By Steve A. Wiggins
The 2013 folk horror found-footage movie Final Prayer (Elliot Goldner, 2013, released stateside as Borderlands) underscores the conflict of religions that fuels much of the genre. Even so, some of the choices on the Christian side of the formula are a bit unusual.
The Catholic Church, often in cases of canonization (or saint-making) investigates claims of miracles. Sometimes it investigates miracle claims on their own. That’s the premise here. Although set in England, Final Prayer is about a Catholic Church. The investigator Deacon (Gordon Kennedy) arrives to find his new colleague Gray Parker (Robin Hill), having already installed cameras in the cottage where they’re staying. Gray insists that they wear head-cameras throughout. It shortly becomes clear that a third investigator, Fr. Mark Amidon (Aidan McArdle) is also expected. Deacon is a religious brother—he’s basically a monk, but not associated with a monastery. Gray is a layman, only nominally Catholic, who took the job as a techie because it paid well. And when he arrives, it becomes clear that Mark, the priest, is in charge.
Tensions emerge between the men, and the locals don’t take kindly to them. The village church, under Fr. Crellick (Luke Neal), witnessed a supposed miracle during a baptism. Since a relative was recording the event, it was captured on camera. The investigators, functioning like what used to be termed “devil’s advocates,” try to explain away the occurrences. Fr. Crellick might, they believe, be trying to grow his congregation with a miracle claim. Cameras and microphones are placed throughout the church, but Deacon and Mark remain skeptical. Then they capture evidence that really can’t be explained.
Despondent about the lack of validation for the miracle, Fr. Crellick throws himself from the church tower. Mark then closes the case since the priest is dead. Deacon, however, isn’t convinced and continues to explore. Without authorization he calls in Fr. Calvino (Patrick Godfrey), teacher of both himself and Mark. Threatening disciplinary action against Deacon, Mark has now completely dismissed the claims. Gray, who is convinced something supernatural is happening, notes that he’s read Dan Brown, and that this is another Catholic cover-up.
Calvino arrives and shows the three that the church was built atop a pre-Christian sacred location, as satellite images show. He performs a cleansing ceremony, but before he can finish, equipment begins to malfunction and the two priests disappear. Gray and Deacon follow them deep beneath the church where they discover what has really been happening.
Final Prayer is quite effective with exploring, like Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973), what might happen in a pagan enclave in modern Britain. This is a more high-tech version, of course. Everyone wears a head-cam, and the cottage and church are wired for recording. Pagan symbols are used, but no deity is named. At one point in the local pub, Gray makes the point that pagans would’ve worshipped the aspects of nature in which they believed, and that such forces wouldn’t welcome interlopers, such as Christians. Deacon argues the skeptical side, however, thinking it might be locals (toward which he’s sometimes openly hostile) orchestrating “supernatural” occurrences.
Father Crellick
For all the thought that clearly went into Final Prayer, it’s a bit surprising that issues with Catholicism emerge. Let’s begin with Fr. Crellick. When the team is investigating, he’s shown skulking about outside the church wearing a surplice (the white tunic worn over a black cassock) and a stole (strip of colored cloth worn around the back of the neck and hanging down in front). These are vestments only worn by priests during a service in the church, which is empty at the time. In one scene he’s shown walking about in a cassock (the black, basic layer of vestments). It’s not unusual for a priest to wear a cassock when not in a service, but a surplice is worn over a cassock and would not be thrown on for casual skulking. It could be worn for an exorcism, but that’s not part of this story. Admittedly, the vestments may be intended as an instant identifier for the priest, since in night shots with only a flashlight for illumination, a sweep across a man wearing a white surplice and a stole is instantly recognizable. A black cassock would just blend into the dark. Nevertheless, this overuse of the surplice makes the Catholicism less believable.
Father Crellick
When Fr. Calvino arrives, he brings the gravitas of the Vatican with him. Then, before the cleansing ritual (not the same as an exorcism), he is shown at the cottage wearing a chasuble—a vestment worn by the celebrant during the Eucharist. Again, it’s possible that changing facilities (a sacristy) aren’t available in the church itself, but rites such as exorcism are generally performed wearing a surplice, but not a chasuble. Seeing Fr. Calvino in the car wearing a chasuble is shocking since that’s something a priest simply wouldn’t do. (The church isn’t walking distance from the cottage, but still.) Worse yet, during the rite he wears his stole atop his chasuble, but a Catholic priest would only wear it under. Many horror films based on religious tropes misunderstand the use of liturgical vestments. Priests do have “street clothes.” But they’re not cinematically resonant.
Father Calvino prior to the cleansing ritual
A larger issue in Final Prayer is when the investigators try to explain how the cross and candles fall off the altar. Although a large crucifix hangs on the wall, the characters all refer to the altar cross—which has no corpus (Jesus) on it—as a crucifix. Catholics would very rarely use a naked cross, a symbol of Protestantism, especially on the altar. They would not call such an item a “crucifix.” By definition a crucifix has Jesus’ body on it. Also conspicuous for its lack is characters making the sign of the cross. Many Catholics cross themselves almost as a reflex in times of danger or stress. Neither Deacon nor Mark make the sign of the cross while on camera.
It is possible, of course, that writer-director Elliot Goldner intended to show Catholicism askew, but there would be ways to do it that would’ve been more obvious. More likely, it seems, is that in a context where the church is a mystery to most people, the use of vestments and altar paraphernalia can be shown to underscore the religious atmosphere. Priests wearing a chasuble or surplice would not be unusual to anyone that sees them only in church. They wouldn’t wear them, however, on a trip to the grocery store. Writers and directors commonly portray religions in which they don’t participate in ways that the faithful would find fraudulent. Or it may be simply that the off work hours of the clergy are incomprehensible to those outside the guild. They don’t always dress as if they were celebrating mass.
Nevertheless, Final Prayer has Fr. Calvino explain, correctly, that Pope Gregory the Great (in a letter known as Epistola ad Mellitum, sent to Mellitus, first Bishop of London) advised the reuse of pagan shrines instead of destroying them, so as to convert through familiarity. The movie knows its early religious history of Catholic England. This bit of what might be considered religious trivia is key to making this film work. It’s just that the Devil’s in the details.
Steve A. Wiggins is an independent scholar who has taught at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Carroll College, and Rutgers and Montclair State Universities. He is the author of a book about possession movies, Nightmares with the Bible (Lexington, 2020) and the recently published Devil’s Advocates series book at Liverpool University Press on The Wicker Man. Check out his website. Steve has also written for Horror Homeroom on “What To Do When the Exorcist is Absent,” “The Golem as the Perfect Monster,” sex and death in The Lighthouse and The Witch, “Reclaiming Jewish Monsters in The Offering,” and “Exorcising the Pope’s Exorcist.”
