‘The Shift’ Review: Religious Propaganda Masquerading as Entertainment
I was taken by the logline that The Shift is The Matrix meets It’s a Wonderful Life. That kind of juxtaposition is very much my cup of tea. But then I caught wind that the film is supposed to function as an allegory for the book of Job, which gave me serious pause. However, when I scoped the trailer, I was positive that any religious themes would likely be relegated to a secondary or tertiary focus with little to no bearing on the narrative at large. After all, there is no mention of religion in the trailer I watched and no reference to spirituality in the IMDb plot crunch. Sadly, that simply isn’t the case. In fact, the multiverse narrative I was promised is essentially an afterthought to the film’s preachy message about religious persecution.
The setup goes like this: Kevin (Kristoffer Polaha) loves his wife, Molly (Elizabeth Tabish), but their union has become strained since the pair lost their beloved son. The two begin to take each other for granted and let their pain (and alcohol abuse) drive a wedge between them. Then, a man known only as The Benefactor (read: Satan) shows up and sends Kevin into a dystopian reality from which there is seemingly no escape.
I tried to keep an open mind regarding The Shift. I legitimately hoped writer/director Brock Heasley would take the approach of celebrated works like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which contains a religious allegory but tells a story that can easily be appreciated independent of said allegory. Instead, The Shift functions like religious propaganda, warning viewers that the secular world is out to get Christians and that the Rapture is right around the corner.
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To watch The Shift, one would think Christians are under attack. But are they really? U.S. currency is stamped with the phrase ‘In God We Trust’. Moreover, there is at least one state-funded capitol building in the U.S. that currently features a monument to the Ten Commandments. Yet, many Christians seem eager to make a case for how their rights are being stripped away by the liberal agenda. With the way The Shift imagines a reality where scripture is outlawed and Bible verses are passed around like contraband, that only serves to fuel that type of persecution complex.
The narrative’s persistent focus on allegory and onscreen depiction of religious persecution results in some substantial pacing issues that make the film a challenge to endure. The proceedings start with a level of promise. Watching Molly and Kevin meet for the first time is even endearing. But matters quickly fall apart from there. After the core characters are introduced, the focus shamelessly shifts to religious overtones. That proves to be a fatal error. A film’s message should never outshine the narrative. But that is precisely what transpires less than 15 minutes into The Shift.
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Speaking of the narrative, The Shift spends precious little time establishing or explaining the presence of the multiverse angle. I can get behind the idea of less is more. But the viewer is owed a certain amount of justification or explanation. And there is very little of either offered up here. At times, The Shift almost seems to function like a sequel where the filmmakers don’t bother to explain themselves because they know you’ve seen the previous film and already know the drill. The problem is that we don’t know the drill. Even after sitting through The Shift, I would be hard-pressed to make sense of the finer points of the narrative.
There is definitely an audience for this type of film. But movies like this should be presented as exactly what they are. The idea that the trailer and IMDb page for The Shift actively downplay the religious overtones seems to suggest that investors thought this was going to be a tough sell for anyone outside the religious right. And that’s absolutely true. Unless you value morality, positive messaging, and purity above all else, there is very little to recommend about The Shift.
The Shift is currently available on demand and via physical media in the U.S. and the U.K.
Summary
‘The Shift’ misrepresents itself as an action-packed sci-fi thriller when it is anything but.
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