Fundamentalist Christian guerrilla David helps condemned dissidents escape, attempts to subvert the computerized Mark of the Beast, and generally tries to survive as prophecy unfolds in the rise of the Antichrist to the pinnacle of his power and the beginning of God’s war on sinful man.

While Image of the Beast serves as the third installment of Mark IV series, it functions perfectly as a solo venture into Donald W. Thompson’s madcap, anti-tech, Revelations quadrilogy that ultimately inspired the Christian scare-film revival of the 1980s.

In Image of the Beast, the cyborg Antichrist has risen and established a world government, partnered with the UN. All Believers are forced to receive the Mark of the Beast, or face the guillotine. A ragtag group of dissidents try to evade the Mark and the BUMS (Believers Underground Movement Squad), who have been tasked with bringing the remaining unraptured/ unworthy Christians to their death.

Image of the Beast is an incredibly competent exercise in low-budget genre filmmaking. It focuses on Grindhouse level shock value “to get your attention about the tribulation so you will believe in Jesus”, as stated in the opening credits of the first film, A Thief in the Night (1972). Thompson imbues the film with a cyberpunk sensibility, a Carpenter-esque score, and the same deep-state theology that has spawned a new wave of political and creative experiments over the last few years. Timely, chilling, and has one of stranger helicopter stunts we’ve seen in a movie.

The Daylight Zone (short)

“You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not of man but of God, for Whose eyes there are no hidden secrets or dark corners. Where everything is seen as the noonday, your next stop is... The Daylight Zone.”

Christian auteur Dave Christiano brings us into The Daylight Zone, his debut short that spawned a prolific career in God-fearing genre cinema. In this daytime deviation from Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, an atheist with a particular fetish for fish sandwiches is transported back to 33 AD. The Daylight Zone has an evident, genuine affection for its source material (both Biblical and cinematic), containing multiple visual references to Serling’s work. It was shot on location outside of Johnson City, Texas, and features a robust cast of local performers.

Dave Cristiano and his brother, Rich, have gone on to create 19 more films together. Come see where the “Coens of Christian filmmaking” got their start.

This screening be preceded by an intro with Maurielle McGarvey.

Curated by Maurielle McGarvey.