Psychic Power: PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT (2024)

Hard to believe but Shocktober 2024 is upon us. To be honest, we’re still healing from our self-inflicted cinemasochism journey of Ulli Lommel serial killer flicks last year, so I figured it would take something pretty special to get me out of that slump. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that something arrived via the underground horror film PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT (2024). Kick off your Birkenstocks, light some incense, and avoid the brown acid because things are about to get trippy. 

“People come and go, but music is forever.” 

The film opens with a moody scene where a group of cult members surround The Oracle (William Christopher). Fed a black gooey substance, the Oracle lives up to their name by announcing the Dragon Flower is wilting and that a new vessel is needed to house The Aleph. “The siren’s song will call her to us,” he says before collapsing. Cut to Mary Alice “Max” Clay (Adara Starr) dancing down the street to her job at an independent record store. Following a hilarious montage of customer interactions, the plot kicks into gear when a customer brings in an ultra-rare LP to trade. Said record is “Sator” by the hippie commune group Pater Noster and the Mission of Light and Max quickly offers the guy fifty dollars in store credit to score this rare “major want list item.” Unfortunately, Max’s dreams are dashed when the store owner Sam (Morgan Shaley Renew) stakes claim on the disc for the store. 

Sensing gold in them thar hills, Max pleads with the customer to find out where he purchased this rarity. He gives her the address of a thrift store and Max soon finds herself holding four of the band’s five rare releases. The store owner mentions the hippies used to own this shop and occasionally drop off old stock. Hoping to score the elusive fifth album, Max leaves her name and number to pass along. Big mistake #1. Returning home with her LP loot, Max settles down to listen to the albums with her roommate and ex-girlfriend Abby (Sanethia Dresch). It is at this point around the 13-minute mark I knew this was going to be special as head music fills the soundtrack and the screen explodes with an insane psychedelic vision of some crazy ass stuff. “This music is drugs,” says Abby. Yeah, and so is this movie. Immediately after the vision, Max gets a phone call from the Mission of Light hoping to set up a meeting to which she agrees. Big mistake #2 

The next night Max, Abby, Sam, and co-worker Gretchen (Shelby Lois Guinn) head to see the band Lunacide with the expressed interest of talking to the band’s drummer Jay Sin (Josh Outzen, whose wig should earn a Best Supporting Actor nod), who purchased the “Sator” album earlier in the day. Jay says the group was founded by Pater Noster, who was studying at M.I.T. before falling into the ‘60s drug scene and starting the cult. Wishing to find out more about this mysterious group, Max has everyone back to her place to pick Jay’s brain. Luckily, he has the hookup as they call into the paranormal radio show of Dennis Waverly (Tim Cappello, the “I Still Believe” saxman from THE LOST BOYS [1987]), who turns out to know a lot about the Mission of Light. Waverly says the group “cultivated the greatest minds of the esoteric underground” and dabbled in everything from a GMO food called Manna to writing psychology-occult books before disappearing in the mid-70s. Most chillingly, he says, “They worship at the altar of madness.” So they’re like Trump supporters? Waverly warns Max to be careful as anyone who has owned the “Rotas” album has allegedly met with “incredible misfortune.” 

The warning goes unheeded though as Max gets another phone call from the Mission of Light offering to pick her up the next day. Big mistake #3. The following morning Max and her friends are picked up by The Driver (Stephan Jensen, channeling Reggie Nalder in BURNT OFFERINGS [1976]), who offers them some alcohol but says they must be blindfolded for the final hour of their drive. Soon the group arrives at Wunderlawn Tu and is greeted by Deja Venus (Dorothy Hadley Joly) before the other commune members appear and break out in song to welcome their visitors. Feeling the effects of the alcohol, Jay heads to the bathroom but is suddenly surrounded by two purple jacket- wearing guards, Nova (Aaron Blomberg) and Rayne (Paul Talbot, aka the world’s foremost Charles Bronson expert). In a daze, Jay is dragged to come face-to-face with Pater Noster (Mike Amason, looking like an evil Uncle Jesse from THE DUKES OF HAZZARD). The bearded cult leader wastes little time explaining his musical philosophy, telling Jay, “When it is done well, music can crack open the mind and allow another consciousness to enter it.” Noster’s female assistant mentions fear actually delivers the best energy and begins to…well, I’ll just wrap up my summary here so there are at least some surprises. Let’s just say that in the last half of the film our loveable old hippies make the Manson Family look like the Partridge Family. 

“Music is the first form of magic practice.” 

Made in the wilds of South Carolina, PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT is the third feature of writer-director Christopher Bickel. A veteran musician of the punk music scene, Bickel has taken the punk rock ethos and seemingly transferred it to film. Seriously, my man heard about D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) and took that literally. No joke, Bickel’s credit in the final crawl mentions he wrote, produced, directed, lit, shot, edited, and scored the film. Hell, I’d wager he was probably whipping up the Manna in the kitchen for the scenes it is shown in. My litmus test for modern horror is just to show me something unique and the scenario Bickel has dreamed up here definitely did that as the last half hour has some truly gruesome and insane bits. 

That is not to say the entire scenario is filled with hippie freakouts and over-the-top gore. Bickel also takes the time to work in some humor including a recurring joke about the pronunciation of band/album names that culminates with Max telling Deja that she loved the album “Opera” and is told it is pronounced “OH-pear-uh.” And I legit let out a belly laugh in the finale where Max is running for her life, but stops in her tracks to grab a couple copies of the “Rotas” album. Shit, gotta pay that rent! There is also a nice bit of social commentary as Deja mentions how the group went into hiding, particularly because of how intolerant Christians were to the group. 

The multihyphenate Bickel uses all of the tech elements to further establish the film's uniqueness. The sound design is fantastic and Bickel and friends recorded an entire album’s worth of music for the titular group. The editing really blew me away as well, especially during the hallucinations, and there is a gruesome FX creation by Joe Castro that has to be seen to be believed. Buttressing all of these elements is a crew that I am sure worked their ass off. From the costumes to the set designs to the faux album covers, there is such an amazing attention to detail. I was legit floored when the end credits mentioned the entire thing was shot for the price of a used car (roughly $21,000 according to Bickel). 

Equal to Bickel’s ability to stretch a dollar is his ability to get the most of a committed cast. Most everyone here is a veteran of Bickel’s previous productions THE THETA GIRL (2017) and BAD GIRLS (2021), so I’m sure they knew what they were getting into, but the film’s finale features some boundary pushing that I’m shocked he got everyone to agree to it. Newcomers to this ensemble of insanity include debuting lead Adara Starr and Josh Outzen, who both do perfect turns as the final girl lead and the loveable stoner, respectively. Much like the Mission of Light itself, the troupe is in the hands of a total madman, but this one is only looking to entertain and/or gross out. Thankfully, he manages to achieve both with great success. PATER NOSTER AND THE MISSION OF LIGHT is truly one-of-a-kind and if you dig indie horror made with heart (and blood spraying from said heart), I highly recommend it.