Child of Darkness, Child of Light

Stars: Anthony John Denison (Crime Story), Brad Davis (Midnight Express). Based on James Patterson's novel Virgin, this mild horror film stars Anthony John Denison as a Catholic father assigned to verify that a 15-year-old girl living in a sleepy little Pennsylvania town has experienced an immaculate conception. No sooner is this confirmed than the father must check out a second instance of miraculous pregnancy, this time in Boston. It seems that both a Christ and an Antichrist are on the birth docket--ah, but which girl has which baby? An intriguing premise which might have even made a decent horror film had the filmmakers spent more than $1.50 on the special effects. Instead we get newscasts about the terrible plagues that are sweeping the Earth (locusts in Africa, a deadly new polio strain in America, etc.), plagues that have little to do with the story. The whole shebang winds up with some half-hearted line lifts from The Exorcist and a cheesy ooh-could-there-be-a-sequel? finale. Audience: Horror fans who may be wooed by the excellent box art only to be sorely disappointed in this tame cable flick.