DAILY CALL SHEET: MAY 30, 2026

 

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice (1992) A few days after the events of the first film, the remaining children of Gatlin are all adopted by the adults in a nearby town. Sure, the kids massacred their real parents, but they're probably fine now, right? No, they are not, as they immediately head to the cornfields to worship He Who Walks Behind The Rows. When a reporter and his son show up to do a story on what happened in Gatlin, the rebellious boy is quickly lured into the cult by one of the turn the tide? girls. As new murders begin to occur, the reporter is at a loss as to how to get his son away from the crazy corn-worshipers. Fortunately, there's one of those handy Native Americans around who always knew everything there was to know in movies of that time. But will even his secret knowledge be enough to turn the tide? Given the number of sequels that followed, this is, in fact, not the final sacrifice. Instead, it's mostly a sillier rehash of the already silly first movie.

 

Is it really that hard to figure out your new friends are in a corn-worshiping murder cult? St. John Bosco, patron saint of youth and founder of the Salesians, warned , "Fly from bad companions as from the bite of a poisonous snake. If you keep good companions, I can assure you that you will one day rejoice with the blessed in Heaven; whereas if you keep with those who are bad, you will become bad yourself, and you will be in danger of losing your soul… Avoid bad companions, those who blaspheme and steal and do not fear God... Receive the sacraments often; be devoted to the Blessed Virgin; consider bad books worse than the plague; avoid bad companions even more than poisonous snakes." It's interesting to note Bosco included bad books in his warnings against having evil companions. He meant it, though, adding, "No poison is more fatal to youth than bad literature."

Now Showing At A Blog Near Your: For Aleteia this week, I take a look at Pressure, the mostly true story of how one weather forecast nearly derailed D-Day.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MAY 23, 2026

Crimes of the Future (2022) At some point in the not too far off future, biotechnology has advanced to the point that most humans no longer feel sensations like hurt or discomfort. These advances have also kickstarted evolutionary changes in the human body, which for some reason doesn't sit well with the government. To help crack down on illegal evolution, the National Organ Registry goes to performance artist Tenser to help infiltrate the evolutionist underground. Tenser, you see, suffers from Accelerated Evolution Syndrome, which causes him to grow extraneous organs and makes him one of the rare individuals to feel pain. Because of this, people pay to watch Tenser undergo surgery to remove his extra organs while still awake. This gives Tenser cred with the underground, so they accept him into their ranks. The thing is, Tenser starts to accept them as well. What's Tenser to do; turn the underground in, or join the cause? David Cronenberg's return to weirdness isn't up there with his best, but his fans will find much to appreciate.

 

As Pope St. John Paul II noted in a 1996 address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, "Today, almost half a century after the publication of the Encyclical [Humani Generis], new knowledge has led to the recognition that the theory of evolution is more than a hypothesis... The convergence... of the results of lines of work conducted independently of one another constitutes by itself a significant argument in favor of the theory." Evolution is, in fact, taught without reservation in Catholic schools and universities as a likely part of God's natural order. But what about the notion that we might still be evolving? There's no official statement on that idea, but since microevolution has always been a part of the overall theory, it's probably safe to assume the Church would accept the idea of continuing evolution to some degree as long as it is understood within a framework that includes God's creative role and His special creation of the soul.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: For Aleteia this week, I hang out with The Sheep Detectives. No movie about a bunch of sheep trying to solve a murder has any right being this good. Definitely in my top five of the year so far.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MAY 22, 2026

Chiller (1985) Millionaire industrialist Miles Creighton isn't too fond about dying, so he arranges to have himself cryogenically frozen. After about ten years, though, the machine he's in malfunctions and Miles must be revived. Fortunately, during Miles' long nap, they've invented a procedure to fix his fatal condition. Unfortunately, they can't do anything about Miles' missing soul, which apparently didn't exit the freezer with him. Now a conscienceless monster, Miles sets about purposely ruining the lives of his employees by jettisoning anyone he feels is hampering profits. He also commits a few murders on the side. It's a Wes Craven made-for-TV film, so the movie is probably trying to say something about the perceived heartlessness of Reagan-era capitalism, but nothing Craven does can save this movie from being a complete bore.

