You can watch the full video here if you wish:

My last review covered the first installment in this evangelical quadrilogy, A Thief in the Night. You can read it here.

Background on the Genre

A Distant Thunder focuses on the End Times and the Rapture. A popular belief within evangelicalism is the position that before the end of the Earth (the ‘End Times’ or apocalypse), Jesus will have a brief, unseen return, in which all the living Christians of that time will be taken away, teleported, or ‘raptured’ into heaven (‘rapture’ means, roughly, to be caught up in the air). The entire Christian’s body will be raptured away, along with the bodies of Christians who previously died. Once Jesus takes all of the Christians away, God will stop intervening in the world, and those who are left behind will go through a ‘tribulation’ in which the world goes into complete chaos with wars, pestilence, and famine. During that time, the ‘Antichrist’ will arise, deceive the world into following him, unite the world under a universal government, and force people to get the ‘mark of the beast.’ People who receive the mark will not be able to ever go to Heaven. Then, Jesus will return again, there will be the ‘battle of Armageddon’, and Jesus will defeat the Antichrist and Satan, and establish the Kingdom of God fully on Earth. All of this will probably happen soon, because biblical prophecies predicting these events are being fulfilled in our lifetime (according to this theory).

These beliefs are based on certain kinds of biblical interpretation that did not come about until around the 1800s — popularized by theologians like John Nelson Darby. So this is actually a new position within Christian history. Additionally, most Christians do not believe this way. It is primarily confined to sections of evangelism and fundamentalism, though many evangelicals also deny this view of theology.

For people outside of this belief system, it may seem strange and even silly. However, as I watched this film (and the one before it) I couldn’t help but see parallels to the time period in which they were living. This was still during the pressures of the Cold War. People were constantly living in fear of a global devastation from nuclear weapons. I’m sure to many it actually felt like they were living in an apocalyptic age. Furthermore, if one is religious, the hope of being divinely saved from this threat would be a natural extension of these feelings.

Plot Summary

This film picks up where the last film left off. Our main protagonist, Patty, refused to convert to Christianity, and consequently was left behind when the rapture took place. The film ended with her screaming in despair as the radio broadcast announced the disappearance of billions of people — including Patty’s husband and little sister.

We open this second film with shots of a country side and a church as a small choir sings a gospel song. A PSA scrolls across the screen to inform us that this film is fictional, but is based upon Bible verses that prophecy real events that will take place soon.

We find Patty hiding out in a church basement with people who converted to Christianity after the rapture took place. Patty, however, has yet to convert, which generates plenty of “sermon dialogue.” I use this term to refer to dialogue in a Christian film that is actually just a sermon in disguise. Usually, it has quite an unnatural feeling, making the scene appear cheesy and silly.

There’s a flashback to the first film, depicting what took place after the rapture. Patty runs around scared. We then flashback even further, to see Patty refusing once again to convert to Christianity when at lunch with her sister. A few more flashbacks ensue, where Patty realizes that her grandmother was also taken, and we discover that Patty lives in chronic fear of her nightmare taking place in real life. That’s a reference to the first film, in which the last 20 minutes is actually a dream sequence of Patty being chased during the tribulation fallout, and ultimately betrayed and killed by her non-Christian sister and brother-in-law. Believe it or not, I actually did you a favor and didn’t recount every flashback because there are so many!

Finally, we get back to the present. It turns out that Patty and her church friends are being held captive by the AntiChrist’s soldiers. If Patty and her friends will not take the ‘mark of the beast,’ then they will be executed. However, according to their understanding of the Bible, if they take the mark of the beast, they will be automatically condemned to hell.

While they are being held captive in the pews of the church, Patty’s friends ask her about what’s happened with her since the tribulation. You know what this means: MORE FLASHBACKS!

Without going through every flashback, here is a general summary. Patty’s non-Christian sister and brother-in-law (the sexy Mustache Man from the first movie!!) don’t believe in Christianity. Mustache Man thinks it was aliens. The ‘liberal’ pastor from the first film is now a conservative evangelical warning about the tribulation. Patty, her friend Wenda, and a girl named Sandy hide out in a barn, meet an angel, and interact with a beggar named Jonathan. Later, the barn burns down. There’s another sequence of Patty having PTSD when getting food from her sister and Mustache Man (my personal theory is that Mustache Man was just too darn sexy for her eyes to withstand, and she had to run away to save herself). Are you following all of this? Yeah, I’m not either.

