User Reviews

I discovered this "End Times" movie on Google Video when I typed in "1972". It's basically the story of Patty and how she gets left behind with other non-believers after the believers (which included her snake-bitten husband) were perished. I liked the opening song in the beginning credits and some of the chase scenes. I'm just not sure the movie was a good lesson on the benefits of devotion to the teachings of the Bible since it gives us the fear but not the joy of the exercise. And then there's that cheesy montage of domestic life of Patty and her husband that screams '70s. This film is very much of its time. However, it is pretty effective as a story and it does make you think about the filmmaker's intentions. So see A Thief in the Night with an open mind and don't think too much about the uneven acting or writing but about how effective the movie's message is.

As some other comments show, this movie might scare you, when you're a little child. (And that is probably all that it is good for.)

However, if you're older, this movie only does one thing: suck majorly -and thereby I don't mean the acting, its soundtrack, cutting or s.th. like that. I'm simply talking about the "plot" (if you can call it that).

SPOILERS ahead ------------------------

I don't want to give any more spoilers than necessary (if after reading this, you really still want to watch this movie) but if you graduated from any school, this is just a big insult of your intelligence. When watching this, I was stunned most of the time, because what was happening was just THAT stupid.

This includes:

-the forming of UNITE (an evil UN-association)

--> we are just supposed to believe it's evil. is it even evil at all? if so: why is it evil?

-the mark of evil in the form of a tattoo

--> there is no necessity to impose this on the people, so why the hell (no pun intended) are they doing it?

-inviting Christ to your heart merely as lip service

-->because there's nothing anybody, who in this movie is considered "a real Christian", ever does, besides saying that stupid prayer. so...just say that prayer before the rapture and you're saved - no matter what?!

Thus, rating 1/10

This movie was used in the 70s to scare young kids into 'accepting Jesus' by traumatising them to be terrified they'd be left behind to suffer when the rapture happened. True spoiler: the film is not the only fiction here.

When I was a kid, my parents went to a lot of religious bookstores for some reason. I was always left to my own devices and would always find my way to the Jack Chick comics and posters on the wall. In the pre-millennium tension world that was the late 1970's, one movie was always getting shown and that was A Thief In the Night.

This movie is thought to have been seen by an estimated 300 million people and was the pioneer of a whole new genre of Christian film, one that would marry rock music and horror movies to create a film that would, quite frankly, scare you into believing. This isn't family-friendly evangelic filmmaking. This is punch you in the face and demand you get saved now mania.

Patty Myer wakes up to learn that millions of people have disappeared in the Rapture. Even her family is gone and she's been left behind. She's trapped in a world where the United Nations has set up an emergency government system called the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) and declare that those who do not receive a symbol of identification - yes, the Mark of the Beast - will be arrested.

It didn't have to be this way for Patty. One of her friends loved Jesus and followed Him. Another friend was bitten by a snake before finding his way. And now, she doesn't believe in Jesus or the UNITE preachings, so she's on the run.

Patty is chased by UNITE to a bridge where she falls to her death, but then she awakens only for it to all be a dream. But guess what? The Rapture happens again and her family is all gone again. What happens next? Will she accept the Mark? Will she try to find her way to Heaven? If even a priest will take the Mark, how can a normal person avoid Satan?

There were three other movies in this series - of course we'll be covering all of them - and they all build on the tension of the end of all things. These things played in libraries and churches and used fear to lead the conversion call at the end. I've never understood that, but the majority of humanity leaves me questioning a lot of things.

All I know is that I spent most of my childhood nights awake in bed worrying about the end of the world. Would I be ready? Would I make it to the Rapture? How would I survive when the rest of my family went to Heaven and I was left alone to battle the forces of the evil ones? I would get the shakes, waking my whole family up screaming in terror.

Did the movie work? According to an interview on a Baptist church website, Heather Hendershoot, associate professor in the media studies department at Queens College, City University of New York said, "I have found that A Thief in the Night is the only evangelical film that viewers cite directly and repeatedly as provoking a conversion experience."

25 years later, the authors of the Left Behind series of books and films had the same success but on a much more secular level. We'll never lose our fear of the end times until after they come...and according to scripture, we'll never know exactly when we'll all be taken or left behind.