Since the Church opposes the creation of human persons outside of the conjugal love of a husband and wife, the cryogenic freezing of embryos is right out. But what about the freezing of adults in hopes of reviving them later? Well, Justo Aznar, director of the Bioethics Observatory of the Catholic University of Valencia, notes that current cryogenic technology would kill a living person, so the person being frozen is required to be dead before the procedure takes place. Obviously, the killing part is right out. As for the preserving of the corpse for later, that goes against the Church's teachings on the proper handling of the body after death. Finally, there's the fact that the soul leaves the body after death, returning only for the final resurrection. So, the whole procedure is a pipe dream to begin with. Based on that, it's safe to assume the Church opposes cryogenics.

Dust Devil (1992) As a traditional Namibian healer named Joe warns us of Dust Devils, demons who materialize from the desert winds and roam the highways looking to kill those who have given up on life, we join one such creature as he burns down a woman's house and dumps her corpse in the back of a car. The Dust Devil then hitches a ride with his next intended victim, Wendy Robinson, a forlorn woman who has just left her husband after being falsely accused of infidelity. However, after Wendy overcomes her despair and decides against ending her own life, the Dust Devil decides to just hang out with her for a while rather than doing the thing he usually does. Meanwhile, thanks to the trail of bodies the Dust Devil has left behind, the police are now tracking him, aided by Joe and his magic stick. Richard Stanley's follow-up to his cult favorite Hardware is just as stylish and moody as its predecessor, coming across a little like if Sergio Leone had made a horror movie. It's ridiculously hard to find, but worth it if you can.

Aquinas was no fan of despair because it basically arises from the false belief that God is withholding his grace. Interestingly, despair seems to be a favorite tactic of the devil when it comes to attacking Saints. For example, St. Thérèse of Lisieux wrote how she endured intense temptations to despair, especially when she was near death, feeling like heaven was nothing but a "night of nothingness" and that her faith was illusory. For 50 years, as her letters noted, St. Mother Teresa of Calcutta was deeply tempted by feelings of spiritual desolation and abandonment. She spoke of feeling “forsaken,” like Jesus on the Cross, and feared becoming “a Judas to Jesus.” Heck, St. John of the Cross wrote a whole book about his struggles, Dark Night of the Soul, in which he describes those times when God seemingly removes consolations, leading to aridity, confusion, and a sense of abandonment. However, as he explained, such times can lead to a deeper union with God because it's during them when the soul must walk by faith alone.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MAY 8, 2026

The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake (1959) The titular professor decides to visit his 60-year-old brother Kenneth after seeing visions of floating skulls, but never gets to as the brother dies after finding a shrunken head right before Jonathan gets there. The cause of death appears to be cardiac arrest, which is weird because Kenneth's the latest in a long line of Drakes to die at age 60 in the same manner. Perhaps odder is that his corpse is later decapitated. Jonathan soon discovers that his ancestor Capt. Wilfred Drake traveled to Ecuador in 1873 and ended up massacring a Jivaro tribe, causing the local witch doctor to curse any male in the Drake bloodline to die at 60. That may not sound that bad if you're 20, but as the years pass, it begins to sound way too soon. Anyway, Jonathan must discover who's carrying out the curse and stop him before he loses his own head. Nothing spectacular, but fits the bill if you're looking for something a little different than the usual late '50s monsters and mutants.

While not on the same massive scale as the Aztecs, the Incas, including those in Ecuador, also engaged in human sacrifice and enslaved their neighbors. So, when Pizarro and pals showed up and started putting an end to such things, they found eager allies amongst many of the other indigenous peoples in the region. Unfortunately, the Spanish also engaged in some abuses of their own, and it was for those that popes starting with John Paul II began to issue apologies for any role that the Church may have contributed to such actions. In 2023, the Vatican issued the Repudiation of the Doctrine of Discovery which formally rejected any 15th-century papal bulls that attempted to justify European claims over non-Christian lands and peoples, noting that such beliefs “did not adequately reflect the equal dignity and rights of indigenous peoples”.

The Sea Serpent (1985) Banned from piloting anymore ships because the courts didn't believe his tale of a shrieking sea serpent sinking his boat, Captain Pedro Fontan (played by Timothy Bottoms, who in no way looks like any Pedro I've ever met) seeks out the only other witness who can verify his claims. The hard part is she's currently locked away in an asylum. As the constantly screaming monster munches on a few more people, Pedro frees the falsely committed woman and assembles a small crew to track the beast down and destroy it once and for all. Overall, this is pretty standard stuff for a low-budget quickie from Spain, but the effects for the titular monster itself are so outlandish, like Reptilicus-level outlandish, that it instantly gains at least one star from fans of this kind of thing.

