An experiment in... Apparitions
Saturday, 13 December 2008 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
byslantedlightWell now, here's a thing... *g* So I'm with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
greengerbil who has not only recorded Apparitions on her clever-telly-thingie, but she's not watched it yet, and here I am with my laptop, and... so I thought it might be kind of interesting to have a go at doing a ProsWatch style commentary for it...
Oooh, trailers, going back right to the start... Michael... cross Jacob... Michael... much Michael... Oh, and the gorgeous theme music and colours, and much brighter than on my little portable tv with the movable aerial, I have to say... *g*
Ah, the Imam... I didn't know that mosques broadcast like that over here actually... young lad climbing the stairs - up to no good? No... he's not gone to the mosque at all, but to... just to a piece of land in the park... and is sweating blood, all wide-eyed confused wonder... He runs to the mosque and bursts in... and his mum's there, which seems a bit coincidental... He's seen something...
Ah, and a quick vision of Jacob giving communion...
And then Sister Ruth being unhelpful to Zaid's brother when he comes to the Seminary for help ... luckily Jacob arrives, presumably having just coming back from Mass... I like that they talk about the "local place of worship" rather than "local church", and the lad automatically says "The mosque?" A place of worship is a place of worship, according to Apparitions...
Jacob is... odd about Michael - Michael loses his crucifix down the drain, and Jacob just says "We've got more" and "I'll bless another one"... I do think he's a bit mean to Michael somehow...
The Imam is exorcising the young lad (Zaid)... just as Jacob would do, says Jacob... Heee - Jacob has a pricking pin, like all goodwitchdemon-finders, for testing him while Zaid is in a trance talking to his apparition of the Virgin Mary... Jacob's recognised "Mary" as Satan though, based on what she told Zaid...
Michael is still trying to pull his crucifix from the washbasin drain... very mucky it is down there... he finds something... Ewww.
Gorgeous images in Apparitions, just the colours of very ordinary shots, Jacob, Zaid's mum and brother sitting in the park...
Jacob has a little semi-circle of freckles on his cheek... *g*
Michael worriting again - into the chapel, the confessional... Sister Ruth off to prison to visit Vincenze... who has other "visitors"... Vincenze does an excellent job of letting her know that she's surrounded by demons, and that prisons are "a sanctuary where the chosen learn to control their gifts"... Sister Thingie is trying not to be afraid, but Vincenze is good... "We are winning" he says, and the glass of the windows shatters, and one of the prisoners falls down in a fit...
Jacob sits with a very straight back, cross-legged beside the Imam... He sounds very benign as well... both he and the Imam very gentle-faced...
Ah... and there's Jacob visiting Michael in the confessional... only now he's looking very... there's a strange light in his face here, and it's very different from in the last scene... of course it's not Jacob... but there's a gun on the seat of the confessional when Michael bursts in to look, and Michael knows how to check the clip very effciently...
Michael under a tree outside as Jacob approaches, trying to get him to keep his appointment to go and visit the army personnel people, who may know who he is - he has an army tattoo on his back which might help identify him... Jacob is still being quite... harsh with him... Michael is still trying though, gives Jacob the gun and the key which is what he found earlier in the sink...
Sister Thingie confesses that she's been to see Vincenze... "Satan will tell a thousand truths to get you to believe one lie..." says Jacob, angry... Realistically, though, Sister Thingie points out that Michael did physically kill Vimal, even if he was possessed by a demon... and when Father Jacob asks where she thinks he'd be safest in that case, she says "In prison", and there's not much of a reply he can muster...
Satan has come to Zaid's room now - his brother goes back to Jacob in desperation... suspicion about what their father did in Bosnia, the "war hero"... and there's a connection with Medjugorge, in Bosnia, where apparitions of Mary have appeared for ages... Zaid's brother looks hard at Michael... there's something...
Sister Thingie has gone to see Bukovac... though she does defend Jacob as "a good man"...
