Omen-ous
With prophecy of 2 virgins having conceived apparently come true, the Vatican sends Father Rosetti (Paxton Whitehead) to investigate the claims of the two young girls, Margaret (Sydney Penny) and Kathleen (Kristin Dattilo). But before he can meet them he suffers an accident which leads to his protege Father O'Carroll (Tony Denison) being asked to take over the investigations. It is important that he is quick about his investigations because according to prophecy one of the girls will be carrying the child of God the other the child of Satan and if the Satanists get to the right child first it will lead to the apocalypse.
A priest walks into a Catholic girl's school, sounds like it could be the first line of a joke but it is one of the few memorable scenes in "Child of Darkness, Child of Light" and I say memorable because it is so wrong. Priest sent on a mission to uncover the truth over an immaculate conception smiles because all the girls giggle when they see him as he is handsome, it is seriously wrong for this sort of movie. But then to be honest pretty much all of "Child of Darkness, Child of Light" is wrong.
Let me tell you what movie I hoped "Child of Darkness, Child of Light" would be. Two girls both claiming to be virgins with baby dealing with what happens to them from the bullying to being made out to be a whore and a liar, but told from their point of view, how it made them feel. Instead we have this mundane thriller with the priest, Father O'Carroll, ploddingly investigating the claims and it makes it incredibly dull. In fairness it tries to create an air of foreboding with large crows hanging around and boys falling foul of a something when they try to bully Margaret but it doesn't get there and only kind of comes good when towards the end it starts to pick up the pace of things, although it ends up coming across as pretty ridiculous.
What this all boils down to is that "Child of Darkness, Child of Light" ends up a frustratingly tedious movie when in truth it could have been a lot more interesting. Maybe those who read the James Patterson novel from which it is adapted will find it more entertaining as they will know what is to come but for those expecting a tense horror they will be disappointed.