What we know for sure about St. Senan is that he was born in Munster, Ireland, was a soldier before becoming a monk, and was named Abbot at St. Natalis at Kilmanagh in Ossory. When it comes to the Saints, though, their stories rarely stop with the verifiable facts. There is a legend referenced in the late eighth century Calendar of Oengus about St. Senan's confrontation with a sea serpent named the Cathach. This was a horrible creature with a spiked back, scales, a fish-like tail, clawed feet, and a spiraling nose which took to terrorizing the locals, gobbling up people and animals alike. With some timely aid from St. Michael the Archangel, St. Senan confronted the Cathach, made the sign of the cross, chained the beast, and banished it to Doolough Lake. True? Who knows. Cool? Definitely.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 24, 2026

Godzilla Raids Again (1955) The Big G died in his first movie, but not to worry, there's a backup. While attempting to rescue a fellow pilot who has crashed on Iwato Island, Shoichi Tsukioka discovers a second Godzilla fighting another giant monster soon to be named Anguirus. Shoichi alerts the authorities, who try to lure the beasts away from any cities by turning off all the lights and sending up flares in the opposite direction. Alas, some idiot thieves attempt a robbery during the blackout and the explosion they set off brings the two monsters straight to Osaka. Godzilla makes swift work of Anguirus, which is helpful, but that still leaves Japan with the problem of finding some way to put the rampaging King of the Monsters on ice. There is no such thing as an unenjoyable Godzilla movie, but this first sequel is a hug step down from the excellent original, with its only claim to fame being it started the trend of introducing a new kaiju in each film for Godzilla to battle.

When the same guys who altered the original Godzilla for American release got ahold of Godzilla Raids Again, they made even more drastic changes, going so far as to change the name of the movie to Gigantis, The Fire Monster in hopes of convincing audiences it was a brand new monster. Producer Paul Schreibman later admitted regretting the decision, as it turned out viewers weren't fooled and would have preferred to have been given the real thing. It's like with the Bible. A study by LifeWay Research indicates that the overwhelming majority of readers prefer word-for-word translations that prioritize fidelity to the original text over those that use dynamic equivalence to paraphrase Scripture. This is because the more literal versions preserve nuances, word connections, and ambiguities in the original Hebrew/Greek while the paraphrases leave too much room for biased interpretation. In Godzilla movies and Bibles, always stay as close to the original source material as possible.

Conquest of Space (1955) Aboard the Wheel, an enormous space station orbiting the Earth, Colonel Merritt is busy training astronauts for an expedition to the moon. Unexpectedly, Earth's government instructs Merritt to ready a small crew to land on Mars instead. Merritt assembles three men, including his own son with whom he has a strained relationship, and blasts off for the red planet. They soon discover they have a stowaway in Sgt. Mahoney, who was deemed too old to tag along but refuses to be separated from Merritt, whom he idolizes. The sergeant's hero worship is quickly tested, though, when Merritt succumbs to space fatigue and begins to sabotage the mission under the misguided belief that their efforts to reach Mars violates the edicts of God. With things turning deadly and no chance of returning to Earth for at least a year, do the men have any hope of ever seeing home again?  While not on the level as other George Pal productions like War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, Conquest of Space gets points for trying to be The Martian of its day.

Merritt's problem is that, in his madness, he has misinterpreted those parts of the Bible that state how God gave dominion of the Earth to mankind to mean that everything else outside our planet's atmosphere is God's only and therefore off limits. Merritt is mostly correct that the "dominion" granted to humanity is explicitly tied to this particular planet as it's the one God created as both humanity's home and the stage for the drama of salvation. However, Merritt's error is that this dominion doesn't preclude traveling to other planets, assuming our actions there are guided by the same rules of responsible stewardship which are supposed to govern how we treat the Earth. As Archbishop Ettore Balestrero noted in an interview, "The Church’s central message is that we must not turn space into a jungle … Space must be explored with responsibility, solidarity, and respect for subsidiarity, for the benefit of present and future generations … We must prevent it from becoming a theater of uncontrolled competition, or worse, conflict." Merritt definitely flubbed that part.

DAILY CALL SHEET: MAY 5, 2026

Firestarter (1984) Looking to earn a few bucks, college students Andy and Vicky volunteer to take an experimental drug. The concoction drives many of the other test subjects insane, but Andy and Vicky develop strange mental powers, get married, and have a little girl named Charlie who has the ability to start fires with her mind. This is too good a potential weapon to let hang out in an elementary school, so the secret government organization The Shop eventually comes after Charlie and her family. To gain Charlie's trust while she's in captivity, an assassin named Rainbird poses as a friendly janitor and fills her head full of lies. Will The Shop's scheme work to woo the little girl work, or will Charlie figure out she's being duped and rain hellfire on them all. A bit dated and definitely slow in places, but the performances carry it to the finish line, especially that of the venerable George C. Scott as the cunning custodian with murderous intentions. Also, fans of Stranger Things will quickly notice this movie's DNA running all through the show.