At Zaid's, Jacob learns about the father and what happened... suspicion deepens... "The Virgin Mary never appeared to us, she was too busy entertaining the tourists..." says Zaid's mum. Jacob wonders whether the Croation soldier that attacked Zaid's father could have been British... could have been a soldier called Michael... and yes, he had a tattoo on his back...
Bukovac and Sister Thingie again... he wants to find out more before going to the police about Michael... Surprising? Or not? Hmmn... And there is a picture of Bukovac at Medjugorge on Bukovac's mantlepiece, which Sister Thingie finds... worrying...
Jacob visits Zaid in his room, tries to convince him that "Mary" is actually Satan... Zaid is putting beads on a string, with a crucifix... he's "already converted"... and he's off to save his dad, who is screaming for help in hell...
Jacob is left behind, and with foreboding he tries Michael's key in the family's door. It fits.
Zaid enters the seminary... Michael under his tree watches, follows... Zaid is in Jacob's office, has found the knife that was used to skin Vimal, and the Bible of Vimal's skin, and he's torn out all the pages... he has a message for Michael...
Bukovac has gone to see Zaid's mum... speaks Bosnian (Russian?) to her... I recognise "Moya"!
Jacob arrives back in his office, Michael asks what it was that he did, and Jacob shows him a photo of Zaid's mum as she was when younger... Michael remembers... holding the photo, teared eyes... remembering... Michael joined in, raping Zaid's mum, in Bosnia... that's why he was possessed, he wanted it...
Oh - "What's the worst thing you've done?" Michael asks Jacob, and look at Jacob... Something happened to him, he's done something bad in his past... "Every time I talk to you it hurts" Michael says... Jacob tries to stop him, but Michael strikes him and Jacob falls to the ground, winded... and Michael is gone, roaring in relief (?) as he leaves the seminary at last...
Zaid is at the mosque, with the knife, which he kisses... then goes to speak to the Imam. The Imam tells him that his father can't be in hell, because hell doesn't exist until the Day of Judgement... and that if his father is in hell on that day - then it's too late for prayer... and the blue beads fall to the ground, and Zaid attacks...
Jacob arrives to talk to Zaid's mother, and finds Bukovac there... Jacob needs to know what happened to her in Bosnia - she sends her son from the room so that she can tell them... it was, of course, Zaid's father, the man who attacked her... Jacob tells Bukovac, obliquely, who that father was - Michael...
And Zaid, holding the knife to the Imam's throat, phones for Jacob and demands that he say certain prayers to save his father from hell... but it's a prayer of exorcism in reverse... Bukovac approves the idea - "If I had to spit on the cross in order to save a life, I'd do it... It's what's in your heart that matters..." and Zaid's family urges him to do it to save Zaid... Jacob tries to explain... he can't perform the ceremony... Bukovac orders the chapel prepared...
Michael, meanwhile, has broken into an... abbatoir? and leads a pig, fighting and squealing, from the place and away into the night...
In the chapel, the words of the spell have been written on the floor, images of Christ have been inverted, and the faces of the saints covered. Pages from Vimal's Bible have been plastered to the walls... Jacob will do the ceremony, because if he does it rather than Bukovac, maybe there is a chance...
Zaid's mum tries to convince him that everything will be alright, that his father is not in hell...needs to prove to Zaid that Mary was not Mary - she goes home to fetch the holy water the Imam had given them, and finds as well a voice from high in the stairwell, a screaming pig...
Jacob is trying to perform the ceremony... a desecrated communion wafer... Christ inverted on the cross... as long as his thoughts are pure the ceremony has no meaning Bukovac assures him, it's only if you worship satan that it has any power. Jacob has tears in his eyes...
Zaid's mum reaches the top of the flats, recognises Michael and attacks him, is pushed away and runs away and back down...
