My "Review" of Stigmata

Stigmata was made in 1999 and is a film about Frankie Paige, a young woman that recieves Stigmata, the wounds of Christ that Jesus suffered during the crucifiction, and the priest who was formerly a scientist, trying to determine what is happening.

This movie appeals to me for a number of reasons.

Frankie is a young woman in modern times living in America who starts suffering wounds which attract the attention of the Catholic Church who send a skilled and talented priest who used to be an organic chemist to investigate her case. It is a story I like as it makes me think of how miracles, or the scientifically unexplainable that occured in modern life would disrupt what people have accepted as day to day life.

The opening theme song 'Mary Mary' is performed by Chumbawamba...yes the band that did "Tubthumping" (also known as "I Get Knocked Down"). This song is pretty typical of a song one would expect from a movie made in 1999 that was considered a horror. It is hard for me to describe, think about what you would expect an "anarcho-punk" song about religion would sound like...or check it out for yourself.

Whilst talking about the music of this film, it must be pointed out what a solid soundtrack this film has, and also that Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins was involved with creating music for this film.

Other musical artists work appearing in this films soundtrack include Bjork, David Bowie, The Crystal Method and Natalie Imbruglia...among others.

This film was released in September 1999, and in January 2000 in Australia (??) - Although I hadn't watched this until 2009 sometime, when I saw it by chance whilst flipping through channels and it held my attention without me even knowing what movie it was.

I remember my brother watched this at the theatre and he seemed to be unsettled when he told me about it.

According to Wikipedia the budget for this film was $29 million and its gross revenue was $89,446,268.

This film has a rating of 6.1/10 at IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0145531/
This film has an average rating of 4/10 from Rotten Tomatoes http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/stigmata/

I believe this movie deserves a rating at least somewhere in the 70% range. The critics seem to dismiss this title because it "doesn't make sense" or that it isn't "realistic", which just says to me that they missed the point entirely.

One thing I didn't like about this movie is that in parts it seemed to lend a bit from The Exorcist, other than this I'd have to be a real hard-ass to find any real faults.

If you haven't seen this movie I would highly recommend giving it a viewing, or at least giving it consideration with a watch of the trailer, or a read over of its coverage on Wikipedia/IMDB/Rotten Tomatoes/your favorite review site.

Some trivia I like about this film


- This movie was made in 1999, just as all the year 2000 hysteria was happening
- Churches at the Vatican(??) in the film are under the process of construction works
- The movie gives a few history lessons and really gives an open minded person some things to think about
- 'Frankie' is a name similar to the first person to receive Stigmata - Saint Francis
- The color red has been filtered in this movie, so when it is used it really stands out
- Frankie possesses traits to that of Saint Francis including appreciation of Animals and the Environment