PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT (2024)

Available On Demand from Amazon Prime from Films Colacitta!
Directed/Written by Christopher Bickel.
Check out the trailer here!!

When a customer with a rare album from the hippie band Pater Noster and the Mission of Light comes in a record store to trade his wares, a young clerk named Max (Adara Starr) flips out as she is a huge fan of this obscure band. When Max finally gets her hands on a copy of the album, her interest becomes noticed by the band, which has taken residence in a commune in the countryside outside of town. Max gets an invite to come visit the commune and watch the band play, but she won’t go unless the rest of her hipster chick pals can come with (plus a dude they pick up at a bar who is into the band too). The group shows up to the commune and while the people who greet them are eccentrics, the gals and their token dude think everything is cool. But everything definitely is not cool with this weird hippie commune secluded in the middle of the woods.

While watching a film, I often like to boil it down to its basic elements, mainly because I am always interested in what inspired filmmakers to do what they do. PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT is definitely a distinct and potent recipe consisting of equal parts TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE, MIDSOMMER, 2,000 MANIACS, THE DEVIL’S RAIN, THE WIZARD OF GORE, CLERKS, and HIGH FIDELITY all put on a mixtape and played loud in a sweaty van barreling down the highway. Yeah, that just about sums this one up. The film definitely has that nineties slacker vibe down pat with the clerks in a record store hanging out, judging customers, and pontificating about life, love, and rock and roll. While it is cliché by now, I have to admit, I enjoyed these opening moments where the group are simply going about their day because A) they’re a bunch of hot hipster chicks who love music and B) I find that type of gal quite appealing.

Now, I do know that these gals are going to annoy some with their too-cool-for-school attitudes. They are the type who sneer at you and judge you immediately after a quick scan of your outfit and that kind of vapid attitude is quite the turn off. We see it happen quite a few times in the opening moments with some admittedly freaky customers, which was kind of cool in the nineties, but seems rather shallow and cruel in this modern day and age. Not saying this type of judgmental behavior doesn’t still go on. It does, but apathetic hipsters just aren’t as cute as they were a decade or so ago. Maybe it’s my age talking, but it is true.

Luckily the bright-eyed Max is the optimist of this group of cool kittens and Adara Starr really steals the show with her devil-may-care attitude and undeniable love for music. Her boppy and upbeat performance elevates her above looking down on everyone else, like the rest of her pals do. Starr by far is the most likable of the bunch, making her a final girl worth rooting for. The rest of the gals are ok, but each have an acidic tone that made me eager to see them perish in procession once at the commune. The hippies at the commune range from goofy to downright macabre. Though much of the hippies’ acting feels amateur, they do convey the touchy-feely, doped out vibe we all know and despise about the hippie culture. So, in that way, they are convincing. Pater Noster himself, played by Mike Amason, is equally convincing as the patriarch of the commune. Though he looks like he could make extra bucks working as a department store Santa, the extreme closeups of the guy does convey the creep.

What I really liked about PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT is that it feels like a movie I would have rented as a kid at the video store. There’s definitely a strong H.G. Lewis vibe going on as the hipsters are picked off one by one by the hippies, all leading to an over-the-top gory finale that screams spectacle, not unlike Lewis’ classics WIZARD OF GORE and BLOOD FEAST, here nothing is left unsoaked with blood. It is this balls-out ending with some truly disturbing body horror that won me over on this film.

This is a low budgeter. So don’t expect the best sound, acting, and edits. But PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT does have a pretty awesome soundtrack, a few likable characters, and one hell of a bloody ending. Despite the budget, the ideas are strong and unique, presented in a way that feels retro as all get out. Sit back, smoke a doob, get Judgy and watch the carnage.