Jacob prepares to perform the spell of exorcism-in-reverse... Sister Thingie can't stay for it, Bukovac does... Zaid sees Mary once again... Michael moves towards the pig... Jacob takes the desecrated wafer onto his tongue... drinks the wine... the pig is sent falling from the top of the building... the Imam is rescued... Jacob turns away and vomits wine? Blood?
The police race up to the top of the flats, but Michael has, impossibly, gone. Zaid is walking home, meets Michael and tells him "You're not my dad". Michael takes the knife from him, kisses it, and walks on... Zaid is free of his spell, Michael is caught by it... Zaid's mum finally meets him, holds her little boy again, who is "Sorry, mum..." The Imam comes to see Jacob and thank him. Jacob gazes at the icons of his Church... the Imam could not have done what he did...
Jacob explains that the slaughtered pig was not an anti-Islamic act, but an anti-Christian one, a reminder of the legions of demons who sent 2000 swine to their deaths to prove that they could. Zaid's brother wonders whether satan is on a budget...
But Jacob seems unwell, has to sit down - out of breath? Enough for Zaid's brother to ask if he's alright... Jacob tells him that Zaid "wasn't suffering from a metaphor - his father really is in hell". Jacob promises to find him, to send him back...
At the seminary, Sister Thingie is getting "the guest room ready for the next psychopath"... she's suffering a crisis of faith... "I don't know what god wants from me" - "More than you think you can give"...
Jacob enters the Church - looks up, and there is the Virgin Mary, with the face of the young girl from last week... only then it's Michael... "It's not God that drives you, it's your own pride" - "You should approve" - "We do"... and Jacob is furious enough that he draws the gun and aims it at Michael, and tries to begin the exorcism ritual... but he's struggling, he's somehow not well... and it's Michael who seems surprised, but then replies "Amen", speaks the words of the ritual... "I think those lies are hurting you more than they are me..."... and then Jacob's truly under attack... falls to his knees, cannot help but allow himself to be comforted by Michael's hand to his brow... Michael holds Jacob's hand, the gun in Jacob's hand, raises it to his own mouth, pulls the trigger, bleeds into it, and walks away as Jacob falls, in a fit, to the floor....
Well... gosh. Nope, I still liked it second time around, in fact even more I think... And ohhhh for next week!
greengerbil who has not only recorded Apparitions on her clever-telly-thingie, but she's not watched it yet, and here I am with my laptop, and... so I thought it might be kind of interesting to have a go at doing a ProsWatch style commentary for it... Oooh, trailers, going back right to the start... Michael... cross Jacob... Michael... much Michael... Oh, and the gorgeous theme music and colours, and much brighter than on my little portable tv with the movable aerial, I have to say... *g*
Ah, the Imam... I didn't know that mosques broadcast like that over here actually... young lad climbing the stairs - up to no good? No... he's not gone to the mosque at all, but to... just to a piece of land in the park... and is sweating blood, all wide-eyed confused wonder... He runs to the mosque and bursts in... and his mum's there, which seems a bit coincidental... He's seen something...
Ah, and a quick vision of Jacob giving communion...
And then Sister Ruth being unhelpful to Zaid's brother when he comes to the Seminary for help ... luckily Jacob arrives, presumably having just coming back from Mass... I like that they talk about the "local place of worship" rather than "local church", and the lad automatically says "The mosque?" A place of worship is a place of worship, according to Apparitions...
Jacob is... odd about Michael - Michael loses his crucifix down the drain, and Jacob just says "We've got more" and "I'll bless another one"... I do think he's a bit mean to Michael somehow...
The Imam is exorcising the young lad (Zaid)... just as Jacob would do, says Jacob... Heee - Jacob has a pricking pin, like all good
Michael is still trying to pull his crucifix from the washbasin drain... very mucky it is down there... he finds something... Ewww.
Gorgeous images in Apparitions, just the colours of very ordinary shots, Jacob, Zaid's mum and brother sitting in the park...
