A traitor to a secret organization of clerics (John de Lancie) passes a “blood” sample from the demon Lilith (Shiri Appleby) to a mad scientist (David Hewlett), who injects it into himself and turns into a plague carrying demon. To stop the creature and the disease, Shaw, the clerics’ secret agent (Richard Burgi), must train Lilith, whose has amnesia, to fight the forces of evil.
They don’t make religious-based films less religious than this. So, lets get our Biblical (and Gnostic) basics down. Lilith was created to be Adam’s first wife, but not wanting to be submissive, she said she’d rather not, which pissed off God, who cursed her, making her a rather grumpy demoness. The film ignores the details of Lilith’s activities. All that matters is she kills people. OK, so much for Judeo-Christian myth.
Lilith, the unstoppable monster, munches Shaw’s kid, and Shaw subdues her. Ummmm. How did Shaw manage that? Since that’s pre-movie stuff, the filmmakers don’t bother to say, but it does seem to be an important item. Shaw works for a super secret religious organization called The Faith, that’s been hunting Lilith for many years. They hang out in an underground lab which is supported by…well, they never tell us. Now I’m guessing that The Faith is filled with religious folks, but there isn’t a Bible is sight. Rather they are “generic secret organization #7.” They decide not to kill her, but to take away all her memories. Wow, they can do that? Cool. This is a technology that needs to be used more often. Lilith, who is evil by the dictate of God, becomes good when she forgets her past. So much for God. And that’s where the movie starts.
Shiri Appleby is a cute, pixie-like Lilith. Was “cute” and “pixie-like” the way to go when casting an ancient creature of evil? Even if she’s now a good guy, shouldn’t she be a little edgy? A little dark? Nope, this is ultimate wickedness portrayed by the girl next door.
Once the film forgets it has a religious basis, it becomes yet another superhero girl-power story. We get that same training scene that’s been in more movies than I can count. Naturally she lacks confidence at the beginning and gains it as the story progresses. But this isn’t Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Buffy had witty dialog, while this has:
“Why did you come today. Our marriage is over. Connor is gone. You haven’t moved on.”
Well, that’s an…informative line. We now know that Shaw and his wife are divorced, that they don’t get along, and that his dead kid’s name is Connor. Of course no human being speaks like that.
The climax is a battle between two CGI demons on a CGI rooftop, using CGI weapons. It looks like a cut scene from any number of well made computer games. I’ve got nothing against CGI work, but if your big moments are going to look completely different than the rest of the film, maybe you should consider making the whole thing animated.
There’s an interesting film to be made from the legend of Lilith and her refusal to give in to Adam and God. This isn’t that movie.