Greetings, and welcome back to October Horror Fest! Today, to celebrate ⅔ completion of October Horror Fest, and to stick with the genre of religious horror, I decided to watch a short film, and it is going down as the best one I’ve ever seen. Watch with me as we discuss the role of Religion in Horror, celebrate 20 days of Horror Fest, and to see… God. Without further ado, sit back, relax, turn off the lights, grab some Candy and Popcorn, and let’s review…
Portrait of God
We start our short horror film in the darkness, as we see a quote from the bible. “No man shall see Me and live.” – Exodus 33:20. This quote is replaced by a white projector screen that falls from the ground, as we see a girl. She uses a remote, and the screen changes to one of a presentation, being “Portrait of God” by Mia Reilly. Mia, presumably the girl we see, sits down, and starts a timer on her phone. Mia takes out her note cards, and begins to speak. She shows a painting, and we cannot see anything. It just looks like black. Mia sees this as well, but insists that some people see differently. The painting is titled Portrait of God, and we hear audio clips of people talking about what they saw. They describe a much too wide smile, soulless eyes, and it being absolutely beautiful. Mia clutches the cross around her neck. As we see the projector behind her.
Mia still doesn’t know what to think, and believes that they may really be having a religious experience. Mia, clearly upset, asks why God appears to them, and not us. Mia restarts the timer and rewinds the slideshow to the beginning. However, for a split second, we now see bright, white eyes in the painting, a detail Mia doesn’t catch. She begins again, and stares at the newly discovered “God”. She clutches her cross once again. More and more of the creature comes into shape, as Mia goes near it. She is entranced, staring at the massive figure. It has white eyes, a husky form and arm, and a huge grin. Mia continues her hold on the cross.
Mia then becomes afraid, and pulls down the projector. However, it doesn’t affect “God”. The being somehow transcends the projector screen, and appears behind the screen in the dark. In a scene that legitimately horrified me, everything goes silent, and Mia stares at the creature. It moves ever so slightly towards Mia, and she runs. She slams the door behind her, and appears in a dark void. She looks around, and hears something behind her. She slowly turns, as she sees the white eyes. Mia, terrified, backs away until she hits a wall. She clutches her cross, closes her eyes, and begins to pray, as the false God comes closer and closer. It is truly revealed to us in its horrific state of being, as one of its grotesque hands turns Mia’s head towards it. With the other hand, it opens its mouth to a level impossible by anything, and a glowing, bright white light appears inside of it. Mia stares at the light, her eyes filling up with it.
We see Mia back in the projector room, her eyes completely bloodshot, and wet tears streaming down her face, and dried ones still present. She is still clutching her cross, as her hand bleeds profusely. We pan down to the timer, and it reads 3 whole hours, as it continues to count up. We pan behind Mia, as she stares at the empty screen. We now look at her face, and her lips begin to contort into a smile…
That was Portrait of God, and 20 days down for October Horror Fest! I truly do apologize for yesterday’s 7 pager, so I tried to lighten the load today. This film did so much with so little, and it truly is as amazing as it is terrifying, and this thing is horrific. Once again, as a Catholic, these films hit home for me, and paint a dark light of a false warrior of light. I hope you all enjoyed it, and I hope you’ve all enjoyed the ride of 20 days of October Horror Fest! Thank you all for being here, and for sticking with me. Oh, one more thing. Don’t forget, if you see it… you’re already too late…