DAILY CALL SHEET: MARCH 20, 2026

The Barbarians (1987) Renowned body building twins Peter and David Paul, better known by their stage name The Barbarian Brothers, star in this film about (wait for it) twin barbarian brothers separated while young and trained by Kadar, the man who slaughtered their village, to fight each other to the death once they come of age. However, for obvious reasons, the pair recognize each other and set out after Kadar instead. This leads to a series of adventures, including one of the more ridiculous scenes in B-movie history wherein the twins are sentenced to death by hanging, but manage to snap the nooses with their enormous neck muscles. Ludicrous as far as Conan rip-offs go, but the Barbarian Bros are so good natured it's hard not to like.

How do we buff up our spiritual muscle so we’re prepared for those time when it seems like the secular throng is trying to slip the noose over our necks? Tara Little, writing in the Arkansas Catholic, suggests something that may not come readily to mind when you’re thinking about bulking up; fasting. Ms. Little likens fasting to “a matter of stretching ‘the spiritual muscle’ the same way one exercises his or her body.” In the article, Msgr. James Mancini concurs, noting that by fasting we recognize "that the Spirit and the flesh are in battle with each other... The appetites are not wrong, God gave them to us for a purpose, but they definitely need discipline… Once we do start denying the flesh, we're able to sense Christ's influence much more [because] it's in our spirit that we're able to relate to him." 

Ravenous (1999) After accidentally ingesting a bit of blood following a scuffle during the Mexican-American War, soldier John Boyd mysteriously gains super-strength to defeat his enemy captors. Following his escape, Boyd is then transferred to a sparsely-manned remote outpost where he learns the legend of the Wendigo, a curse that turns anyone who eats human flesh into something akin to Wolverine (sans claws), but at the cost of eternal irresistible hunger for more flesh. As word of the curse spreads, it isn't long before everyone in the area is looking for a bite to eat, but there's only so many people to go around. Criminally unappreciated horror-comedy full of snarky critiques of the excesses of manifest destiny will leave you hungry for more.

I can't vouch for the mystical effects of eating regular human flesh, but the Church has some opinions on the benefits of eating that of Jesus. The Catechism lists a number of "fruits" of taking Holy Communion. These include an intimate union with Christ, a renewal of the life of grace, the wiping away of venial sins and the strength to resist them in the future, a deepening of love for neighbors, and a foretaste of heaven and the promise of resurrection. These effects aren't always immediate like in Ravenous, but gradual over time. Also, they only show up if the4 Eucharist was received worthily. Receiving Communion in a state of mortal sin can actually have the opposite results.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MARCH 6, 2026

The Reptile (1966) Back in Victorian England, young newlyweds Harry and Valerie move to the village of Clagmoor Heath, where it becomes obvious the neighbors don't want them around. The local crazy guy, Mad Pete, tries to warn the couple to flee, but he's soon killed horribly by something with large poisonous fangs. He's not the last. Harry and the local tavern keeper look into the murders, an investigation that brings them to the doorstep of the surly Dr. Franklyn, his standoffish daughter Anna, and their weird manservant from Malaysia, home to an ancient cult of snake worshipers. Could it be this trio has something to do with the large reptilian creature running around biting people? Another attempt by Hammer Studios to step outside the classic monster line-up they copied from Universal, full of their usual panache and Gothic sensibilities. Worth a look.

While there weren't actually any weird secret snake cults in Maylasia, some Hindu communities did sometimes incorporate Naga elements in their worship. Nagas were believed to be semi-divine beings, often manifesting as hooded serpents, who were symbols of fertility and protectors of treasures. Believers would protect the Nagas' groves and perform rituals, and in return it was expected they would grant blessings and avert curses. Obviously, the Church views divinization of serpents or nature spirits as completely incompatible with monotheistic Christian faith and doesn't try to hide that teaching. However, the Church tries to promote harmony through joint environmental efforts such as helping preserve the sacred groves. Some groups such as the Sisters of Our Lady of Missions run clinics that treat snake bites.

