The VelociPastor (2018)

HOLY FUCK CAN YOU BELIEVE IT I ACTUALLY WATCHED A FILM FOR ONCE indeed I do not believe it myself but there you go, I just did… Letterboxd tells me I have not watched a proper film since, frankly, October 2022 (all I watched in 2023 was Doctor Who specials and the BBC Christmas Carol from 1977, and so far this year otherwise it’s just been that Dr Schweitzer thing), but it’s October and October has kind of become the month of watching horror films. Indeed, nearly 20 years ago, I kind of latched onto the concept via Wednesday 13 (remember when he was a thing?), cos I saw him post something about it on his blog or something (remember when blogs were a thing?), so in 2005 I declared the first Matraville Horror Film Festival—the world’s humblest film festival, being me in my back room watching a bunch of stuff on my DVD player and occasionally VCR with a few cinema excursions—and did it a couple of times more in following years, but otherwise horror just became a normal part of my film diet and I don’t think I actually tried devoting October specifically to horror again for a few years, by which time every man and his dog was doing it. Anyway, all that aside, I am attempting the whole one horror film a day thing again this year, and who knows but I might even succeed…

So I picked something I figured would be a light way in, i.e. a horror comedy/parody about a young man of the cloth who somehow gains the ability to transform into a dinosaur. It is about as ludicrous as it sounds—it began life as a fake trailer that the director made as a film school project—and, amazingly, the dinosaur costume actually proves in the end not to be the most ludicrous thing in it (no, not even the Christian ninjas)… I wish it had a bit more energy and that it had gone a bit further than it did, but the film’s clearly limited resources (apparently the budget was only $36,000) evidently held it back some. Still, such a fun idea, a delightful cast, and clearly made with love; I’m all for it, and will be interested to see the impending sequel.