Sin Eater.

I like my religious horror films like the Omen and the Exorcist, maybe it’s my puritanical Protestant up bringing that makes the Catholic Church so creepy. All the tradition and the images of the crucifixion.

However these religious thrillers, and there are many of them, are littered with some truly awful films, for every Omen, their several Ninth gates and End of days. Unfortunately this falls into the later.

It looked good on paper, a man who goes about eating the souls of sinners, so they can be redeemed and ascend to heaven. The Sin Eater obtains the powers and memories of whose souls he eats. Enabling him to prolong his life.

Heath Ledgers plays the depressingly good looking priest, who returns to Rome to investigate the apparent suicide of hi mentor. As one of only two remaining members of his brethren he investigates with another survivor played by British actor Mark Addy.

They become embroiled (or should that be confused by) a conspiracy of silence thrown up around the mythical sin eater. Eventual help by the evil ‘black pope’ (who of course lives under a rock club in Rome ) they track the sin eater down (played by Benno Furrerman)

As the plot saunters along it becomes apparent that Ledger was set up by his excommunicated mentor, in payment for the Sin eaters services.. The Sin eater wants Ledger to replace him because he is tired... to help him along he murders the love interest of Ledger, forcing him to accept the role

Performances are patchy throughout, hindered by fluctuating accents (I think Addy’s character is meant to be Irish but I can’t be sure)

The plot ‘twists’ are cumbersome, predictable and could only really be called twists because of the hotch potch editing direction and pacing of the film..

This film disappoints on a level that is hard to articulate…. It is I suppose like a devoted Catholic turning up at the pearly gates, to discover that heaven is an old peoples home ran by civil servants