Movie Review: Priest

Imagine if vampires really existed. I don't mean they exist but lurk in the shadows and live in remote castles. Vampires exist and it's common knowledge. Wars have been fought against them. They've been an ongoing threat throughout history. How would we react? Know about them but have severe prejudice against them like in "True Blood"? Go about our lives with the threat hanging over us like Ireland with the IRA or Israel with the Palestinians? Or would we find religion? "30 Days of Night" and the 3rd Dresden Files book mention how the vampires try to remain secret just so humans don't get all religious and try to slaughter them.

When we get attacked by terrorists or are threatened by foreign super powers we rally behind the people with an army and surrender our rights and freedoms to the government. If we are threatened by supernatural beings we'd be likely to rally behind those with the cross and surrender our rights and freedoms to the church. If vampires exist then presumably so does heaven, hell, God, and Satan. Historically, churches haven't been good with power. They tend to abuse it and their followers.

This is where our movie starts. After a series of wars that span centuries we find ourselves living in massive walled cities under a very authoritarian church run government. Beyond the walls is a desolate, radioactive wasteland that an occasional farmer tries to recover as the radiation slowly fades. And in the wasteland the vampires are supposed to be confined to concentration camps.

One of these farm families is attacked by a large gang of vampires. The parents were killed and the teenaged daughter taken. Word reaches our hero. That was his family. He asks the ruling council for permission to make the warrior priests, or at least him, active again. Let him recover the girl and find out why the vampires are running free. Permission is denied. Voldemort can't come back... er, the vampires are all locked up. Besides the church's power relies on the people thinking that the church can keep them save. If the vampires are even rumored to be free and active then the people will doubt the church.

So our hero goes rogue. So the church sends more priests out to retrieve him. So goes our movie.

It was a good movie. I recommend seeing it. I'll probably get it on DVD. I'll have to see how the sequel goes. There has to be a sequel. The movie ends like the end of "Empire Strikes Back". They're splitting up and plan to reunite at the rendezvous point.