Apprentice to Murder (1988)

People are voting emotionally.

Brilliant and touching

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

An interestingly odd, if not too successful little folktale curio set in Pennsylvania (although it was shot in Norway) in the 1920s as a teenage boy Billy comes under the influence of a backwoods faith healer Dr. Reese who begins to educate him as he becomes drawn to his mystical charms. But Billy finds himself dragged into strange events which end in terrifying results as they believe the local hermit has the motive and power to cause the devastating blight affecting the small village.Sometimes being unique and incredibly offbeat just doesn't cut it, if it doesn't entirely deliver the goods. I wanted to like "Apprentice to Murder" a lot more than I did, but I felt like it came up short by not completely coming to life with its dangerous predicament. It never really balances its sensationalised mystic concepts, tending to rely on its character relationships (especially the complicated connection between the boy and the faith healer), humdrum dramatic weight and slow- winding story build-up (some episodic filler) where it can have its flat spells. The most fascinating façade I thought was that of the hermit, which comes across very secondary to everything else, but is the main piece that holds everything together. Still its premise is innovative with a lyrical script that for most part engages with its busy themes. It's low-key in its approach, which is not a problem but it never really delves into the strange happenings and vivid special effects that seem to torture the faith healer. We get the usual supernatural occurrences, that in the end all of this magic might just be that of a disillusion. But this is supposedly inspired by true events involving a pow-pow preacher and his faith in George Hohmann's "Long Lost Friend" that eventually led to murder. The performances stand up very well with Chad Lowe's responsible turn holding his own alongside a charismatically believable Donald Sutherland as the unorthodox faith healer. He does command the screen in a subtle manner emitting somewhat a creepy undertone. The gorgeous Mia Sara doesn't get all that much to do and Eddie Jones also shows up. Director R. L Thomas does a sensational job presenting strikingly authentic period details, but also the moody score along with the elegant cinematography are instrumental in crafting enticingly symbolic imagery and an effective atmosphere of a god fearing time engulfing rural communities.

I love this movie and have recommended it to my students in folk-magic because it is closely based on a true story of murder, mysticism, and (possible) madness concerning a Pennsylvania Dutch Pow Wow doctor in the mid-1920s. Donald Sutherland is superb as John Reese, the highly eccentric conjure and herbalist. Chad Lowe is quite good as his young apprentice. The location shots, filmed in Norway, are spectacular -- not Pennsylvania Dutch country, exactly, but a wonderful rural landscape, with great old 19th century buildings. There is also a very good look at contemporaneous hoodoo practices, as the Pow Wow doctor seeks an outside consultation to cure his ills. If you're a prop and set decoration fan and knowledgeable about magic, look for the couple of Pennsylvania Dutch hex signs (inexplicably called "hexagrams" -- the movie's one false step) that contain Norse bind-runes thrown in on them -- obviously that was the Norwegian prop-maker's little in-joke. This is a great little underrated classic, and the perfect vehicle for Donald Sutherland.

Just want to ad that much of the movie is filmed at the west coast of Norway and in the city Bergen.I probably liked the movie because of that... The buildings and landscape fits the movie well. Based on how religious some people were in some areas at the west coast (maybe still are), and how strong some believe in the super-natural, the story gets a good framing from the Norwegian nature.Some of the landscapes are probably gone to day, farming areas are becoming suburbs, and the cities are growing. But you may still find some buildings, and the scenes from the center of Bergen are almost identical to day.

This film was based loosely on a bizarre murder investigation and subsequent trial in Pennsylvania. At the time, in the 1920s, backwoods Pennsylvania had folk-medicine healers called Pow-Wows, and the film involves one. These healers relied on a book, "Long Lost Friend," written by a George Hohmann, that was full of prayers and folk remedies based on a form of sympathetic magic, that were supposed to cure ailments and the like.The Sutherland character is a Pow-Wow, and a youngster, played by Lucas Haas, becomes his apprentice. A series of bad events takes place in the community, and the Pow-Wow suspects a neighboring farmer, culminating in the murder.Significant Spoiler: The film is ambivalent on the nature of the Pow-Wow's power, and leads the viewer in one direction, and then suddenly reverses itself. This weakness could have been sidestepped easily. It would have been a better film if it had.