AllMovie

Image of the Beast is the third entry in the Mark IV Prophetic Films series, a quartet of low-budget speculative adventure films aimed at fundamentalist Christian audiences and produced by the similarly inclined, Iowa-based Mark IV Pictures Incorporated company. All four films are inspired by fundamentalist interpretations of the Book of Revelation, and center around the tremendous struggle between good and evil following the Rapture (in which Christians are carried into Heaven) and the Tribulation (during which the Antichrist assumes power on Earth). Image opens with the execution of Patty (Patty Dunning), whose transformation from nonbelieving housewife to a fugitive hunted by the forces of UNITE, the new one-world Satanic government, comprised the series' first two films, A Thief in the Night (1973) and A Distant Thunder (1978). The cause of righteousness is taken up by David (William Wellman Jr.), a Christian counter-operative posing as a UNITE soldier. Joining with other Christians in hiding, David races to break the code behind the Mark of the Beast, a UPC-like imprint forcibly given to all citizens as the Antichrist begins his rise to power. Like its companion titles (which include the fourth and final series entry, 1983's The Prodigal Planet) Image of the Beast is, from a technical standpoint, leagues above previous fundamentalist Christian films, such as those produced by Ron Ormond (If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?). The direction and writing, while uninspired from a mainstream standpoint, at least dampen the hysterical tone and crude gore effects that made those early pictures so easy to dismiss. At times, series director Donald W. Thompson's work approaches the level of a period TV movie, especially during an impressive car chase sequence. Having said that, curious secular audiences should be advised that Image is also very paranoid propaganda designed specifically to frighten fence-sitting viewers into giving themselves to a fundamentalist interpretation of interpretation. As such, potential viewers should be prepared to wade through a lot of hard-line theological discussion, which may or may not clash with their own beliefs, to glean a few nuggets of entertainment.