I must admit that the title of this movie didn’t sound very enticing, and the theater previews didn’t make me any more enthusiastic. In fact, I had no sense that The Last Sin Eater was any kind of Christian movie at all until I heard a radio announcement and then read a review on Plugged In Online. That changed everything. Sin Eater is well worth seeing, and we need to support it and movies like it.
Based on a novel by Christian author Francine Rivers, The Last Sin Eater is set in Appalachia in the 1800s. A colony of Welsh immigrants has taken up residence in an Appalachian valley, bringing their pagan-influenced beliefs with them. The settlers create a tradition of selecting by lottery a person to bear the villagers’ sins. When someone dies, this “sin eater” takes the sins of the deceased upon himself in a kind of purification rite. That means, though, that the sin eater cannot lead a normal life; he cannot be directly seen by anyone and must live by himself in the forest. As the story begins, we meet the young Cadi, a girl of 10 or 11, who is obsessed with guilt about the accidental death of her younger sister several years previously. Cadi has a particularly difficult relationship with her mother, who appears to blame her for the sister’s death. When her grandmother dies, the plucky Cadi pursues the sin eater to seek relief from her own supposed sins. In so doing, she meets the Man of God, a stranger who is visiting the valley. He changes Cadi’s life by starting her on a new path that will ultimately lead to her own salvation – and that of many of the townspeople. In one of the most inspirational lines of the film, the Man of God tells Cadi that “only Jesus, the original sin eater, can take away one’s sins.” It’s a goose-bump-inducing moment, to say the least.
The Last Sin Eater was helmed by Christian director Michael Landon Jr. and produced by Fox Faith. It has lots of atmosphere and shuddery moments, along with some intriguing mysteries to be solved. It also has several effective performances: Henry Thomas plays the Man of God (he played the boy Elliot in E.T., The Extraterrestrial); Louise Fletcher (Big Nurse in One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest) is Miz Elda, Cadi’s elderly lady friend and mentor; and Liana Liberato shines as Cadi. Best of all, the film is wonderfully straightforward in its message: Christ is the answer. While the picture has no sex scenes or swearing, it does have some violence and is probably too intense for children. Go and see it and tell your friends. We need more movies like this.
Film Rating: PG-13
My Rating: 3 stars
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