The Eighteenth Angel

In Boston, the music teacher Hugh Stanton (Christopher McDonald), his wife, the writer Norah Stanton (Wendy Crewson), and their teenager daughter Lucy (Rachael Leigh Cook) are a happy family. On the day of Hugh's birthday, Norah and Lucy organize a surprising party for him. Norah is researching the Etruscan civilization and has an interview with the notorious Father Simeon (Maximilian Schell), who is the leader of a sect that worship Satan, and she brings Lucy with her. They meet Father Simeon and Lucy leaves her mother to receive the guests of the party. Out of the blue, her mother commits suicide jumping off the roof of the building. While grieving the loss of her mother, Lucy turns into a rebellious teenager and soon she is invited to move to Rome by a modelling agency to take photos against the will of her father. The reluctant Hugh travels with Lucy to satisfy her dream and the farmer Maria Elena (Enrica Maria Modugno) lodges them in her farmhouse. Meanwhile, Father Simeon and his sect believe that Satan will reborn soon and will choose a beautiful youth among eighteen called "angels" to return to Earth, and Lucy is the Eighteenth Angel.

Revisiting "The Eighteenth Angel" (1997) in 2024, the impact reduces since the prophecies for the year 2000 did not realize. But in 1998, when I first saw this film, it was not original but much better. The dark plot of the need of (6+6+6) angels to Satan returns to Earth is interesting, and not bad as indicated in many reviews. It is also one of the earlier films of the filmography of Rachael Leigh Cook. Maximilian Schell is excellent in the role of the evil father that worships Satan. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "O Décimo-Oitavo Anjo" ("The Eighteenth Angel"

I first saw this movie a couple of years ago. I liked walking around blockbuster and renting movies that had cool boxes. That's not always the best way to do it, but in this case, it was. The Eighteenth Angel is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The plot turns are exquisite, and i just loved it when I discovered the meaning of the title. I don't want to give away to much but I highly recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it.

... a horrible mutated rat! LOL

Okay, it's not tooooo bad. Not, toooo bad. Nobody ever said raising a teenage daughter would be easy.

Far from a great movie, but at least it's better than "The Ninth Gate" and "End of Days" (the two movies it reminded me most of). Rachel Leigh Cook is stunningly beautiful, and gives a performance that makes some poor writing almost work. Christopher McDonald is surprisingly good even though (perhaps because) he is not playing the comedic jerk character he's played in almost everything else he's been in. Maximillian Schell should have just stayed home; he doesn't bring anything new or even interesting to the film. All in all, it's worth renting (or buying for three dollars, as I was lucky enough to do), even though the ending is one of the most cliched, predictable bits of cinema I've seen in a long time. The menacing glare straight into the camera at the last shot just doesn't seem as clever as it used to be. For that matter, I'm not convinced it ever was clever.

who thinks that this movie was completely lame? the only reason i watched the whole movie was because i expected a good ending at least. but even the ending is just so crappy and lame that i can't help thinking that i wasted my time on this boring movie. watch it if you are a raechel leigh cook fan, but even her performance didn't move me at all. rating - 4 out of 10 stars.