God and the Devil? The importance of the use of Catholic theological presuppositions and audience knowledge of these? The twists? Some critics suggested the use was blasphemous? The psychological applications of theology? The religious background and feeling?

5. The introduction to Peter Nicholas as a character? His presence at the siege of the sniper, his climbing the tank, the discussion with the sniper and his revealing his own story, his sympathy, courage, daring? his police work and contact with his chief? His worry about the procession and the massacre? The confrontation with Bernard's mother and her psycho-like death attempt? Her death? The importance of everybody saying that God told them to kill? The details of his investigation, his suspension, the interviews with the Paper? A good policeman? The importance of his own life story, an orphan, the Catholic family, his study, police training?

6. His relationship with Martha? Her character an revealed by the brief sequences in which she appeared? Her being hurt by him? her home and its being enclosed, his statues, the story of her pregnancies and Peter's attitude towards the miscarriages? Her regrets and bitterness? The contrast with the affair with Casey? how well did they love each of the women? His farewell to them both when finding them together? The importance of Peter's religious background, confession and mass, the sequence in the church? The Catholic aspects of his investigation? His own mother and her background, rosary beads, her virginity? The importance of the virgin mothers? His acceptance of this? His confrontation with the angel and discovering the power? His wondering about his late discovery of it? The testing it in Harlem? The confrontation with the angel and killing him?

7. How interesting was the ending - did it show that Peter was a madman and we had seen his delusions or that it was true and this is how he could cope, with his guilt? The background of America for this kind of story, psychological background, society?

8. The dramatics and action sequences with the sniper and the initial deaths, the long build-up of the procession and the focus on the policeman and his eruption, the echoes of Hitchcock and Psycho with Bernard's mother trying to kill Peter, the massacre in Harlem (and the irony of the black murderer of the corrupt officer using the phrase to get away with his murder?)

9. The presentation of the angel, his being associated with the killings, people identifying him, his mother, the theory of his incarnation?

10. The investigations about the angel? The importance of everybody's knowing him? Their fear of him? His hiding in the old building? His explanation of himself?

11. Bernard's mother, the doctor and his memory of the files, the driver who gave her a ride? The visuals of the flashback and her plight, the ride in the car, her fears?

12. Peter's own mother, his investigations, the information given by the nun, the old people's home, the visuals of the flashbacks and her impregnation? her fears?

13. The characters of Martha and Casey, the contrast of their worlds and the visual presentation of their worlds, their both being left by Peter?

14. The importance of pace, the conventions of the police drama, the domestic melodrama, the finale with its tones of the occult and the building collapsing on the angel? What was the audience left with? What questions did the film raise?