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Stigmata | 1999 | R | - 5.9.5

Patricia Arquette plays an atheist who becomes possessed by stigmata after receiving a rosary from her mother. With Mark Adair-Rios, Gabriel Byrne, Tom Hodges, Patrick Muldoon, Nia Long and Steven Jonathan Pryce. [1:42]

SEX/NUDITY 5 - A man and a woman begin to undress each other and then have sex (both are naked but covered by a sheet; we never see any nudity). We see a man and a woman (both clothed) holding each other in bed; we also see them kiss a couple of times. Prostitutes grab their clothed breasts and one shows her backside (she's wearing thong underwear). The camera scans a naked woman's body while she's in the tub (her knees and arms shield her genitalia and breasts); we also see a woman in her bra looking in the mirror and a woman lying in bed with a sheet over her.

VIOLENCE/GORE 9 - There are numerous flashbacks scenes of the following: spikes being hammered into a woman's wrists and feet with blood squirting out; blood dripping down a woman's face (from a crown of thorns piercing her forehead); slashes on a woman's back covered with blood (from being whipped). A woman drops a tiny baby on the street and it is implied that it is run over by a car. A subway train goes out of control, during which a woman is whipped, cut and slashed by an invisible force (lots of blood is seen). A woman cuts her arms and stabs her wrists with a knife. We see a needle injected into a woman and the blood flows through some clear tubes. A woman levitates and hangs in the air as if hanging on a cross. We see a dead body in a coffin, and blood runs over this image on the screen. A man tries to choke a woman to death and a woman slams a man into a wall, a mirror and through a glass door. Flames engulf a room in a convent; statues of Mary begin to burn and people nearly get burned. We see a close-up of cuts being stitched together and numerous close-ups of a possessed woman's face, which is scarred with cuts and bruises. We see many shots of a woman's bloodstained bandaged wrists. A woman finds blood on her hands and wrists, and sees blood in water. A statue of the Virgin Mary cries tears of blood and a woman cries tears of blood. Many pictures and images of the crucifixion.

LANGUAGE 5 - About 5 F-words, a couple of anatomical references and mild obscenities.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Religion, science, faith, Roman Catholicism, possession, exorcism, pregnancy, sex, death, deception.

MESSAGE - Institutionalized religion cannot be trusted, for "the kingdom of God is inside you, not inside buildings made of wood and stone."

(Note: Christians, Roman Catholics in particular, may find that this movie disparages Catholicism and organized religion: Priests kiss, lie, deceive and almost kill. Also the movie states there are 35 gospels, not four, all are "memories, dreams, reflections" of Jesus and there is no true gospel.)

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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