50 Years Later, God Told Me To Still Feels Boundary-Pushing
Don’t let it control you.
Not every horror movie needs a gimmick to be scary; some find terror in the ethereal and intangible, rather than in questions like “What if a shark really went to town on people?” Fifty years ago today, a subversive sci-fi horror turned the former approach into a sophisticated, spine-tingling cult movie that may still be ahead of its time.
God Told Me To follows Lieutenant Peter J. Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) as he investigates a string of freak shootings committed by a variety of people who all provide the same excuse for their crime: “God told me to.” As Peter investigates, he realizes the God these people talk about may be nothing like any concept we’re familiar with, and his own mysterious past may play a role.
Written, directed, and produced by cult filmmaker Larry Cohen, God Told Me To is known for its wild ambition. Despite its gritty B-movie budget, this sci-fi manages to tackle what it means to be human and have faith while also being a spooky film about aliens.
It was also thematically ahead of its time. It explores the concept of gender by asking how a being above gender would be perceived in society, and perhaps one of the scariest parts of watching God Told Me To a half-century later is seeing just how terrifying something that’s neither male nor female could be considered all those years ago.
The protagonist of God Told Me To does eventually meet God, or at least a God.
The bonkers plot still follows the rules of a horror movie and a police procedural, and some scenes even feel like they could have been pulled from an episode of The X-Files or Law and Order. But by the final confrontation between Peter and the being he’s been tracking for the entire film, the story transcends that formula and becomes a more introspective, metaphorical take, like a late-stage episode of Lost.
Whatever you expect from God Told Me To, you’ll probably find something different. Its ideas shouldn’t seem so shocking in a post-Bugonia, post-Disclosure Day world. But there’s something creepy about this alien invasion movie, from its bright colors to its unrelenting score, that still leaves you with an uncanny feeling. It’s a slice of movie history you shouldn’t miss.
God Told Me To is available on YouTube.
