New Yorkers commit a series of motiveless murders – a sniper shoots a dozen people from a water tower; a father murders his entire family; a cop opens fire during a St. Patrick’s Day parade – and the only consistent pattern to the crimes involves the perpetrator’s calm admissions of guilt, explaining, “God told me to.”
While investigating the murders, deeply religious catholic police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) is increasingly troubled by evidence of a Christ-like figure named Bernard Phillips (Richard Lynch) who appeared to each of the killers.
Peter eventually meets Phillips – an asexual vagrant who glows so brightly that his features can’t be discerned the first time he’s shown. This meeting leads Peter to find Elizabeth Mullin (Silva Sidney), who may or may not be Bernard’s mother.
Now living in a senior home, she recalls a horrific incident from the past, when she was taken aboard an alien spaceship and artificially inseminated.
She gave up the resulting son, who grew up to be “God” or, more accurately, a super-powered alien/human hermaphrodite (there’s a closeup of Bernard’s matched sex organs to prove the point).
None of it makes much sense, but it’s a fun ride.
Peter Nicholas
Tony Lo Bianco Martha Nicholas
Sandy Dennis Elizabeth Mullin
Sylvia Sidney Everett Lukas
Sam Levene David Morten
Robert Drivas Deputy Commissioner
Mike Kellin Bernard Phillips
Richard Lynch Casey Forster
Deborah Raffin Bramwell
John Heffernan Harold Gorman
Sammy Williams Cookie
Harry Bellaver Richards
William Roerick Zero
George Patterson Mrs Gorman
Jo Flores Chase
Director
Larry Cohen
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New Yorkers commit a series of motiveless murders – a sniper shoots a dozen people from a water tower; a father murders his entire family; a cop opens fire during a St. Patrick’s Day parade – and the only consistent pattern to the crimes involves the perpetrator’s calm admissions of guilt, explaining, “God told me to.”
Peter eventually meets Phillips – an asexual vagrant who glows so brightly that his features can’t be discerned the first time he’s shown. This meeting leads Peter to find Elizabeth Mullin (Silva Sidney), who may or may not be Bernard’s mother.