Obviously, lying to a child so you can turn her into a WMD is morally wrong, but are their times you can skate by with a little fib. Strictly speaking, no. According to the Church, lying is "per se malum" meaning it cannot rightly be done even the end result sought is a good one. Of course, as with many such teachings, there are nuances. Playing along with childhood fantasies such as some holiday traditions is usually given a pass as long as the child is told the truth when they ask. And, of course, if a small child asks an age-inappropriate question like where do babies come from, it's perfectly fine to redirect, put off the answer, or not give the full truth. In certain contexts, ambiguity is not considered lying. As it turns out, with both parenting and religion, verbal dexterity can be a huge asset. 

Night of the Ghouls (1959) Tor Johnson, Criswell, and many of the other Ed Wood irregulars return in this semi-sequel to Bride Of The Monster. Setting up operation in the same house where mad scientist Bela Lugosi met his fate in the previous film, conman Dr. Acula holds fake seances to pilfer the purses of the easily duped. However, once a real lady ghost dressed all in black starts murdering people in the woods near the house while a possibly real lady ghost all in white stands there and shrieks, the bumbling Officer Kelton and ghostbusting Detective Bradford are assigned to look into things. Look, it's Ed Wood, so you know exactly what to expect regarding the budget, the acting, and anything else involving general filmmaking skills. That being said, this is probably Wood's most competent outing, so take that for what it's worth.

Okay, so you don't go to Ed Wood for logic, but the simple fact is, there are no ghouls in Night of the Ghouls, at least not in its original sense. Based on Middle-Eastern folklore, a ghoul is a supernatural being who feeds on the flesh of the dead. Basically, they're what we now think of as zombies thanks to George Romero, who really should have called his film Night of the Living Ghouls. But, I digress. The idea of ghouls  brings to mind Ad Resurgendum cum Christo ("To Rise with Christ"), the Church's instructions on the proper handling the dead. The rules and restrictions within the short document are meant to emphasize hope in the resurrection, protect the faith against secular or superstitious attitudes, and generally ensure the deceased are remembered and prayed for in a fitting way. Unsurprisingly, eating the bodies is not allowed.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 17, 2026

Daimajin (1966) In feudal Japan during the Sengoku period, a remote village is rocked by tremors. Believing this to be the escape attempts of Arakatsuma the Daimajin (giant demon god), villagers from the area gather to perform an ancient pacification ritual. Alas, while everyone is distracted, the evil Samanosuke assassinates Lord Tadakiyo and establishes his cruel rule over the region. There are loose ends, however, as Tadakiyo's two children are secreted away to the Daimajin's hidden temple where they spend their time praying to the gigantic stone statue of Arakatsuma to punish Samanosuke. The god of the mountain takes his sweet time getting around to it, though, waiting until the kids are almost twenty and the villagers have suffered mightily. However, once Arakatsuma has had enough, his spirit enters the giant statue and he goes all kaiju on Samanosuke's stronghold. Like the Daimajin itself, the film takes a little while to get going, but the characters and spiritual musings make Daiei Films' answer to Godzilla worth the wait.

“Do not be troubled if you do not immediately receive from God what you ask him" says the Catechism, quoting the early Church Father Evagrius Ponticus, "for he desires to do something even greater for you, while you cling to him in prayer.” The Catechism has to remind of us this, because, let's face it, sometimes it feels like our prayers fall on deaf ears, often for a long, long time. One of the reasons the Saints have suggested this might happen is that we might need time to purify our intentions and shift our priorities to humility and trust rather than get immediate answers, which can sometimes foster presumption or instill a superficial faith. Another reason is that what we're asking for might not be the best thing for us at the moment, not in terms of our immediate needs, but for our eternal salvation. Whatever the reason, whenever prayers seem unanswered, the Church encourages us to persevere, examine ourselves for any wrong motives, and pray with trust and abandonment.

