Take the Charles Whitman inspired murders in Peter Bogdanovich's Targets, the satanic cult conception of Rosemary's Baby and toss in conspiracies from The Chariots of the Gods, a crazy Andy Kaufman cameo and sexual body horror that would make David Cronenberg blush and you'll get a rough idea of what you're in for with Larry Cohen's 1976 unconventional exploitation insanity known as God Told Me To.
The police procedural structure and gritty New York City atmosphere that permeates most of Cohen's work is punctuated with chaotic immediacy due to the Guerilla filmmaking and handheld cinematography that doesn't care about logical consistency and is concerned with creating panic and paranoia for the audience, not unlike the occurring calamity between characters and these bizarre events. Often due to budget and editing there is often no sense of time or reason to events as they unfold, which actually works in the film's favor as far as creating a surreal type of misdirection to the proceedings as things become increasingly more schizophrenic.
Tony Lo Bianco was a last minute replacement for Robert Forster to play Detective Peter J. Nicholas and what he lacks in charisma that Forster would have brought to the role, he more than makes up for in modesty and a strong sense of becoming more bewildered by every step he gets closer to solving the conspiracy. One of the most fascinating aspects to Larry Cohen's body of work is how every one of his films carry social commentary as food for thought, some subconsciously, some completely intentional and some choices he makes are random or for convenience such as the stock footage he inserted in this film from SPACE 1999. Was the appearance of Nicholas' mistress played by Debra Raffin (Death Wish 3) witnessing the civilians being murdered in the opening scene while carrying a copy of The Philosophy of Andy Warhol a conscious decision by Cohen to inject social subtext into her character? The answer is actually inconsequential as what the audience is shown is what the audience is intended to see and therefore can be interpreted with everything else.
When the film introduces Richard Lynch (Scarecrow) as a hippie hermaphrodite alien offspring and connective link to Peter's spiritual prophecy and has unraveled the flashbacks of their origins, there's enough crazy alien abduction theories and themes that would similarly be explored to some extent in future episodes of the X-Files. Composer Bernard Herrmann was Larry Cohen's first choice to score the film and unfortunately died the night after seeing the unfinished film without music, so Frank Cordell replaced him and does a pretty great job in paying tribute to Herrmann's style, while Herrrmann got to be remembered for scoring Taxi Driver as his last piece of work. God Told Me To is a film that could only have been made when it was made and it stands up as a thought-provoking and morbidly insane exploitation gem that we'll never see the likes of get made today.
Blue Underground has given this release a gorgeous full HD 1080 transfer and dts-HD 7.1 sound with audio commentary by Larry Cohen. Also included in the extras are interviews with actor Tony Lo Bianco and special effects artist Steve Neill, as well as an awesome Q&A with Larry Cohen at New Beverly Cinema and Lincoln Center. This is a worthy addition to anyone's collection that appreciates weird cult cinema.
Blu-ray Score: 4/5
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