The Godsend (1980)

Really Surprised!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

This bleak, nihilistic film is obviously inspired heavily by THE OMEN - and yet remains a far more horrifying picture. This is due to the fact that the victims in this film are all innocent children who get savagely killed, deaths which will upset even the hardest viewer. While it's not a particularly well-made picture in any respect (i.e. the low budget is quite often apparent), the film achieves what it sets out to do, to horrify the viewer, and thus it gets my thumbs up.The lack of big-name stars helps to add to the realism in THE GODSEND. The central characters are played by unknowns, and the only familiar face will be Angela Pleasence in a cameo. Pleasence plays an exceedingly creepy woman who acts as a catalyst for the murders, and is the most disturbing thing in this film. Stoddard and Hayman are very good as the anxious parents, who eventually split up under the pressure; Stoddard is a likable central figure, while Hayman excels as the woman who suffers a nervous breakdown through circumstances she just can't comprehend.The murders are kept off screen (apart from a nasty moment where a child is thrown from a window), leaving our imaginations to play a big part. Each breaks down the parent's mental state further. The little blonde girl is very good in it, too. THE GODSEND is a little-seen, little-heard of film, but for viewers who like to be creeped out (and not through gallons of gore, either), then it deserves some tracking down.

Although I haven't watched this movie in at least seven years, I have always enjoyed watching it. I personally thought that the movie was a great one to watch. It may be on the low end of horror flicks as far as bloodiness and actually murder scenes, but it does get the point across. I have been unable to find this movie in video stores, even ones with older movies. So, even if anyone wants to watch the movie it may be hard to find. I truly loved the context of the movie. I think that it does show the lack of technology that we had in the 1980's compared to now, but I have seen many movies from the 1980's that are about the same in the technology area. However, it doesn't make them bad. However, this is just my opinion.

This movie is not connected to, a rip off of or inspired by The Omen. Just because both happen to be about an evil child doesn't mean a thing. The Godsend is pure science fiction: what if there was a sub-species of humans who bred the same way the cuckoo does. This bird has the nasty habit of laying it's eggs in the nests of birds of other species. The baby cuckoo imitates the calls of its nestmates so the unwilling adoptive parents are none the wiser. At its first opportunity the baby cuckoo murders the other babies by pushing them out of the nest. That's what this movie was about.

"First there was ROSEMARY'S BABY. Then THE OMEN. And now, a tale more suspenseful, more frightening than either... As the snow fell in New York, I took this video out of my video closet. The box looked interesting, with this quote on the back. On the front, there was an upside-down cross with the two eyes peering at me. For an instant, I thought this was going to be an Oscar worthy rip-off. The film started nice enough, opening with pretty views of the English countryside. A family was playing in the meadow, when a stranger came and asked if she could stay. She was pregnant and needed a place to give birth. Well, she gave birth that night and left the next morning. Then in pitiful fashion the baby, now a girl, kills all the "sibling competition". Now, I started wondering about halfway through the film, what was I watching? The girl resembled Drew Barrymore in "Firestarter". It was like: "The Omen"+"Firestarter"+A Daytime Soap all in one. The big killings are done in 30 minutes, the other hour was basically spent with the parents fighting. The father wanted to get rid of her, the mother wanted to keep her. And as if that was bad, the ending was so contrived. It was clear, the movie was over after 30 minutes. The filmmakers desperately needed to end the film. But there was no way to do it. The ending came so abruptly, that I must say seeing those red credits on the screen must have been the scariest part of all. At any rate, avoid this one and rent "The Omen" again!!