2021 Directed by Mickey Reece
Rumors of demonic possession at a religious convent prompts a church investigation into the strange goings-on among its nuns. A disaffected priest and his neophyte are confronted with temptation, bloodshed and a crisis of faith.
阿格尼斯
Mickey Reece's movies, as they grow increasingly more ambitious, are nothing less than unique, revealing — and indicting — the miserable aesthetic homogeneity and almost total lack of imagination in modern indie genre filmmaking. He’s the real thing, and this is his best work to date.
Mickey Reece’s “Agnes” is the kind of wild and wooly indie whatsit that we’re sometimes lucky enough to get from DIY filmmakers who shoot first and question themselves later. Introducing itself as a hackneyed slab of low-budget religious horror — the title character is a demon-afflicted nun who might as well be possessed by the IMDB quotes page for “The Exorcist” — sacred genre tropes soon fray into something less recognizable as Reece’s freeform plotting comes to reflect his film’s poignantly unorthodox relationship with faith. For all of its ruffled habits and bleeding eyes, “Agnes” is far sadder than it is scary (quite, versus not at all), and often sillier than it is sad; the end product more resembles a…
Ugh...Agnes is a perplexingly disjointed tale of two movies that can only be described as an exercise in cinematic blue balls. (Please forgive the crude expression, but trust, it's warranted!)
The first half centers the story of a possessed nun (Agnes) and priests sent to investigate and perform an exorcism. The premise may sound familiar, but the execution leans heavy into satire to deliver an incredibly entertaining, silly, ridiculous, and kinda campy horror-comedy.
I went in totally blind so I was caught off guard by the irreverent humor that warmed this proud infidel's heart. Goddamn was it a pleasant surprise to have so much fun with a movie wielding religious themes. We (my partner and I) were fully engaged and…
"You know I don't really believe in this medieval woo woo" -Fr. Donahue,
-2021 Ranked: boxd.it/aL2Ys
This is sacredelicious.
Plot descriptions and tags don't really work for something like this because it's so many things and the tone and story dramatically shift in the middle of the film. All that considered I actually really enjoyed Agnes. The film is tense and eerie with interesting characters and enigmatic themes. It's a vibe but it's a vibe that I enjoyed and the direction is pretty slick at times.
It's not for everyone but it's for me.
A bit lost overall. At times a dark drama film with some heavy themes and then at times cheap and nasty horror possession flick. In the end it kinda fails at anything. Decent cast doing pretty good work but the movie just isn’t worth their time.
A student priest is sent to fetch a long time companion with a shady past by the Catholic authorities. Their reason? To look into a possible possession. The new guy doesn't know any better and the seasoned professional doesn't believe in the phenomena but it wouldn't be his first exorcism. When they arrive at the convent they are introduced to the possessed Sister Agnes.
As someone who isn't religious but technically Catholic and a fan of horror films involving religions, anytime I watch a film from the past decade or so that has anything to do with Catholicism or Christianity I always look for "the rub." That thing that studios do now where these particular religions are mocked because it…
Interesting film. It starts out as a typical possession horror with dark humorous approach and then about halfway through it completely ignores all the buildup and turning into a psychological drama focusing on one of the nuns after leaving the convent with little hints of horror. While I enjoyed the supernatural part more, the abrupt shifts surprisingly don't really bother me. It comes off as it doesn’t know what it wants to be while also knowing what it is at the same time. I think not knowing where the film's going to take you is what makes it incredibly unique. I wish it had maintained the dark comedy, but I also can't say I'm disappointed because it ends up being really touching and overall way more interesting than typical demonic possession flick. Now I'm really curious to see Climate of the Hunter.
Love a film that actually engages with questions of faith in a thoughtful way.
At its best when it leans into its dark humorous approach to demonic possession and the corruptness of religion, Agnes starts off with a tone so strong, you can feel its pulse in each frame. The visual stylings, almost gothic, work to captivate its audience with the often overlooked dark underbelly of organized faith.
In the outside world, away from the convent, Agnes seems to falter as its lead Mary does. An unfortunate slide that never seems to regain its footing, not even in its final moments which allude to a possibly memorable conclusion. Not what I was hoping for given how invested I became in its initial sequences, but still a really fascinating religion as a vehicle for horror film!
Tribeca Film Festival Watch #13
A genuine surprise; I was thrown at first, as this has no Comedy tag, but the opening act is very darkly comic; a biting take on the church and the tropes of exorcism films, the stylized and irreverent energy feeling fresh out of an episode of American Horror Story. Too campy to be scary, but fun and entertaining. It moves through familiar beats quickly, and I wasn't sure where things were headed before a hard swerve into the second half of the film, where it becomes something entirely different.
Distanced from the church and demons, suddenly it's a somber study on grief, loss, and seeking connection with the world, with other people, with a higher power. Things become more muted,…
