Darren Lynn Bousman Prophesies Doom and Destruction
Main Cast: Timothy Gibbs and Michael Landes
Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Best selling novelist Joseph Crone is still reeling from the death of his wife and son–a crazed fan burned his apartment up with wife and son inside–when he gets a call from his preacher brother, Samuel. Their father is dying and can Joseph please come home.
Home happens to be Barcelona, where Joseph’s parents moved when Joseph was a young boy.
When he arrives, Joseph attempts to make amends with his dying father and wheelchair-bound brother, but Joseph, having lost his faith in God and religion, is having a hard time accepting the nonsense his father and brother, both preachers, are spouting. Also, he keeps noticing the number 11-11 popping up everywhere he looks. He wakes up at 11:11 one night, dreaming of his family burning alive. He sees evidence on security camera footage outside his brother’s church of mysterious figures at 11:11. His mother died on November 11, 1979. Joseph’s son was pronounced dead at 11:11. And he comes into the room one night to find his brother having some kind of attack at 11:11. Also, November 11th is just a couple of days away.
Joseph the author does a ton of research and uncovers a “cult” of people who all insist the number 11-11 is significant and that something big is coming. He also thinks his brother is at the center of it, and it’s Joseph’s job to protect him at all costs, whatever is coming.
11-11-11: The Prophecy was written and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II) and I’m a pretty big fan of his work. It’s not all great, but his love of the genre shines through very clearly and I respect a man who isn’t afraid to admit he loves horror.
There was some good work here, especially in Bousman’s directing and his use of the camera to tell the story. However, the script felt muddled and not fully developed, and there were several things in the end that I didn’t get a sense of closure on. For example, the pictures Joseph’s new friend Sadie picked up for him. She looks through them during the big climax scene as Joseph is facing the demons attacking his brother, she has an obvious reaction, then burns them. But we never once see what was in the photos. What was there to cause such a look on her face, and the immediate destruction of the photos?
I have no idea, because we weren’t shown.
The plot of 11-11-11: The Prophecy was, for the most part, well-constructed, though, with excellent pacing and a clear sense of dread running through the entire thing.
I enjoyed Timothy Gibbs (“Another World”) as Joseph. I felt he had great presence, and his voice commanded my attention. He carried the movie well, played up the downward spiral into possible psychosis without going overboard, leaving room for “maybe he’s NOT crazy and he’s just in grave grave danger!”
Michael Landes (“Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman”) provided the perfect counterpoint as crippled brother Samuel, and in the scenes they shared onscreen, they both managed to make this unbelievable story a little more realistic.
I was slightly disappointed that Bousman went with the twist ending, and that the twist wasn’t all that unexpected but at only 82 minutes, I enjoyed more of this movie than not and would most likely watch it again.
That being said, if I ever DO see 11-11-11: The Prophecy again, hopefully it will be a better print. I saw it on Netflix, and at first I thought it was my computer, so I backed out and tried it again. But both times, in the same spot in the movie, the sound dropped out, and when it came back on, it was lagging behind by the good 5 seconds or more, and it continued to the end of the movie. Luckly, the end was only about 10 minutes away, including credits, but still. It was distracting.
Overall, I enjoyed 11-11-11: The Prophecy and am just that much bigger a fan of Bousman and eager to see what’s next from him.
C. Dennis Moore is the author of over 60 published short stories and novellas in the speculative fiction genre. Most recent appearances are in the Dark Highlands 2, What Fears Become, Dead Bait 3 and Dark Highways anthologies. His novels are Revelations, and the Angel Hill stories, The Man in the Window, The Third Floor, and The Flip.
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