PopHorror Let's Get Scared
I’ve been a fan of the Rock Bottom Video (The folks behind the Critters-esque Chubbies, the vampire romantic comedy Fangboner, and the love struck bigfoot film The Big F) crew for around a year now and I always look forward to them announcing new projects. When Nathan Rumler announced that his next film would be entitled Gay For Pray: The Erotic Adventures of Jesus Christ, I knew it was bound to ruffle some feathers but I wasn’t expecting the backlash. When Horror Society published their review, they received many angry complaints that articles about the film had no place on the site as well as threats of mass unfollowing. After that, I was initially hesitant to review the film, but as I’m a huge fan of the filmmakers and my editor okayed it, I said fuck and decided to do it. Read on for my thoughts.
Gay For Pray: The Erotic Adventures of Jesus Christ is the latest film from writer/director Nathan Rumler (Fangboner 2015). The film stars Brian Papandrea (Space Babes From Outer Space 2017), Terence Cover (Fangboner 2015), Dave Parker (Headless 2015), Sadie Tate (The Big F 2016), Sir Wellington Cocksworthy, Georgette Wine, Tonia L Carrier, Ashley Chronowski, Jason Zink, Amy Mead, Airi Magdalene and Nadia White (Don’t Fuck in the Woods 2016).
Jesus is kicked out of Heaven for being a homosexual, stripped of his powers and cast down to Earth as punishment. He suffers a mental breakdown and creates an alter ego as a wizard. After an altercation, an Atheist jerk, a poor guy down on his luck, and a woman with a strange religious fetish discover his true identity. They ultimately decide to try and help Jesus get his powers back, but not without catching the attention of some maniacal protesters in town.
I was raised a by a Christian mother and after her death, I was basically told by members of my church, “Suck it up and get over it.” This led to me rebelling against the church. I was given an ultimatum to change my life completely or I wasn’t welcome in their church anymore. I left and never looked back. If you’re asking yourself why I’m telling you this, it’s to give you context on my thoughts on organized religion which directly affects the way I will be looking at this film’s subject matter. Now that we got that out of the way, on to the film.
I really enjoyed the acting in Gay for Pray and the way the characters interacted. It felt like they were genuine friends and I’m assuming that’s because all the actors are truly friends. I liked that all of the characters were flawed. It made them feel like real people, even if their personality quarks were a little on the eccentric side. My favorite character was Sadie Tate’s Evie, an oversexed young woman with a Jesus fetish who spends the majority of the film trying to seduce Jesus, much to his horror. Sadie Tate is gorgeous and she gives her character a loveable loser charm and is, as always, fucking hilarious. Right up there with Evie as one of my favorites is Jesus, played by Brian Papandrea. The character is fairly complex. He is never treated as a running gay joke (although there are some) but as a real person. He’s presented, much like the other characters, as a deeply flawed yet well-meaning individual. He get’s angry, he punches people, and he kills a fuck ton of people, but it’s usually for a good reason. Brian Papandrea’s performances are always comedic gold and this is no different. It ranks up there with the role of Charlie in Space Babes From Outer Space, as one of his best.
Dave Parker’s character, Adam, is a hot-headed douche. He gets angry easily and he feels the need to constantly point out to everyone his atheism (with one character going so far as to call him out as being worse than a vegan). His atheism stems from the fact that God lets bad things happen, like cancer or death of the innocent (which I can relate to, as this is where much of my agnosticism comes from). I’ve never seen Dave Parker in a comedic role, but I thought he did a great job. I would definitely love to see him in more lead roles. Terence Cover’s Steve comes off as more of your typical everyman and, because of this, he is less interesting than the other characters, although he serves the purpose of being the straight man in a movie that is wildly over the top.
Gay for Pray features loads of content that will be sure to offend many, such as a homosexual Jesus, Jesus engaging in a threesome, Jesus sucker punching a woman, Jesus in blackface, a pregnant woman having her baby torn out, and Jesus murdering a fairly large group of people. There is far more to the film than that. Gay for Pray makes light of the hypocrisy of organized religion, specifically hardcore conservative Christianity. People are supposed to be loving, be accepting of others and let God be the judge, but that often seems to not be the case. The film simplifies the 10 commandments down to one, a commandment that I think the world would be better off if people could wrap their their heads around it: Don’t be a cunt!
Final Thoughts
Gay For Pray: The Erotic Adventures of Jesus Christ is a hilarious yet heartfelt comedy that is sure to offend. The film features great characters, wonderful performance, some excellent gore courtesy of James Bell and a message that the entire world needs to hear, now more than ever. If you think you can handle the content, I highly recommend you check it out. If you are the type to be easily offended, I highly suggest you stay the fuck away. If you are interested in picking up a copy, you can do so here.
