Godhead at Fantasia showcases moral quandaries through tense psychological thriller

Mark H. Rapaport's Godhead, screening at Fantasia, is a tense psychological thriller about morality and faith that centres on an impossible choice: a priest must decide which of two twins to shoot before morning in exchange for one's release from corporeal life as Christianity's Holy Spirit.

The priest, called "Father" (Al Warren), is hardly exemplary. He believes God abandoned humanity after the eighth day of Creation. His church membership is dwindling. Most troubling, he has confined his adopted son (Luke Speakman) within the rectory by convincing him the outside world is a living hell unfit for humans—an act of genuine parental protection warped into shocking cruelty and manipulation.

When the twins arrive, they mirror Father's moral ambiguities. First Born (Sarah Coffey) has a keeper's control over her brother, Second Born (Kimball Farley), engaging in amoral acts and manipulating him into twisted religious beliefs, while he laments never experiencing normal pleasures. Father's attempts to escape his dilemma—shooting each other instead, finding an alternate solution—are thwarted by a universe that actively prevents escape. The gun misfires. His phone dies.

The film balances horror and humanity. Al Warren delivers a masterful performance, containing his amorality like a coiled spring, showing tenderness and rage in equal measure as his desperation mounts. Farley creates a cohesive character whose darkness and innocence are balanced through body tics and eccentric mannerisms. Cinematographer William Babcock's black-and-white palette and interesting point-of-view lenses allow emotional weight to infuse each scene.

For those who love moral quandaries, Godhead prompts discussion. For those drawn to acts of God, it delivers. Rapaport teases the audience throughout—will the filmmakers actually go there? Just when you give up expecting it, not only do they go there, they go somewhere unexpectedly further.