Jacob has a little semi-circle of freckles on his cheek... *g*
Michael worriting again - into the chapel, the confessional... Sister Ruth off to prison to visit Vincenze... who has other "visitors"... Vincenze does an excellent job of letting her know that she's surrounded by demons, and that prisons are "a sanctuary where the chosen learn to control their gifts"... Sister Thingie is trying not to be afraid, but Vincenze is good... "We are winning" he says, and the glass of the windows shatters, and one of the prisoners falls down in a fit...
Jacob sits with a very straight back, cross-legged beside the Imam... He sounds very benign as well... both he and the Imam very gentle-faced...
Ah... and there's Jacob visiting Michael in the confessional... only now he's looking very... there's a strange light in his face here, and it's very different from in the last scene... of course it's not Jacob... but there's a gun on the seat of the confessional when Michael bursts in to look, and Michael knows how to check the clip very effciently...
Michael under a tree outside as Jacob approaches, trying to get him to keep his appointment to go and visit the army personnel people, who may know who he is - he has an army tattoo on his back which might help identify him... Jacob is still being quite... harsh with him... Michael is still trying though, gives Jacob the gun and the key which is what he found earlier in the sink...
Sister Thingie confesses that she's been to see Vincenze... "Satan will tell a thousand truths to get you to believe one lie..." says Jacob, angry... Realistically, though, Sister Thingie points out that Michael did physically kill Vimal, even if he was possessed by a demon... and when Father Jacob asks where she thinks he'd be safest in that case, she says "In prison", and there's not much of a reply he can muster...
Satan has come to Zaid's room now - his brother goes back to Jacob in desperation... suspicion about what their father did in Bosnia, the "war hero"... and there's a connection with Medjugorge, in Bosnia, where apparitions of Mary have appeared for ages... Zaid's brother looks hard at Michael... there's something...
Sister Thingie has gone to see Bukovac... though she does defend Jacob as "a good man"...
At Zaid's, Jacob learns about the father and what happened... suspicion deepens... "The Virgin Mary never appeared to us, she was too busy entertaining the tourists..." says Zaid's mum. Jacob wonders whether the Croation soldier that attacked Zaid's father could have been British... could have been a soldier called Michael... and yes, he had a tattoo on his back...
Bukovac and Sister Thingie again... he wants to find out more before going to the police about Michael... Surprising? Or not? Hmmn... And there is a picture of Bukovac at Medjugorge on Bukovac's mantlepiece, which Sister Thingie finds... worrying...
Jacob visits Zaid in his room, tries to convince him that "Mary" is actually Satan... Zaid is putting beads on a string, with a crucifix... he's "already converted"... and he's off to save his dad, who is screaming for help in hell...
Jacob is left behind, and with foreboding he tries Michael's key in the family's door. It fits.
Zaid enters the seminary... Michael under his tree watches, follows... Zaid is in Jacob's office, has found the knife that was used to skin Vimal, and the Bible of Vimal's skin, and he's torn out all the pages... he has a message for Michael...
Bukovac has gone to see Zaid's mum... speaks Bosnian (Russian?) to her... I recognise "Moya"!
Jacob arrives back in his office, Michael asks what it was that he did, and Jacob shows him a photo of Zaid's mum as she was when younger... Michael remembers... holding the photo, teared eyes... remembering... Michael joined in, raping Zaid's mum, in Bosnia... that's why he was possessed, he wanted it...
Oh - "What's the worst thing you've done?" Michael asks Jacob, and look at Jacob... Something happened to him, he's done something bad in his past... "Every time I talk to you it hurts" Michael says... Jacob tries to stop him, but Michael strikes him and Jacob falls to the ground, winded... and Michael is gone, roaring in relief (?) as he leaves the seminary at last...
Zaid is at the mosque, with the knife, which he kisses... then goes to speak to the Imam. The Imam tells him that his father can't be in hell, because hell doesn't exist until the Day of Judgement... and that if his father is in hell on that day - then it's too late for prayer... and the blue beads fall to the ground, and Zaid attacks...
