In the world of The Devil Conspiracy, the latest scientific breakthrough involves the cloning of human DNA, which has led to another phenomenon of unthinkable proportions: The “resurrection” of the greatest minds in history through human copies. Michelangelo, Galileo, and others have all literally been given new life through the methods devised by a biotech company, and this is merely the lead-in to the premise of director Nathan Frankowski’s movie.
From here, the film moves into territory so outrageous, so sacrilegious, and shot through with such ingenuity, at least on the page, that it frankly becomes unacceptable how dull the movie turns out to be. The problem is one of tone for Frankowski and screenwriter Ed Alan, who have gathered every conceivable crazy idea that could possibly arise from their central conceit and told the resulting story with a crushing self-seriousness that smacks of routine. The movie should have the bonkers energy of a conspiracy theorist and pseudo-religious wonk—imagine Dan Brown’s novels injected with enough steroids to have the courage of their conviction. Alas!
Without revealing too much, the action initially follows Laura (Alice Orr-Ewing), an American student who doubts religious doctrine, and Fr. Marconi (Joe Doyle), a priest who is murdered and resurrected with the spirit of the rebellious Archangel Michael. It turns out that Dr. Laurent (Brian Caspe), who discovered a way to bring the dead back to life using DNA, has found the Shroud of Turin, the garment in which it was said that Jesus of Nazareth was buried before His resurrection. The doctor’s next trick? To bring the Christian Messiah back to life.
The premise is as wild as it sounds, especially since the movie opens with Michael (Peter Mensah) expelling the fallen angel Lucifer (Joe Anderson, tearing into the role of anyone’s lifetime with pleasure) from Heaven to be chained to a rock for all of eternity. Back on Earth, Lucifer’s human followers – a cult led by a truly wicked woman (Eveline Hall) and the Beast of the Ground (Spencer Wilding) – kidnap Laura and intend to impregnate her with an embryo constructed from Jesus’ DNA strand taken from the Shroud.
What follows is far too ordinary, essentially a procedural for Michael and a rescue/survival drama for Laura, and far too monotonous in its commitment to formula to take advantage of this unapologetically original plot. Unexpectedly, the movie also turns into an exorcism thriller when Laura’s implantation with the embryo takes on darker and more supernatural qualities. That, strangely, might be a movement too far in something like The Devil Conspiracy, which wastes a unique setup with a dull and noncommittal follow-through. This already weird movie pulls punches just when it was getting interesting.
Photo courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films
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