Thumbs down fart noise. This makes me type a minimum amount of characters so I am going to keep talking.

This movie was commonly shown in churches in the 1970's, and frightened many non-believers so badly that some of them did begin to consider their own spiritual condition and come to salvation. I was one of those people, having seen the film in a Pentecostal church with my then best friend back in high school in 1974. I was raised in a Methodist church that seldom spoke of salvation and never spoke of the rapture, so the entire concept presented in the film was new to me at the time.

Thus, I guess you could say this film did some good in the fact that some were brought to Christ either as a direct or indirect result of watching it. However, it does tend to rock already saved ones into a sense of complacency in relation to the doctrine of the rapture of all Christians prior to the great tribulation, when a careful study of the Bible shows that this is not the case. In that sense, the film does a disservice.

As other reviewers have mentioned, the acting is B-rated, but that is not really the point of the movie. It was not trying to break box office records or win awards. I haven't seen this film in 41 years, but the memory that still stands out the most to me is that of the heroine of the film going to church on Sunday, trying to find something of the spiritual experience her new husband has found, and being treated instead to a very dead dull sermon. After the rapture, she goes to the church and finds the tormented preacher who has also been left behind lamenting - "Another one!". In other words, apparently large numbers of his parishioners as well as himself have never known Christ's salvation.

From a psychological standpoint you have to ask yourself why this film is so frightening. Most people, especially Americans, have been taught their whole lives about the torments of hell that await those who die unredeemed, yet nothing seems to frighten people more than the idea of being left on earth by God to be hunted and persecuted by their fellow man. This is probably because most people have never seen an actual demon, but they have seen plenty of the evil man is capable of, and it is therefore more real to them.

A THIEF IN THE NIGHT is an excellent fictional account of the weeks leading up to the RAPTURE and the weeks following that pivotal event.

I thoroughly enjoyed both the production values and the content values of this independent Christian movie.

THE PRODUCTION VALUES. Hey, it's an independent movie, with a shoe-string budget, so, ya, it's going to look a bit cheesy (if your standard is A-list Hollywood fare). But, properly compared with other independent movies, this film is perfectly acceptable. More important than acting style, costumes, and music is the narrative itself. Is the story compelling? Do the dramatic moments work? Does the story trajectory build to a satisfying climax? The answer to all these questions is an unqualified "yes." As a side-note, the truly important technical stuff--continuity, sound, lighting--are fine. The viewer is able to watch the show without being distracted by sloppy craftsmanship.

CONTENT VALUE. The message of the movie is superb. When you consider how many ideas the movie-maker developed within the brief span of 69 minutes, you begin to appreciate his artistry. He presents the message of salvation, the consequence of unbelief, the danger of backsliding, the truth of the rapture, and the threat of a world-dominating satanic government with flare, imagination, and--most importantly for an evangelical movie--with biblical accuracy.

The movie-maker is a good storyteller. For example, he develops the message of salvation in two important ways: (1) he shows us through action the reality of Jesus Christ's sacrifice for our sake. This is achieved in a subplot where the zoo-keeper is bit by a poisonous snake and nearly dies. The only cure is blood from someone who is immune to the snake-poison. The poison is like sin; the cure is like Christ's blood, shed on the cross. (2) The filmmaker also develops the message of salvation through dialog. He has various characters explain the truth about human sin and the need for salvation through faith in Christ. So, the movie-maker uses both action and dialog to tell his story.

As a side-note, the fact that a movie produced by evangelical Christians actually contains dialog and scenes that convey a clearly delineated message of salvation, couched in explicitly evangelical Christian language, imagery, and theology is also perfectly acceptable. To criticize this film for being explicitly Christian is absurd; it's akin to criticizing a Nike commercial for promoting sport-wear. What else would evangelical Christian movie makers make, if not a film that states their case? Also, the fact that the movie-maker employs the idea that the unbelieving will be left behind in a godless world is, again, perfectly acceptable. The movie-maker uses the dramatic potential of that idea admirably. How do I know? I heard about A THIEF IN THE NIGHT from a woman who saw the show way back in 1974; it still lived in her memory thirty years later. How many movies can you say that about? All around, a very enjoyable, thought-provoking show. I plan on showing it to my teen group at church.