Powerful

One of my all time favorites.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"The Eighteenth Angel" is a mediocre film that does a poor job of telling the story about the meaning behind a quote from the "Etruscan Book of the Dead". Something about when Satan comes back he'll walk as beauty. The plot is based around a secret society of Etruscan Priests who have chosen the side of Satan over that of God- they think Christianity really sucks- and as such, plan to enact the necessary steps to fulfill the aforementioned prophecy- to bring Satan back in a beautiful (as opposed to beastial) form. To do this they need to get 18 good looking, innocent children, kill them, and cut off their faces...in an apparent process whose reasons go largely unexplained.Anyways, it stars a sexy as hell 19 year old Rachael Leigh Cook, who plays a young model that is being lured in by the cult- as they recognize her as "the eighteenth angel" needed to complete the necessary required steps in order to bring back Satan...or something like that. First they kill her mom (well kinda...I think...no explanation is given), then somehow get her to come to Italy with her dad, before having some grimy ginos from the cult seduce her via her fat ass cat (which she unbelievably smuggled to Italy).The cult seems to capture her by exploiting some sort of evil divine intervention, and it is up to her dad to stop them before it's too late. Before he has lost his daughter forever to the cult, like he did his wife.The whole story is just poorly told. There is no plot development whatsoever and it just kind of ends without tying up multiple strands of the storyline. If it wasn't for the Goddess-like sexual allure of a young Rachael Leigh Cook, and the cinematography on a few nice establishing shots, then this film wouldn't be worth watching at all. 3 out of 10.

The Eighteenth Angel is, at best, a very below par 'horror' film. I say this because, it's just not horrific. The storyline is essentially a standard 'evil cultists wish to summon Satan to Earth' type thing, something which has, to be honest, been done many times before. In addition, the cast, even the normally entertaining Cook, do nothing to raise the believeability level of this sad little film. The end result is that you find yourself A) Laughing at the film for it's flaws, and B) Not even giving a damn for the characters, neither of which should be results of watching a 'good' horror film (Check out Ring or Nightmare on Elm St.). So while this film does have many flaws, it's biggest letdown is that it is simply not scary, and what more should you be looking for in a horror film. In short, don't see it unless you're a big Cook fan.

"The House of Yes", "Family Rescue", "She's All That": all decent movies starring Rachael Leigh Cook. That's why Rachael was the only reason I wanted to see "The Eighteenth Angel" (well, that and the fact it was shown just after The X-Files). The short version: not even Rachael (as Lucy) can save this disaster.Here's the longer version: Some of the acting is so bad it's more frightening than the horror plot (a Satanic church wants the Antichrist back and all they need is a demon clock saying when they should sacrifice 18 angelic children). The worst performance is given by Maximilian Schell: instead of acting like a satanic priest he acts like he's the evil penguin in a children's story. When he recites the satanic verses, you think he's reading the recipe for pork chops. The more the story evolves the more ludicrous it gets. If you know the horror cliches, all you have to do is make a list and wait for it to come. Oh look, spikes: somebody's bound to get killed by them. (check) Oh look, nice horses: they are probably going to kill someone. (check) Let's wait for the cameo of a cemetary. (check) Etc etc. (check) Watch out for painful mistakes: father Simeon is praying to the Devil in a pentagram (check), but apparently the makers of this movie didn't know what a pentagram is. It certainly isn't what they used a movie. (If you don't know what a pentagram looks like: watch Jacob the Liar: in that movie they needed a Jewish star, but they used a pentagram.) Add the final ingredient: referring to and stealing from other movies. Maybe they can get away with referring to Brian de Palma's Obsession (the church scene), but it's hard not to spot they borrowed some ideas from The Exorcist. Once again: bad copying only makes a bad movie worse.So it's best to skip this movie? Yes, unless you like watching Rachael Leigh Cook. In this movie she is a teenage model, so there's lots of posing and looking nice. But she was much better in the movie list I started this review with, so that's not really an argument. Also, skipping The Eighteenth Angel means you don't have to see the ending of a movie which gets worse every scene. You'll clap your hand when the titles get there: not because the movie was good, but because it's finally over.

I rented this movie on the only reason that Rachael Leigh Cook was in it, and now i wanna buy it! this is a very good movie(how the hell could it get only a 4.9?!?!) Rachael Leigh Cook did a tremendous job. she made her part very believable. the standard movie starts at one point, and the rest of the movie branches off from there, while u know exactly what is going on. but not this movie. this kept me guessing well into it. and the ending was a twist(i won't say right now)i recommend this movie for anybody who enjoys movies that don't follow the set pattern of hollywood(the guy gets the girl, the good guy always wins, the bad guy dies, all i good at the end) i AM going to go out and buy this movie(not just because Rachael Leigh Cook is in it, although it is a very good reason to)