Back to present time in the church, everyone is still being held captive. People are being blindfolded, taken outside, unblinded, and then given one last opportunity to take the mark. A group goes outside, and a woman screams, running inside in hysteria, and chooses to take the mark of the beast.

There’s no way there could be more flashbacks, right? Wrong! More flashbacks! Wenda tries to offer the beggar more food, but it’s all a trap. He was working for the AntiChrist’s Gestapo, and Wenda and Sandy get arrested. Patty is chased down, steals a van, tricks the gestapo, and tries to have her sister and Mustache Man save her. Mustache Man and the sister betray her? Of course.

Back at the church, we finally get to the ending, which will bring us to our top moments…

Top Moments

1. The Ending (Spoilers)

In the church, Patty and Wenda’s names are called. They are led toward the door as a solemn hymn plays in the background. When they emerge outside (and having gone through some kind of magical wardrobe change?), the guards take their blindfolds off. What do they see? A FREAKING GUILLOTINE!!!!

In one last hope of persuasion, the guards bring out their friends and family who have already taken the mark. With them is none other than Sandy. Apparently, she’s been lying about being a Christian, and sold her friends out to the AntiChrist to save her own life. “Oh Patty. Anyone can say they’re a Christian.” It was Sandy who set the trap to capture Wenda, not the beggar.

Wenda refuses to renounce her Christianity. She is led up the platform as Mustache Man forces Patty to watch. The camera stays on Patty as she screams, and we hear the guillotine’s blade drop.

Holy crap. I never thought I’d see something like this in a Christian movie. Sure, the acting is kind of cheesy. But wow! That is a bleak and nihilistic scene. This might be the boldest and darkest ending to a Christian film that I’ve ever seen. Keep in mind: these movies were meant to be shown at church. Imagine heading down to your local parish, and having a special service that ends on this note. Crazy stuff.

And they top it all off by showing a John 3:16 ending title. The dichotomy is nearly absurd. You know what makes me think of the perfect love of God? Guillotine executions!

2. The Soundtrack

The first film of this series struggled musically. And though this entry wasn’t anything special, I thought it was a decent improvement — especially given that I enjoy the film scores of pre-80s horror movies. This film seemed to have similar elements to those scores. Furthermore, the 1970s-era hymns had an eerie feeling to them.

3. Granny’s House

Around 13:00 minutes in, Patty visits her grandmother to see if she is still around or got taken in the rapture. I thought this scene was really well done. This is probably the best music in the film — featuring rapid-paced electroacoustic instrumentals and an electric guitar. The grandmother’s absence is discovered by finding the dangling phone receiver in her bedroom, which blares a constant beeping noise.

Unfortunately, this well done cinematography is cut short by Patty’s screaming and then jumping to a flashback, which (in my humble opinion) didn’t work.

Nonetheless, I think this is the best scene in the movie besides the ending. It matched the suspense and dread of an actual horror movie, which rarely happens in Christian films (even to this day).

4. Tribulation Packets?





During the lunch with Patty’s younger sister and after Patty discovers her grandmother is missing, they mention something called a ‘tribulation packet’. Basically, it’s like a flyer that explains rapture theology. And you better know that I’ve been on Google looking at tribulation packets for the past hour. This stuff is crazy!

Some people actually prepare packages to be distributed in case the rapture happens, and their friends or family are left behind. They recommend leaving Bibles, a personal message, and some information packets/tracts about the end times. You can find a whole instructional manual on this website.

Furthermore, you can acquire some ‘amazing’ tracts from various companies. Basically, a tract is like a ‘diet zine’ or a little postcard that Christians hand out to people on the street. You might have been handed one before. They are known for achieving unimaginable levels of ridiculousness. Perhaps the king of tracts is a company known as “Chick Tracts” created by Jack Chick, which probably merit their own blog post. Basically, they are cartoons with crazy unrealistic plot lines that warn you about how Dungeons and Dragons will make you worship Satan (yes, that’s actually one of the tracts!). The best part is that they use comic book like illustrations. The rapture Chick Tracts are legendary, and infamously label Catholicism as the whore of Babylon. Here is another example of one of their numerous rapture tracts.