Tentacles (1977) Soundwaves from an underwater drilling operation are ticking off the local giant octopus, causing the irritated beast to eat everybody he can get his tentacles on. You might think this would cause the tourist trap of Solana Beach to call off its annual boat race, but nobody wants to give up all that out-of-town money. After the octopus racks up a body count large enough for several Jaws movies, the local marine expert and his trained killer whales decide to take things into their own flippers. This has a number of one-time headliners like John Huston, Shelley Winters, Claude Akins, and Henry Fonda taking up screen space, but it doesn't help much. Still, there are a few well done scenes and it's always welcome anytime composer Stelvio Cipriani recycles his excellent main theme from The Great Kidnapping.

Sadly for octopus fans, the eight-armed inklings get no mention in the Bible. That doesn't really mean anything other than the ancient Jews didn't interact with a lot of octopuses. However, the cephalopods do start showing up in medieval bestiaries where the use of their many tentacles to ensnare prey was sometimes compared to the use of fraud and deceit to trap the innocent, and in some manuscripts prepared by monks where their arms were used as pointers to emphasize long or noteworthy sections. Louis Charbonneau-Lassay's The Bestiary of Christ from the late 1800s mentions a monastery in Bosnia where octopuses adorn its cornices, perhaps as a remnant from the building's pre-Christian use. Alas, if anybody has ever found the place, they've never shared where. A 2,000-year-old institution like the Church is gonna have its mysteries.

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 24, 2026

Wishcraft (2002) Out of the blue and with no idea where it came from, meek high schooler Brett Bumpers receives a weird totem made from a bull phallus, along with a note claiming the object will grant him three wishes. Brett does what anyone who receives a strange bull phallus in the mail would do, I suppose, which is grab hold of it real hard and make the wishes. What Brett desires is for his classmate Samantha to fall for him, which she immediately does. What Brett doesn't wish for is that a hooded figure will begin killing Samantha's friends, but that happens as well. Can Brett solve the mystery of the murderer? And what will Samantha do when she learns her new found affections weren't really her own? Supernatural slasher fans will likely find something entertaining here, but Wishcraft is pretty average overall.

The Catechism specifically condemns superstition because it attributes to certain practices what belongs to God alone, or attributes magical efficacy to actions/objects in a way that denies God's sovereignty. But does superstition include wishing? Probably not if you stick to the Websters definition of a wish, which is to have a desire for (something, such as something unattainable). Even Jesus seemed to express a wish in Luke when he said, "How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!" Basically, if your wishes are positive, hopeful, and ultimately entrusted to God's will, there's no issue. Wishing only veers into superstition if it relies on occult/magical forces instead of God or involves sinful content. Pretty sure wishing on a bull phallus falls into the superstition category.

The Norliss Tapes (1973) While doing research for a book meant to debunk the supernatural, investigative reporter David Norliss disappears, leaving nothing behind but a box full of cassettes for his editor to sift through. Selecting a tape at random, the editor listens to Norliss relate the tale of a housewife whose dead husband won't stay in the grave. Digging into the story, Norliss discovers the somewhat dead man had been suffering from an incurable disease and became involved in ancient Egyptian sorcery as part of an attempt to cheat death and achieve immortality. Could that be why a super-strong ghoul is now stalking the suburbs of San Francisco trying to resurrect an Egyptian demon? And what, if anything, does it all have to do with Norliss' disappearance? This attempt by Dan Curtis to follow up the success of his Night Stalker movies with a similar themed television pilot doesn't reach the same heights, mostly because the character of Norliss just can't compare with Karl Kolchak (we miss you Darren McGavin). Still, for those monster kids whose viewing preferences were shaped in part by Curtis' modern gothic sensibilities, this is perfectly fine.

