The ancient forces of good, Yahweh, and evil, Sateen, have been waging war since the beginning of time. Yahweh hunted the evil Sateen across the universe. Sateen escaped to Earth but was eventually tracked and killed by Yahweh. Although the evil one had been vanquished, his spirit lives on in the souls of mankind, waiting until he can once again become powerful enough to bring devastation upon the cosmos. Before he was destroyed, Sateen impregnated many Earth women. His progeny were endowed with psychic abilities. His descendents are scattered throughout Earth. Jesus Christ (Franco Nero) and Jerzy Colsowicz (John Huston) are aliens that search for the descendants of Sateen in the hopes of channeling their powers for good instead of for evil.
Barbara Collins (Joanne Nail) is a divorced mother who is involved with Raymond Armstead (Lance Henriksen), the owner of a basketball team. Barbara’s young daughter, Katy (Paige Conner) is one of the children who are a descendant of the evil Sateen. Raymond is in league with a cult of Satanists who are aware of Barbara and her ability to have children with special powers. They want her to have another child who they want to then mate with Katy. This, they feel, with bring about the resurrection of Sateen.
Raymond wants to marry Barbara and impregnate her. In return he is promised his heart’s desires from the Satanists. Barbara balks at getting married again and in having another child. When he fails at his task, the Satanists resort to drastic measures. They kidnap Barbara and impregnate her. Realizing she is pregnant, Barbara goes to her ex-husband, Dr. Sam Collins (Sam Peckinpah) for an abortion.
When Katy begins to use her powers against her mother, Jerzy is sent to rein her in.
“The Visitor” AKA “Stridulum” was released in 1979 and was directed by Giulio Paradisi as Michael J. Paradise. It is a lower budget Italian science fiction horror film.
This is one of many strange movies I’ve seen. The plot is rather confusing at times. The filmmakers insert symbolism here and there as well as some tropes and images from other science fiction films and some pseudo-religious elements. The effect is a mash-up of puzzling scenes that leave the viewer feeling like they missed something along the way.
Elements of the film are reminiscent of “The Bad Seed” 1956, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” 1977, “The Omen” 1976 and “The Exorcist” 1973. With all those plot element threads woven in, it’s not surprising that the movie is a little confusing.
For a movie that doesn’t make a lot of sense, there are a lot of well-known actors that signed on. In addition to John Huston, Lance Henriksen and Franco Nero are Mel Ferrer, Glen Ford, Shelley Winters and Sam Peckinpah. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has a cameo.