Holocaust 2000 aka The Chosen aka Rain of Fire (1977)

(In French, On Cable TV, October 2022) Being pleasantly surprised by a film is not necessarily an endorsement of its quality, especially if the film happens to be far more enjoyable as a trashy exploitation film. Holocaust 2000 was widely derided upon release as a regurgitated blend of apocalyptically-minded thrillers such as The Omen: a strange brew of politically-influential protagonists, religious doomsday prophecy and outright horror tropes. In this case, we have none other than Kirk Douglas as a rich businessman building a nuclear energy plant in the Middle East, and discovering not only that his son is the Antichrist (don’t you hate it when that happens?) but that his new power plant will also hasten the end of the world. A mysterious priest hangs around the edges of the plot long enough to expose a prophecy before being killed, while the film’s crop of death sequences target people who dare criticize the building of the plant. This is rather wild stuff, and the way the film has become a mid-1970s period piece adds quite a bit of interest that may not have been there in the first place. Douglas is as interesting as he was around that time, while the film doesn’t even try to hide that it’s a genre piece—the horror tropes are deployed uncritically, and while much of this is intensely familiar, there is a sure-footedness in its execution that becomes comfortable. No, Holocaust 2000 is not a good film. But it can be a lot of fun when seen in the right frame of mind.