The implication in the Norliss Tapes is that we're likely listening to the posthumous reflections of the titular reporter as he details his encounters with the mysterious. If you want something similar, but with a more religious bent to it, try the writings of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska (St. Faustina for short). Assembled after her death, Faustina's notebooks detail her mystical experiences, inner conversations with Christ, her sufferings, and the messages she received that would lead to the devotion known as the Divine Mercy. The most mystical parts of her diaries include encounters with angels and saints, as well as visions of hell and purgatory. Mainly, though, her experiences were Eucharistic. She wrote, "Often during Mass, I see the Lord in my soul; I feel His presence which pervades my being. I sense His divine gaze; I have long talks with Him without saying a word; I know what His divine heart desires, and I always do what will please Him the most."

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 15, 2026

House of the Dead (2003) A group of college kids late for an island rave bribe gruff Captain Kirk to ferry them there quickly. However, instead of the soiree they were expecting, the kids arrive to find most of their fellow partygoers have been offed by zombies. As the group fights their way to the island's only structure, Kirk reveals the island was once home to an insane 15th century priest excommunicated from the Church for his attempts to create an immortality serum, as well as his penchant for enslaving the souls of the dead. One guess who's waiting for the kids when they reach the house. This is Uwe Boll's first video game adaptation (and amazingly not his last given this one's reception) and he leans into his source material, including on-screen character stat sheets and 360-degree death cut scenes, as well as actual low-res footage from the video game itself. You can't say Boll doesn't try, but you can say he doesn't succeed. At least Clint Howard and Jürgen Prochnow got paid.

Excommunication is pretty rare as the Church prefers pastoral warnings and dialogue first, but there are a number of things which can bring it about latae sententiae ("automatic" or "incurred by the fact itself") such as heresy, apostasy, schism, violence against the Pope, and procuring an abortion. Those things apply to all Catholics, but there are others that apply more directly to just the clergy. These include attempting to confer sacred ordination on a woman, throwing away consecrated Eucharistic species or retaining them for sacrilegious purposes, absolving an accomplice in a sin against chastity, and, particularly heinous, directly violating the sacramental seal of confession. Oddly enough, necromancy, which presumably would include trying to enslave the dead, is not an automatically excommunicable action, but rather ferendae sententiae (after a process), meaning the offending priest in House of the Dead would have had a judicial or administrative proceeding before getting the boot.

Mickey 17 (2025) Driven to desperation by financial woes, meek Mickey Barnes signs up to be an Expendable, someone who does all the dangerous work on other planets with the guarantee that he will be cloned with his memories intact each time he dies a grisly death. Which Mickey does a lot. While helping to colonize the ice world Niflheim, Mickey 17 is left to die at the paws of the planet's resident monsters, the Creepers. The creatures don't devour him, though, choosing instead to unexpectedly show mercy. A confused Mickey 17 returns to the colony, only to discover Mickey 18 has already been printed out. This leads to a rather uncomfortable love triangle, as well as triggering the law that all clones must be destroyed if multiples are ever made. On top of that, the expedition's leader decides that it's past time to destroy all of Mickey's new pals, the Creepers. Can the usually timid Mickey find a way to save himself, his clone, and an entire race of beings? Bong Joon Ho comes up with another darkly humorous winner sure to find its cult following in the coming years.

While Mickey 17 does take a few generalized potshots at religion, criticizing its use as a means of control by colonial capitalists, one can't help but find positive traces of Bong Joon Ho's Catholic upbringing sprinkled throughout the story. It's most evident in the movie's treatment of the subject of human cloning. In the Vatican document Dignitas Personae (Instruction on Certain Bioethical Questions), it warns that by denying the clone the right to be conceived within the secure context of marriage and filial identity tied to two parents, the process risks becoming a form of biological slavery. This is because using clones as a means to an end, even a very arguably good one like they do in Mickey 17, reduces persons to objects or biological material. This is another example of the Church opposing a technological "advancement" not because she's afraid of science, but rather on anthropological and theological principles regarding the sacredness of human life and procreation.

