dir. Karlton T. Clay
Redemption for Easter makes its message very clear very early on. A pastor is delivering a Sunday sermon. His wife in attendance, but none of his five children are. In a montage as he tries to call them afterwards, it’s shown each of his children has succumbed to sin in one way or another: adultery, drug dealing, deceit, alcoholism, and – fascinatingly – practising yoga. When the pastor dies, his wife is remarried six months later, and his children continue to drift. So what can bring all these people back on the right track? Why, God, of course. The plot involves some strange pivots, including a marriage done only for a Green Card but also is actually based on love after all; a fake love affair to get extra commission on the selling of the family church; and a truly out-of-nowhere rape story (though the film seems keener to condemn the abortion that followed). The movie’s fundamental message is conveyed pretty succinctly in one scene where the yoga practitioner looks troubled, spontaneously decides yoga isn’t doing it for him anymore, and instead picks up the Bible that someone has handily placed on his bed. Of course, a film like this made as a passion project with so little money that most scenes are clearly filmed on cheap equipment in the cast or crew members’ actual houses, was never going to be good. But it could at least have been coherent. Instead, two of the five children allege they only began their so-called vices as a coping mechanism after the death of their father, even though the movie very clearly showed they were all cheating and dealing drugs and doing yoga (!) while their father is still alive. But, as a torturously long series of monologues towards the end hammers home, none of that matters because God forgives and loves everyone. Presumably the makers of Redemption for Easter truly believe that, because there’s no way they could think they’re getting redeemed for this otherwise.
BMDb 