The Big Picture
Final Prayer
is a British found-footage horror film blending history, religion, and psychology.
The film incorporates twists and turns similar to the cult classic,
The Wicker Man,
but with a unique British folk-horror twist.
Final Prayer
explores the conflict between faith and evidence, showcasing a dark, unsettling look at religion in the UK.
Final Prayer, titled The Borderlands in the UK, is a found footage hidden gem. Released in 2013 and hailing from the United Kingdom, it’s the directorial debut of Elliot Goldner. It follows three men sent from the Vatican to investigate a so-called miracle that occurred at a centuries-old church in the British countryside. Brother Deacon (Gordon Kennedy), someone who has a history of exploring these miracles and has seen the worst of the world because of it, Gray (Robin Hill), the agnostic yet open-minded tech specialist who’s new to the whole idea, and Mark (Aidan McArdle), a snide, by-the-book priest who has an antagonistic history with Deacon. The three are sent to a small, miserable village expecting to see yet another hoax, but encounter ancient and unfathomable horrors.
This film is one of a fine collection of folk-horror cinema from across the pond, a blend of history, religion, and psychology that both fascinates and disturbs. Among those films are other modern pieces like A Field in England and Apostle, but also mid-century classics from The Satanic Panic. Faith, or lack thereof, is a significant part of the human experience, so religious horror is generally a winner, with some of the genre’s greatest films dealing with the same subject.However, what’s even more fascinating is when religious horror is blended with something more, whether it be the human element of a sadistic cult or something deeper and darker than even that.
Final Prayer (2013)
Release Date March 28, 2014
Director Elliot Goldner
Cast Robin Hill , Gordon Kennedy , Aidan McArdle , Patrick Godfrey , Luke Neal
Runtime 89 Minutes
Writers Elliot Goldner
Studio(s) Metrodome Distribution
‘Final Prayer’ Is A Modern Classic of British Folk-Horror
Final Prayer gets to the very heart of what makes British folk horror so great, and what makes the land and culture so scary. It becomes more than an investigation of a supposed miracle as it strips down the religious history of the United Kingdom and the cultures that surround it. From the contention between Mark and Deacon, two men of the same faith with wildly differing views, discussions about the directions the church should take in a world that doesn’t prioritize faith, to the backstory of the chapel they’re investigating, and the land it sits on. This is shown in a style that is extremely evocative of The British New Wave. What is known as kitchen sink realism, shows the bleak reality of the world. The setting of the film is similar to a lot of remote lower-middle-class villages.
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The town is constantly overcast, it’s run down, and the only thing that gives us a break from how bleak things are is the sardonic humor, delivered mostly by Gray, the audience surrogate. The town is sick, it feels unwell. And it’s not just the buildings, it’s the people who collectively treat the newcomers with suspicion and hostility. A faceless gang of youths torments them for seemingly no reason, and none of the locals seem to be of much help at all. It’s like a natural occurrence, one even felt by the animals, as Gray and Deacon are immediately welcomed by a dog mauling a rabbit, and a sheep being lit on fire. While Mark, Gray, and Deacon are investigating the events in the church specifically, from the start, whatever is afflicting the town feels much bigger than that. Before the Christians, even before the Pagans, there was the land. The land is a primordial force, and it is hungry.
‘Final Prayer’ Has Notes of Classic Religious Brit-Horror
If you’re thinking that you’ve heard this concept before, you’re not alone. Many who have seen and enjoyed this film tie it to one of the great classics of cult horror, 1973’s The Wicker Man. There are striking similarities between the two films, both stories being of an authority figure coming to a small, rural town to uncover the truth behind a mystery, whether it be a miracle or a disappearance. The protagonists then proceed to effectively be jerked around for the film’s runtime, being treated with bizarre hostility by the town’s population as the audience has an unsettling feeling that something isn’t right about the place. It also touches on similar ideas, such as Britain’s Pagan history, and the polytheistic religions that were practiced in the centuries before the rise of Christianity. Both films culminate in a chaotic and grueling finale, with the big twists that are revealed to the protagonists being the thing that damns them in the end, and both endings are arguably the best parts of very good films.
However, this isn’t to say Final Prayer is a knock-off by any means. While it shares the same ideas as The Wicker Man, that’s also the nature of British Folk Horror. The Final Prayer is the other side of the coin, the opposite of the psychedelic May Day with twisted pantomimes and ritualistic sacrifices. The people of Summerisle also have elements of the shared hostility seen in Final Prayer, all of them agreeing to send Sergeant Howie (Edward Woodward) on a wild goose chase, but they have a clear leader in Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee). The people of this unnamed Devon town don’t. In Final Prayer, there’s no comfort in it being human error. You won’t find a wickedly charismatic cult leader with an adorable yellow turtleneck here.
Despite the film touching on ideas concerning entities that may not be entirely of this world, Final Prayer is more down to earth than The Wicker Man. It arguably shares more in common with the 2010s’ The Last Exorcism, with its exploration of religion as an institution and the conflict between faith and the need for hard evidence, but its British identity is just as important as it is in the 1973 classic. Final Prayer gives us answers, but it was never going to be straightforward. There is no miracle, there is no hoax, and there aren’t even demons. Britain is a land of bones built on bones, but the things that lie at the very bottom threaten to swallow you whole.
Final Prayer is available to stream on Apple TV.
WATCH ON APPLE TV