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 9, 2026

Killdozer! (1974) A crew of six construction workers are stationed on an uninhabited island to build an airstrip for their oil company employers. Not long after they start work, they uncover an ancient meteorite that sends a strange blue light into their bulldozer, causing the blade to start humming. Against the advice of the mechanic, the foreman orders the bulldozing to continue, but as soon as the machine is turned on, it sets about trying to kill off all the humans. Declaring the malevolent machine to be a murderer, the remaining crew try to figure out a way to execute it. If we're being honest, this isn't as good as my nostalgic brain wants it to be, but eight-year-old me who saw it when it first aired doesn't want to hear any of that.

Of course, there's a patron saint of construction workers, along with builders, brick makers, plumbers, tile makers, and related trades. That would be Saint Vincent Ferrer, who was a Dominican friar, preacher, and missionary in the late 1300s. Vincent wasn't actually a tradesman, so his patronage is more symbolic. He earned the title because of his heroic efforts in "building up" the Church through preaching, missionary work, and conversions. Perhaps most important was his work in undermining the antipope Benedict XIII, which helped bring a resolution to the Great Western Schism in 1417. Saint Joseph gets a nod as the patron of all workers, but if your need is particularly construction related, Saint Vincent Ferrer is your man.

Inferno (1980) While doing some research in New York City, poet Rose finds an ancient text detailing how The Three Mothers use their witchcraft to rule the world. And, wouldn't you know it, Rose discovers the Mother of Darkness might just be living in her apartment building. Rose's brother Mark tells her to keep her head until he can get there from Rome, but poor Rose ends up doing just the opposite. Arriving in the Big Apple to search for his missing sister, Mark finds himself embroiled in all kinds of supernatural shenanigans. This follow-up to Argento's Suspiria retains its predecessor's distinctive stylization, as well as its tenuous dream logic that sort of makes sense while you're experiencing it in the dark, but falls apart once you're back in the light and thinking about it too much. For proof, I offer the sequence involving a cat murdering antiques dealer, hundreds of rats, and an enraged hot dog vendor. Still, you don't really go into Argento looking for logic, do you? So, while Inferno never quite reaches the delirious heights of Suspiria, it's absolutely a worthy deranged sequel.

The word "Inferno" doesn't actually appear in the Bible or the writings of the Early Church Fathers. It's usage as a synonym for Hell is owed mostly to Dante's Divine Comedy and that work's influence on Western culture in general and medieval/Renaissance Christianity in particular. In fact, one could make an argument that Dante's fictional imaginings of Hell as a layered realm full of jail-keeping demons meting out tortuous punishments fit for each sinner's crimes is more ingrained in the public consciousness than the vague descriptions of Hell that are actually in the Bible. Even so, the Church has celebrated the Devine Comedy, emphasizing the work's alignment with Catholic theology through its portrayal of sin, redemption, mercy, and divine love. So, the work might not reflect the literal reality of Hell, but as St. Pope John Paull II noted, it is a "vision of reality that speaks of the life to come and the mystery of God with the vigor of theological thought transformed by the combined splendor of art and poetry."

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 2, 2026

Death Machine (1994) You know what's scarier than hiring Brad Dourif? Firing Brad Dourif. And that's just in real life. Now imagine you're his boss in a movie where he's a sociopathic weapons designer and hacker supreme who can send his murder machines to disembowel you in less than a minute, something he's already done to the person who previously held your position. Then, when you actually do work up the nerve to let him go, he develops a crush on you, and promises not to eviscerate you if you'll promise to schedule sex time with him. That's what happens to poor Hayden Cale in this near-future flick when she's put in charge of dealing with the public relations mess caused by one of Dourif's cybernetic solders malfunctioning. Soon, she's on the run for her life while being pursued by Dourif's invincible killer robot. And then the eco-terrorists show up. Definitely hampered by its relatively small budget, but with character names like John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, and Scott Ridley (huh?), you know right where the filmmakers' hearts are. They do their best with what they have to honor their influences.