Finally, I found a video that showcases someone’s epic stockpile of tribulation prep:

5. The “Mark of the Beast” Practical Effects





This might sound like needless nit-picking, but I laughed every time someone took the mark because of the practical effects. Basically, the actor just stamps someone’s hand or forehead with an ink stamp, and then they add a tattoo needle sound effect.

6. The Movie’s Structure

This was probably obvious in the plot summary, but the structuring of this film was crazy, and I can’t figure out if I liked it or hated it. On one hand, it’s convoluted, messy, and can be annoying to follow. On the other hand, there’s a sense in which in emulated a nightmare. The whole thing felt like a fever dream that’s constantly shifting from one scene to the next, and doesn’t adhere to normal continuity, given that most of the changes are to flashbacks and flashbacks within flashbacks. In this sense, the film feels surreal, though in a naive sense.

The definite negative aspect of this film is how much it relies upon ‘sermon-dialogue.’ That’s basically where they shoehorn a sermon into a conversation that characters are having. For example:

Character 1: “You keep drinking beer and won’t go to church. What are you gonna do if you die and stand before God?”

Character 2: “Well, I just hope that my good will outweigh my bad.”

Character 1: “It’s not about that. It’s about whether you have a personal relationship with Jesus.”

Character 2: “How do you know that?”

Character 1: “The Bible says…”

Character 2: “Wow. That sure makes a lot of sense.”

It never feels realistic, and always makes me cringe. Unfortunately, A Distant Thunder contains A LOT of this type of dialogue.

7. Avoidance of the ‘Final Girl’ Trope?

The “final girl” is a term originally coined by Carol Clover in her book Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Films. It’s a term used to describe the female character who (typically) survives until the end of the film. Often — and especially in 80s-era slashers — the final girl is hyper-virginal, drug free, and responsible. Usually, she is terrorized by the killer, witnesses or is aware of her friends’ deaths, and finally rises up against the killer by using some kind of weapon to kill him off. Upon defeating the killer, she ‘drops the knife’ and returns to her former character, but now with intense trauma. Famous examples are Sally Hardesty (Texas Chainsaw Massacre), Laurie Strode (Halloween franchise), and Sidney Prescott (Scream franchise).

Patty is the final girl of both films we’ve watched thus far in the series. She is the character with whom the audience most identifies with as she bears the primary ‘investigating consciousness.’ This becomes more so the case in A Distant Thunder.

However, Patty fails to exhibit the typical tropes of a final girl. For example, she is quite ‘sexually available’ in the first film — falling easily for the advances of her boyfriend, (probably) engaging in premarital sex, and eventually gets married to him. Furthermore, Patty never converts to Christianity like the other ‘good’ female characters do. She becomes the final girl of these films despite not conforming to the film’s moral norms.

Typically in movies with final girls, when the moral norms of the film are broken, the character is punished — usually via death. However, Patty is not killed in either film. One might think that her ‘punishment’ is that she is not taken in the rapture, and must endure the tribulation. I think there definitely is a punitive aspect to this, but final girls always go through trauma within narratives. It seems that facing the tribulation has a similar narrative function as being stalked by a killer.

Early final girls (pre-80s era), were typically saved by a heroic male figure. This often gave them a ‘damsel in distress’ quality. However, Patty not rescued by male characters, and instead must face danger with her own survival instinct. In fact, when we think she is about to be saved by her sister and Mustache Man, these characters both betray her.

One area where Patty is similar to other final girls is that, quite often, the fate of the final girl is left ambiguous. Everybody knows, for example, that Freddy Krueger is not going to remain defeated, and will be back to antagonize our characters in the next film. Patty’s fate is similarly left ambiguous at the end of both of these films. In the first, we are left wondering how she will endure the tribulation. In the second, we are left wondering whether or not she’ll be executed.

Concluding Thoughts

Though the plot construction is crazy, I liked this film more than the first. It’s a really interesting entry into the world of Christian cinema. The dialogue was a let down, and the acting was not the best. However, the horror elements they used worked well, and I think the ending to this film is worth the whole trip. I wouldn’t recommend it to a general audience, but if you enjoy campy Christian cinema like myself, then I think you should definitely check it out.

What were your thoughts? Did you enjoy this more than the first film, or no? Should anything else be contributed to the top moments list? What are you thoughts about Patty being a final girl? Let me know in the comments below.