Canter Bridge

Full product information for this item, together with my review, my ranking of the product, and any reader comments, can be found at www.amazon.com.

The opening scenes of this mock-horror film, accompanied by the incessant cawing of crows, are terrifying, reminiscent of Mr Hitchcock’s mastery.

Then comes the humor. Rarely has so much ironic, self-deprecating humor been laid down so consistently in the Scary Movie genre.

This is classic Mel the Hilarious, before the establishment painted him Conflicted and Conflictive for daring to portray the violent demise of Jesus and for his gigantic miscalculation while talking to a trooper while quite drunk.

‘It was very dark’, he and his somewhat perturbed brother played by Joaquin Phoenix, perturbed that is until he achieves his redemption at the end of a baseball bat whose other end was the undoing of an alien. It’s hard to describe an alien that makes its appearance by scampering on the roof when it’s so inconveniently dark.

Yes, there are aliens in this movie. They are even green and humanoid.

We get to them after the Mel character’s tragic loss of a good priest’s wife, his near loss of his two children to the hatred that comes when a good father lets the unthinkable happen to Mommy, and the loss of things that Gibson’s enormously capable face allows us only to guess at.

‘It’s not “Father” any more’, he insists, in abbreviation of all that has been lost but feels like it’s been renounced. It hasn’t been renounced, only placed on pause while Gibson deals with the kids, his brother, the aliens, and then the recovery of his faith after angry honesty has run its course.

This is the perfect Sunday afternoon movie, best capped off by a nap and then a ‘snacky plate’, as Sunday evening hints at a bona fide meal are known in our family.

Who would have thought it? The aliens hate water.

Yes, there are aliens. For an afternoon. Then they go away.

They didn’t like the water.