Saw a Christian film 20 years ago, but I don't remember the title

August 16, 2016 5:33 PM

My grandparents used to rent movies from an independent video store, that mostly carried Christian stuff. I've got a bee in my bonnet about one of these movies, because I can't remember what it was called.

I saw movie around 1996, but I remember thinking the movie had a late 1970s, early 1980s feel to it. I was only 14, though. I might have misread the era. I'm also sure that my memory of this movie is very influenced by the discussion my family had while watching it.

The movie started off with a family of four driving down a road, with the father at the wheel. The mother expresses concern that her husband hadn't accepted Jesus. The teenage daughter scoffs at her mother. No memories of what the younger son may have said. The father said something like, "I'll do it when I'm ready. A man has to be ready to accept Jesus."

Then, BOOM, they get into a car accident. I think they drove off a bridge or cliff. The parents are killed, and the kids go to live with their grandmother. The implication is that their mother went to heaven, and their father went to hell because he dilly-dallied about Jesus.

The daughter has a lot of anger issues related to her parents dying, and she doesn't want to hear her grandmother's Jesus talk. The younger son is devout, though. He likes to go fishing and talk about Jesus, and that's about it.

The boy meets a grown man while fishing, who isn't a believer. The boy gradually coverts the man, all while hanging out and fishing together. Meanwhile, his sister is being rebellious, and his grandmother is sitting in a rocking chair intoning Biblically. That's the sum of Grandma's character. Sitting in her chair, saying ominous stuff inspired by the Bible.

But wait. The newly-converted man is going to die any day now, because (and this is crazy enough that I may be misremembering) he took out a contract on his own life at some point? Maybe he just has a regular hit on his life doled out by someone else. But for some reason, I feel like it was a plot point that he took out this hit on himself. Like he was living badly and didn't value life before, but things have changed since he met the boy.

The family might have tried to save him, but I'm pretty sure he ends up dead. I think a car comes out of nowhere, and someone shoots him. But it's okay, because unlike their dad, he'll go to heaven.

After the movie, there were several ads for other movies in this genre. Presumably by the same film company? I remember an ad for a Revelations movie, with a blonde young woman sitting in church pews alone, wailing something like "What's happening?!?!"

I've googled about this movie many times over the years, but I've never come close to figuring out what it was. I even went through a gigantic website of obscure Christian movies, and never found anything that seemed close.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has any idea what I'm talking about.

posted by Coatlicue to Media & Arts (6 answers total)

Best answer: Oh, man, I'm like 90% sure that I saw this movie back in the 80s-90s at a youth group movie night. I also can't for the life of me think of what it may have been called. In my very limited memory, it's reminiscent of probably the most famous kind of that movie of the era, A Distant Thunder (we watched that move a lot, so I remember that at least), so perhaps that was one of the movies in the ads at the end (or one of the series?). The director was Donald W. Thompson, so maybe his filmography gives some clues?

If I think of anything else, I'll add, although I really can't imagine I can. But I'm definitely curious.
posted by General Malaise at 6:05 PM on August 16, 2016

Best answer: Is it A Stranger in My Forest? This old ad from 1976 describes the part about the father dying before he "had received Christ".
posted by the webmistress at 6:53 PM on August 16, 2016

Best answer: A Stranger in My Forest (1976) has a boy and his sister's parents die in a car crash. But he makes friends with a bear not a man- maybe you mixed up two different movies?
posted by dilaudid at 6:56 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

I totally remember this movie too! I also would have seen it at a church movie night around 1992.

But I don't have any other information. Just wanted you to know you're not alone, and now I want to know too!

I don't remember a bear in the movie I saw...
posted by guster4lovers at 9:07 PM on August 16, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: It is exactly A Stranger in My Forest!

I don't remember the bear, either. That's crazy. It's totally possible my grandparents watched enough of these movies that they bled together, and the memory of the bear was overridden in my mind. But look at this (very cranky) description! That hit man crap really happened. Amazing!

Thanks so much, everybody!
posted by Coatlicue at 6:21 AM on August 17, 2016 [4 favorites]

Best answer: The trailer, with bear.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:55 PM on August 17, 2016