Years of the Beast

This thing looks dang good, a movie about the Rapture! The second coming! Having watched a trailer for it, I was sure this movie was going to be worth a least a few laughs, I truly believed. Oh how sorely I was disappointed. There are no crazy Christian propaganda overtones, just some extremely low budget animated special effects. The movie apparently really follows the biblical story of the Rapture, but even though that premise promises a great deal of unintentional humor value, in reality it's just boring. The dialog is obtuse and vacant and the plot, what little there is, is centered around a bunch of spineless theological pushovers. Little to no risibility factor, who'dve thought the second coming would be such a yawn?

This is one of the best Christian movies I've seen. I love older end times dramas. Newer ones are great, but there is just something about older ones that I love. This movie was the first end times drama I ever saw and I have good memories of it. It's been several years since I last saw it and want to see it again. The story is really simple and straightforward, and there are no major special affects. However, it's a fascinating depiction of the end times. I find older Christian movies made in the 80s to be especially spooky and exciting. I hope everyone who likes Christian movies gets a chance to see this one. You will enjoy it's simplicity and style and will enjoy watching it again and again.

The reason this movie is so good is the storyline stays devoted to the heart issues going on in the characters who are very believable ordinary types. No one has super scientific genius who happens to appear to save the day... So many end times movies get really caught up in chronology of Revelations too. This doesn't. It really focuses on a small band of people grappling with their fate of being left behind and making sense of the craziness of circumstance and character changes happening all around them. I give it my highest rating for end time projects and show it to friends on VHS all the time. Also 3 of the main actors are professional, credible performers.

This movie was released in 1981 and still is one of the better ones today. It may not have the Hollywood flash of "LEFT BEHIND or OMEGA CODE" but the message is more faithful to the bible. The movie covers the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory and uses scripture throughout the movie to help the viewers to understand what and why things are happening. The movie covers the whole period from just before the Rapture to the Second Coming Of Christ. The special effects are good and with believable characters, this all comes together as a great witnessing tool.

I saw this movie back in 1982 as well as all of the other Apocalypse movies from that era. There is a good reason why this one gets an overall 7 IMDb rating, which is higher than all the other movies for the time period of this genre. While this movie was definitely low budget and does have a couple of bad "B movie" moments, the overall screen writing, directing and acting are actually pretty good for the low budget they had to work with. Of all the Apocalypse movies from this time period, this is the one to do a remake of. With special effects now being light years ahead of where they were then, as long as the original plot / script were followed and they didn't drown the movie in special effects, this would be a great remake.