Jacob arrives to talk to Zaid's mother, and finds Bukovac there... Jacob needs to know what happened to her in Bosnia - she sends her son from the room so that she can tell them... it was, of course, Zaid's father, the man who attacked her... Jacob tells Bukovac, obliquely, who that father was - Michael...
And Zaid, holding the knife to the Imam's throat, phones for Jacob and demands that he say certain prayers to save his father from hell... but it's a prayer of exorcism in reverse... Bukovac approves the idea - "If I had to spit on the cross in order to save a life, I'd do it... It's what's in your heart that matters..." and Zaid's family urges him to do it to save Zaid... Jacob tries to explain... he can't perform the ceremony... Bukovac orders the chapel prepared...
Michael, meanwhile, has broken into an... abbatoir? and leads a pig, fighting and squealing, from the place and away into the night...
In the chapel, the words of the spell have been written on the floor, images of Christ have been inverted, and the faces of the saints covered. Pages from Vimal's Bible have been plastered to the walls... Jacob will do the ceremony, because if he does it rather than Bukovac, maybe there is a chance...
Zaid's mum tries to convince him that everything will be alright, that his father is not in hell...needs to prove to Zaid that Mary was not Mary - she goes home to fetch the holy water the Imam had given them, and finds as well a voice from high in the stairwell, a screaming pig...
Jacob is trying to perform the ceremony... a desecrated communion wafer... Christ inverted on the cross... as long as his thoughts are pure the ceremony has no meaning Bukovac assures him, it's only if you worship satan that it has any power. Jacob has tears in his eyes...
Zaid's mum reaches the top of the flats, recognises Michael and attacks him, is pushed away and runs away and back down...
Jacob prepares to perform the spell of exorcism-in-reverse... Sister Thingie can't stay for it, Bukovac does... Zaid sees Mary once again... Michael moves towards the pig... Jacob takes the desecrated wafer onto his tongue... drinks the wine... the pig is sent falling from the top of the building... the Imam is rescued... Jacob turns away and vomits wine? Blood?
The police race up to the top of the flats, but Michael has, impossibly, gone. Zaid is walking home, meets Michael and tells him "You're not my dad". Michael takes the knife from him, kisses it, and walks on... Zaid is free of his spell, Michael is caught by it... Zaid's mum finally meets him, holds her little boy again, who is "Sorry, mum..." The Imam comes to see Jacob and thank him. Jacob gazes at the icons of his Church... the Imam could not have done what he did...
Jacob explains that the slaughtered pig was not an anti-Islamic act, but an anti-Christian one, a reminder of the legions of demons who sent 2000 swine to their deaths to prove that they could. Zaid's brother wonders whether satan is on a budget...
But Jacob seems unwell, has to sit down - out of breath? Enough for Zaid's brother to ask if he's alright... Jacob tells him that Zaid "wasn't suffering from a metaphor - his father really is in hell". Jacob promises to find him, to send him back...
At the seminary, Sister Thingie is getting "the guest room ready for the next psychopath"... she's suffering a crisis of faith... "I don't know what god wants from me" - "More than you think you can give"...
Jacob enters the Church - looks up, and there is the Virgin Mary, with the face of the young girl from last week... only then it's Michael... "It's not God that drives you, it's your own pride" - "You should approve" - "We do"... and Jacob is furious enough that he draws the gun and aims it at Michael, and tries to begin the exorcism ritual... but he's struggling, he's somehow not well... and it's Michael who seems surprised, but then replies "Amen", speaks the words of the ritual... "I think those lies are hurting you more than they are me..."... and then Jacob's truly under attack... falls to his knees, cannot help but allow himself to be comforted by Michael's hand to his brow... Michael holds Jacob's hand, the gun in Jacob's hand, raises it to his own mouth, pulls the trigger, bleeds into it, and walks away as Jacob falls, in a fit, to the floor....
Well... gosh. Nope, I still liked it second time around, in fact even more I think... And ohhhh for next week!
