Popcorn Frights 2024: ‘Mysterious Ways’ is silly fun with razor-sharp religious commentary

Crafting a good horror/comedy takes tremendous balance. You always run the risk of sacrificing one element for the other and never living up to the film’s full potential. With his new feature Mysterious Ways, writer/director Tyler Eaton delights with a horror/comedy so downright silly that you may need a new funny bone. It doesn’t skimp on the terror, either, bending each genre piece through a razor-sharp lens around religious extremism and how identity is lost through toxic ideology.

Playing this year’s Popcorn Frights, Mysterious Ways sets the mood for a delightful Halloween season. With its slapstick-style humor and charming lead performances, the indie feature goes for the jugular in more ways than one – arriving as an irresistible chunk of comedic gold. Eaton not only displays a great command of comedy on paper, but he also has a way of directing his actors that gives them the freedom to play with the script and find their own meanings buried within the page. Horror sprouts from his fingertips, too, boosting the story with plenty of tricks ‘n treats.

Telling the absurd tale about two youth pastors who conjure up a demon on Halloween night, Mysterious Ways makes great use of wordplay, as well as physical comedy to relay the story. Alyssa Sabo and Brandon Raman, our two leads, have a clear and firm grasp of comedic timing and how to play a scene, bouncing their words and actions off one another like a rubber ball on concrete. They create absolute magic together.

Buried beneath the fantastic premise, there lies some meaty material for the actors to dig into. Denise (Sabo) obsesses over the end of the world and consumes every piece of literature she can. Her favorite book? Tribulation Squad (think: the Left Behind series from the early ’00s). Her rigid fanaticism captures the hotbed of current Christian extremism and propaganda; she’s unwavering, almost abrasive in how she teaches scripture and guides her pupils. Her stringent approach causes a rift with her friend and fellow youth pastor Charlie (Brandon Raman), who has secretly lost his faith and eyes a new life in New York City.

As the youth group readies for a holiday-themed performance, Charlie and Denise host a rehearsal at their home on Halloween night. Ripping a scene out of Tribulation Squad, Denise unwittingly summons a demonic entity that possesses one of the kids, the pastor’s daughter Bethany (Miranda Rae Hart), who then goes on a rampage to collect 666 souls. Hart relishes in her role, digging her fangs into the silliness required to deliver such a melodramatic performance. As the dark force wreaks havoc throughout an otherwise small idyllic town, more poor unfortunate souls become possessed.

In between its goofy story elements, Mysterious Ways has plenty to say about how religion is propagated around the world and the dangers in adhering to such a strict (and ancient) text. Several youth group members, including Charlie and Bethany, realize they no longer connect to the faith and have decided to explore other avenues in life. While Denise continues on her faith journey, the film doesn’t necessarily judge her for it. It objectively posits that faith, in whatever shape or form that might be, isn’t always everyone’s desire for their life.

Mysterious Ways never once hops on a soap box. It presents the sometimes outrageous aspects of extremism as a vehicle for conversation, allowing the audience to engage (or not) with the material. Tyler Eaton clearly understands the assignment: to deliver a damn hilarious time. From the soap opera acting to the crispness of the cinematography (shout-out to DP Zack Wallnau), the low-budget feature emerges out of Popcorn Frights as one of the festival’s absolute treasured gems. You don’t want to miss it.

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