I'd only just heard of this one when it popped up on the Horror Channel, but knowing it was an Italian Omen rip-off I just had to watch it. It's got Kirk Douglas in it, and knowing how well he faired in the brilliant Master Touch, I had to see how things worked out for him in an Italian horror. After a title sequence full of real footage of starving and sick children (thanks, Alberto De Martino!), we find Kirk playing a businessman working on a project to build some sort of thermonuclear reactor in some unknown North African country. Before he starts blowing things up to level the ground, he finds a cave with the word IESUS written on it, but then blows it up anyway. So starts a change of events that manages to be slightly scary, daft, and hilarious all at the same time. Some guy turns up at a dinner party and tries to kill Kirk, but his son Angel grapples with the fella and his wife, who was against the project, gets a knife in the guts instead. You know how in the Omen folks who twigged what was going on ended up getting killed? Well, the happens here too. Kirk ends up visiting the stabby guy at an asylum which leads to a punch up between the inmates and the staff (brilliant), and then learns that the new Prime Minister of the country his project is in is against the project. Don't worry about him though, for he's about to lose the top of his head to a helicopter. Kirk has his own revelation between the image of a six-headed hydra and the six domes of his reactor which goes on for so long we were howling with laughter. Add to that the IESUS turning up as SUSEI and becoming a mathematical formula that relates to the medical records of a character and the film zooms off into ridiculous country. By this time folks are practically running up to Kirk and shouting "Stop the project! Antichrist! Six heads etc" while Kirk meets a priest who tells him that his second child is the antichrist, but is that his unborn child or his son Angel, who had a twin that died in the womb? Kirk eventually twigs after we see him have a dream where he's running around in the scud while the 'six heads - six reactors' thing starts again, which leads to another punch up in the loony bin (and someone getting their head caved in). Will evil win or will Kirk triumph? The film's cop out non-ending is a bit of a downer, but if you've seen any of Alberto De Martino's other films (like Blancheville Monster or Crime Boss) you'll know that Alberto is never in a hurry to get to the good stuff. This film was a good laugh, and beautiful to look at, but it was more funny than scary. You also get to see Kirk's arse, if that's your thing. Also - great Ennio Morricone soundtrack.
Review of The Chosen
