Killing Faith (2025)

DeWanda Wise is Sarah, an African American woman with a young daughter who isn’t welcome in the town near their home.

That isn’t just because the daughter (Emily Ford) is a blonde Caucasian girl, born to a former slave.

It’s also because a plague has hit the area, and everything the young girl touches with her bare hands immediately becomes violently ill, then dies.

So the daughter walks around with mittens on her hands, her mother shuddering in terror whenever she takes them off.

Sarah desperately wants to get her daughter to Ross Corner, where a preacher has been known to perform miracles with the touch of his hands.

You see, Sarah doesn’t think her daughter is sick with the plague; she believes her daughter has been possessed by an evil of some sort.

Joining them on their journey the ether-addicted Doc Bender (Guy Pearce) and a simple-minded farmhand named Eward (Jack Alcott), a young man fiercely loyal to Sarah.

Doc’s been through his own trials. His wife committed suicide; his daughter came down ill with the plague and he wasn’t able to save her.

He doesn’t believe in good and evil. He doesn’t believe Sarah’s daughter is possessed.

But he’s determined to get mother and daughter to Ross Corner.

Others seem equally determined to make sure she never makes it that far.

Review:

A high percentage of Westerns being released in the 2020s seem to have an element of horror.

This is one of the better films you’ll find in that mixing of genres. An original story, complete with some fine touches of dark humor, helps.

So does strong acting, even if Bill Pullman doesn’t show up until the final 30 minutes.

He plays the wheelchair bound Preacher Ross in a way that’s likely to remind you of Dr. Strangelove from the 1964 film of the same name.

Unfortunately, some of the “surprises” at the end have become so overused, they aren’t likely to surprise you.

And the strange characters the travelers encounter during their journey will leave you wondering if there were any normal folks out West.

Not to mention why those who are “normal” constantly put themselves in danger by staying in the company of those who clearly aren’t.

Directed by:
Ned Crowley

Cast:
Guy Pearce … Bender
DeWanda Wise … Sarah
Bill Pullman … Ross
Raoul Max Trujillo … Shakespeare
Jamie Neumann … Whitey
Jack Alcott … Edward
Joanna Cassidy … Maggie
Emily Ford … The Girl
Josh McDermitt … Stanton
Charlie Talbert … Cotton
Keith Jardine … Gibson
Andrew J. West … Sheriff Leg Splint
Gail Cronauer … Miss Atwater
James Cady … Proprietor
Teagan Ireland … Annie
Ryan de Quintal … Man in cage

Runtime: 108 min.

Memorable lines:

Acting sheriff to one of the occupants in his jail: “How’s the curin’ business, doc.”
Doc Bender: “Not as good as the dyin’ business.”

Doc Bender, after being ordered out of town: “I ain’t diggin’ up my whole family for that old witch. She ain’t the law.”
Acting sheriff: “She’s the bank. Even better.”

Sarah Worthington: “You don’t believe in the devil, doctor?”
Doc Bender: “I wish I did because may then I’d believe in the good Lord too. Just tall tales and fiction, designed to get us through the night. No better than a camp fire.”

Doc Bender: “I examined her, you know?”
Sarah Worthington: “Told you, it ain’t that kind of sickness.”
Doc: “Well, I didn’t see any sign of the devil neither.”

Doc: “What brought you out this way, ma’am?”
Maggie: “Well, them horses. ‘Til they died and we ate ’em.”

Ross: “The ignorant? You never fear the ignorant getting smart. You fear the ignorant getting scared.”

Ross: “Docter, we both know there’s no evil. There’s just very bad men.”

Bender, referred to as Steel Bender several times during the film: “Some steel don’t bend.”