THE SEVENTH SIGN
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: In the year of the baby film, a
pregnant yuppie (Demi Moore) finds herself entangled in
Biblical prophecy, not just as a student but she herself is a
sign of coming destruction. A few too many coincidences in
the plot, but an okay little film. Rating: +1.
Following the success of first ROSEMARY'S BABY and the THE EXORCIST, there were a number of "Bible prophecy" horror films. In them, the word of the Bible took on new relevance as young people in them discover that all the prophecies and strange symbolism are true and perfectly relevant to our times. Films like THE SENTINEL, HOLOCAUST 2000 (a.k.a. THE CHOSEN), and the three-film OMEN series. After a while they disappeared, only to return about a decade later with THE SEVENTH SIGN. As the run of this sort of film goes, THE SEVENTH SIGN is probably above average. Even without the big Hollywood treatment that Twentieth Century Fox gave THE OMEN, this is a nice suspenseful story well told.
There are funny things happening in the world. Off Haiti there are fish dying and washing up on shore. In the Negev Desert an entire village is found frozen. But then weird things happen every day. We see them on the news over dinner and then they get forgotten. Abby Quinn (played by Demi Moore) sees and forgets a lot of news. Her interests are more worrying about the baby that she will very soon have. She also worries about her husband's career as a criminal defense lawyer (he is played by Michael Biehn) and about the mysterious boarder (played by Jurgen Prochnow) who has come to live above her garage. The audience knows this mysterious figure has been present at each of the strange events that has happened fulfilling some sort of mission. It all has to do with a prophecy of seven signs that the end of the world is coming. One of the signs has something to do with Abby, but what sign, and why? Well, since even the film is confused about what the signs are (in fact, it outright contradicts itself), it is not surprising that Abby does not know the signs. The story unravels to a nice piece of fantasy as will a good horror story.
It is nice to see Demi Moore in a film that calls for her to be a little more than just a yuppie. On the other hand, this may be Michael Biehn's most forgettable role, as a lawyer with little personality. Not that he had a lot of personality in TERMINATOR or ALIENS, but there he was enough action so that you did not notice. John Heard has a cameo as a likable Catholic priest, somewhat recreating his role from HEAVEN HELP US. THE SEVENTH SIGN is not a great horror film. A year from now it will play one month on cable (guaranteed! It's a Tri-Star film) and then probably be forgotten. But it is a reasonable little exercise in Bible horror. Rate it a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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mtgzz!leeper@rutgers.rutgers.edu
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
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