Each October, the Unsung Horrors podcast does a month of themed movies. This year, they will once again be setting up a fundraiser to benefit Best Friends, which works to save the lives of cats and dogs across America, giving pets second chances and providing them with happy homes.

Today’s theme: 1980s

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Adam Hursey is a pharmacist specializing in health informatics by day, but his true passion is cinema. His current favorite films are Back to the Future, Stop Making Sense, and In the Mood for Love. He has written articles for Film East and The Physical Media Advocate, primarily examining older films through the lens of contemporary perspectives. He is usually found on Letterboxd, where he mainly writes about horror and exploitation films. You can follow him on Letterboxd or Instagram at ashursey.

The characters of The Bible have been a fount of inspiration for horror movies since the days of silent film. Many of these films focus on the exploits of demons and the Devil, supernatural beings out to possess, corrupt, and destroy. The Seventh Sign takes a different approach, turning to the back of the Book to see how God’s judgment might be poured out onto the Earth.

If the title had not already been taken by Ingmar Bergman, perhaps The Seventh Seal might have been a more appropriate title. A mysterious man named David (Jurgen Prochnow) is globetrotting, breaking the seal on various parchments. With each break, another disaster occurs, from the fish in the ocean in Haiti dying to the discovery of a frozen desert in the Middle East. Eventually, David finds his way to Abby (Demi Moore), a pregnant woman who is due to give birth on Leap Day. Abby’s lawyer husband Russell (Michael Biehn) is busy trying to get a young man with Down’s Syndrome clemency from the gas chamber for killing his parents (who were also brother and sister), a strange B story that eventually does become more important in the final act.

David rents a room above the garage and tells the couple a story over dinner involving sparrows and their song. According to David, all souls are stored in a place called the Guf. As a soul comes to inhabit the body of a newborn baby, the sparrow sings its song. While the story sounds charming on the surface, Abby soon finds herself face-to-face with the realization that David is actually the second coming of Jesus Christ. And the Guf is all out of souls, starting with her baby. God is ready to judge the world, and only Abby can stop it.

The Seventh Sign takes an interesting approach to its storytelling by melding Jewish folklore with the New Testament. The Guf is not mentioned in the Bible, but it is mentioned in the Jewish text, the Talmud, which is sort of an interpretation by rabbis of the Torah, the oral history of the Jewish people that also incorporates the first five books of the Bible (confused yet?). If nothing else, it was a bold move by the makers of The Seventh Sign to take Jewish folklore and apply it to the apocalypse. In comparison to horror films that tap into Christianity for inspiration, there have not been too many films inspired by Jewish folklore.

Perhaps the most famous being from Jewish folklore featured in films is the Golem, a protector made from clay who comes to life to save and serve the Jewish people. Another figure in Jewish folklore is the dybbuk, a spirit who clings to its host, possessing that person, causing mental anguish. One recent film that explores a dybbuk is Demon (2015), a Polish film featured in the All the Haunts Be Ours: Volume 2 set from Severin Films. Also featuring a dybbuk was The Unborn, a film from 2009 starring Gary Oldman as a rabbi who is consulted to get rid of the spirit. Oh how I love all of the different forms of folk horror! I learn so much about different cultures from these stories, even if I do not care for the film itself sometimes.

But fortunately, I really enjoyed The Seventh Sign, more than others it seems (currently only a 2.7 star rating on Letterboxd). It is a film that I never got around to watching for whatever reason (perhaps due to the lack of champions for the film). But I found it to be very thought-provoking. Demi Moore in the lead role helps for sure. And although the film seems too scared to go for an unhinged ending it could have, there is some comfort in thinking that the prayers and actions of one woman could change God’s mind, a consistent thread throughout the Bible.

I watched this one as God intended—on a VHS cassette tape I bought from Goodwill years ago but before now never cracked the seal so to speak.