A Thief in the Night (1972)

April 19, 2024 2:47 PM

[TRAILER] Carefree young Patty finds that the Rapture spoken of in the Bible has come... and left her behind. This 1972 Evangelical Christian horror film was the first in a four film series.

Starring Patty Dunning, Mike Niday, Colleen Niday, Maryann Rachford, Thom Rachford, Duane Coller, Russell S. Doughten Jr., Clarence Balmer.

Directed and produced by Donald W. Thompson. Written by Jim Grant.

Cinematography by John P. Leiendecker Jr. Edited by Wes Phillippi.

Currently streaming in the US on FreeVee, Tubi, and The Roku Channel. JustWatch.

posted by DirtyOldTown (7 comments total)

And yes, I know exactly the kind of memories I just unleashed on people who grew up in an Evangelical Christian home in the late 20th Century. I was one of you, too.

So uh, you're welcome and I'm sorry.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:48 PM on April 19 [4 favorites]

Here's what I had remembered from this film series:
- The ending to this movie
- The gold 0110 0110 0110 medallions
- The wall sized Revelations chart
- Guillotines

I'm scrubbing around the movies in Tubi and I don't think I can bring myself to watch them again. I had forgotten that essentially the entire plot is the United Nations hunting down one woman.
posted by Gary at 10:52 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

"Please do not reveal the ending!"

Shouldn't the ending kind of already be... revealed, so to speak? In a book somewhere maybe?
posted by Naberius at 7:06 AM on April 20 [2 favorites]

We didn’t have a vhs player in the house till Christmas 1990. But at some point prior to that the church youth group was held in our living room and this was shown on a borrowed player.

I’d have been 11 or 12 years old and I was repulsed by everything about it.
posted by gnuhavenpier at 12:48 PM on April 20

Shouldn't the ending kind of already be... revealed, so to speak? In a book somewhere maybe?

Spoilers for a 52 year old movie, but let's get into it. As she plummets to her death, Patty wakes up in bed because it turns out it was all a dream. Except her husband is gone and the voice on the radio is talking about the disappearance of people. So it was all a dream except then it actually happens.

It's a twist ending for the sake of a twist ending. It's best not to think about why Patty is given a very accurate vision of the end times and wakes up moments too late to do anything about it.
posted by Gary at 6:39 PM on April 20 [2 favorites]

I assume that's in keeping with the horror movie tropes this thing seems to be built on. You have to have that, "whew, thank goodness it's all over now" moment, then a loud music sting and, "OH NO IT ISN'T!" that slams into the credits.
posted by Naberius at 6:21 AM on April 22

They showed this series during a church lock-in when I was 13. My best friend came along with me and kept reading the "UNITE" logo as "UNTIE" and every time that came on screen we'd giggle. It really ruined the entire experience the Sunday School teacher had planned. So... the next time there was a lock-in, she decided to show she was cool and let us pick the movie. So this happened.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:28 AM on April 22 [1 favorite]