Rock & Rule (1983) Aging rock star Mok Swagger has discovered a ritual which will simultaneously grant him immortality and unleash a demon that will destroy the world, but he needs the perfect voice to set the forces in motion. That voice turns out to belong to Angel, the lead singer in a small struggling band. Once Mok hears Angel sing, he tries to sway her to abandon her bandmates and join his group. Angel refuses, so Mok just kidnaps her instead. Angel's pals attempt a rescue, but the ritual proceeds as planned and a rather large demon enters our dimension. Music opened the portal to evil, but can it also defeat it? The movie turned out to be too weird for MGM, so they basically abandoned it, which is a shame because this is another one of those off-kilter animated oddities from the '80s that is irresistible to cult movie lovers. Even if you don't find the story all that great, you still get music from Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Earth, Wind & Fire, and Cheap Trick.

I'm not sure about opening a portal to some Hell dimension, but certain music can invoke Heaven. The Church recognizes Gregorian chant as especially suited to the Roman liturgy because its serene, flowing, non-rhythmic character creates a sense of solemnity, dignity, and otherworldliness. That's not just the Church's opinion either. Neuroscientist Alan Watkins notes that research proves the musical structure of chant actually has a significant positive physiological impact on the human mind and body. Studies show that hearing Gregorian chant lowers your blood pressure, increases levels of DHEA, and reduces anxiety and depression. Other studies suggest that Gregorian chant can even aid in communications between the right and left hemispheres of the brain, possibly even creating new neural brain pathways in listeners. Basically, not only does Gregorian chant glorify God and sanctify the faithful, it's just plain good for you.

DAILY CALL SHEET: APRIL 14, 2025

Edge of Sanity (1989) Little Henry Jekyll receives a severe beating after spying on his father having a rendezvous with a prostitute. This leads the lad to develop sadomasochistic tendencies which he keeps repressed until, as an adult, he accidentally ingests too much of a new anesthetic he's concocted from ether and cocaine. How could such a mix of ingredients possibly go wrong? Anyway, now when night falls, Henry hits his bong and prowls the back alleys of London as Jack "the Ripper" Hyde, doing horrible things to working girls and generally indulging in every desire he's kept bottled up for most of his life. Eventually, Henry's wife begins to suspect something might be going on. This is a prime example of a mesmerizing performance trapped within an otherwise not-so-great trashy movie. Just goes to show, if you want crazy, it's hard to go wrong with Anthony Perkins.

In the years before Robert Louis Stevenson wrote Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, he was an avowed atheist, having rejected the religion of his youth. However, as often happens when a little age and experience settle in, those sentiments didn't last. Writing to his father in 1878, he exclaimed, "Christianity is among other things, a very wise, noble and strange doctrine of life ... You see, I speak of it as a doctrine of life, and as a wisdom for this world ... I have a good heart, and believe in myself and my fellow-men and the God who made us all ... There is a fine text in the Bible, I don't know where, to the effect that all things work together for good for those who love the Lord. Strange as it may seem to you, everything has been, in one way or the other, bringing me nearer to what I think you would like me to be. 'Tis a strange world, indeed, but there is a manifest God for those who care to look for him."

Cat's Eye (1985) A big orange cat named General meanders through two Stephen King tales on his way to save a little girl from a breath-stealing gnome that lives inside her bedroom wall. One story involves a man who has had an affair with a gangster's wife being forced by the enraged cuckold to walk along the narrow ledge of an Atlantic City high-rise. If he makes it all the way around, he can go free. If not, splat. Mobsters play a part in the other story as well, only this time they run a clinic with a 100% success rate in helping people quit smoking. The catch is that if you deviate from their plan and try to sneak a few drags, the escalating consequences for each offense include electro-shock, sexual assault, and death. Cancer-stick addict Dick Morrison doesn't believe these threats… at first. Director Lewis Teague keeps the proceedings much lighter in tone than his previous King adaptation Cujo (who gets a brief cameo), resulting in an enjoyable and fondly remembered horror romp.

The Catechism reminds us that "the virtue of temperance disposes us to avoid every kind of excess: the abuse of food, alcohol, tobacco, or medicine." So, it's the abuse of tobacco that's a sin, not its moderate use. That's likely good news to all those Catholic apologists out there who like to end their day with a sniffer of bourbon and a cigar. However, there are other Church teachings to consider, such as the one against forming addictions that enslave the will or waste resources/time that should be directed toward higher goods, as well as the one against doing things that run a high risk of causing grave harm to one's health. With the increasing medical evidence regarding the severe health and addiction risks of cigarettes, some Catholics have begun to see even their moderate use as imprudent. That's why Pope St. John Paul II banned smoking inside Vatican City and Pope Francis banned the sale of cigarettes within its walls.