Part of the Church's social doctrine is the principle of the dignity of work. Basically, this is the idea that workers are persons with inherent dignity and their employers have moral obligations to treat them accordingly, not just as disposable tools for profit. Under this theory, employers must pay a just wage, provide decent and safe working conditions, not hinder the right of workers to organize or defend their interests, and avoid placing unjust burdens on their employees. For their part, the workers are required to  carry out their assigned tasks, respect the employer and their property, contribute to a positive work environment, work with regard to others, and avoid violence or disorder when pursuing grievances. Obvious to say, Brad Dourif's character in Death Machine oversteps in regards to that last point. A bit.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Faith-filled and gritty? This week for Aleteia I take a look at the new film Moses the Black.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 29, 2026

Diabolique (1955) When cruel boarding school headmaster Michel Delassalle isn't busy beating his sickly wife Christina, he's spending his spare time beating his mistress Nicole. Bonding over their common abuse, the two women plot to drug Michel and drown him in a bathtub, thereby solving both their problems at once. They run into a bit of a hiccup, however, when Michel's body disappears after the deed is done. Even worse, signs begin to appear that Michel might still be alive and well and ready to start the beatings again. With the clock ticking, the two new besties must solve the mystery of Michel before the police close in and/or Christina's weak heart gives out. Not all goes the way you might think. Diabolique is part suspense, part horror, and all classic, with one of the most recognizable and lauded set pieces in cinema history. Even for those who can't stand them, this one is definitely worth the subtitles.

Interestingly, while the film's source novel makes it pretty clear that the written versions of Christina and Nicole hook up with one another while plotting against Michel, the movie adaptation removes any explicit reference to such a relationship. The opposite occurs with the Bible. Other than a single verse which lumps female same-sex attraction in the same boat as all other sexual relationships outside of marriage between a man and a woman (that would be the "don't do it" boat), there are zero lesbians in Scripture. However, some modern LGBTQ+ scholars have tried hard to add such context to the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi because the two women "clung" to each other after Ruth's husband died. That's not a widely held view, though. That's because it's usually considered infinitely more accurate to interpret the original texts in the context of when they were written rather than attempt to force your pet theory back through the ages to a time where they would be very unwelcome.

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (2014) Dr. Debbie Gibson is back, for a few minutes anyway, and she's here to offer advice on what to do after another megalodon  breaks free from the iceberg it was frozen in and destroys the Sphinx. Yes, a giant shark in the ocean destroys the Sphinx. Just take my word for it, okay. Two other scientists, having obviously seen their share of Godzilla movies, decide the best course of action is to build a giant robotic version of the megalodon and arrange a match-up. After a few rounds, though, Mecha Shark malfunctions and goes rogue, attacking anything it feels is a threat, even the good guys. Now, with two oversized menaces headed towards Australia intent on making it the land down underwater, what are the big brains to do? This is the third (let me repeat that, third) movie in the direct-to-video Mega Shark series from Asylum studios, so whatever you thought of the first two, this one isn't going to change your mind one little bit.

The book of Genesis does mention God creating the great sea monsters, but it's unlikely this meant megalodons, plesiosaurs, or anything else form the fossil records. This is because the Bible is interested in salvation history and could care less about prehistoric creatures. Alas, this hasn't stopped skeptics from trying one of their go-to gotchas; how can the book of Romans say that death came into the world through sin, when the fossil record shows the world was literally littered with animal bones by the time humans came along? Well, as Aquinas argued, the nature of non-human animals inherently involves mortality, predation, and decay as part of material creation's order, and therefore their deaths would naturally precede that of humanity's. Humans, on the other hand, were created in a state of original holiness and justice—free from sin, with preternatural gifts including immortality. Sin removed that gift, leaving humans as mortal as any other animal, which is what Romans was referring to.