Strong and Moving!

Best movie of this year hands down!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I came across this film by accident whist watching another series The Leftovers which had a song in it that is also in this film. Many have said they saw this film in Church and such, but I did not (maybe it was because I grew up in Brooklyn). As a Protestant, I was never taught about the rapture nor was it ever mentioned at my Church (in fact, I had never heard of the rapture until I was an older adult; guess it wasn't a thing for my branch of Lutheranism and it still isn't). Acting is blah, but it is a good period piece and bought back to mind the clothes, the way I used to talk, the way things were so much simpler back then. It definitely made me think of my long-lost friends and I found myself wishing to go back to those times. Give it shot - especially if you lived during the early '70s; and if you didn't, well - it's not a bad representation of many of us lived.

This film follows the belief of certain fundamentalist Christians that an event known as the "rapture" will take place soon which will cause all true believers to disappear from the earth all at once. In that regard, "Patty Myers" (Patty Dunning) is one of the many who is not taken up into heaven because she is not a Christian. However, her husband, "Jim Wright" (Mike Niday) was recently converted and he has disappeared. So has her friend, "Jenny" (Colleen Niday). On the other hand, her other two friends, "Diane Bradford" (Maryann Rachford) and her new husband "Jerry Bradford" (Thom Rachford) were also left behind and like Patty, they are now forced to deal with another fundamentalist event known as the "tribulation" which is essentially a hell on earth. Now, as I stated earlier, this film follows a controversial belief of a certain segment of the Christian faith. As such, there may be many people who may not understand or appreciate this type of film. Likewise, it is a low-budget production geared more for an evangelical outreach than for general entertainment purposes. Because of that, the acting is very basic and the dialogue will probably strike many as being a bit corny. Additionally, as the hairstyles and clothes clearly indicate, it is definitely dated to a time-period (late 60's & early 70's) which may not appeal to a more modern audience. Even so, this film created a stir within its targeted audience and resulted in 3 sequels: "A Distant Thunder", "Image of the Beast" and "The Prodigal Planet". In short, if a person can get beyond some of the peculiarities I mentioned earlier, they might find this film interesting in its own way. And while I am able to keep an open mind about the overall subject of the film, from a critical and objective perspective I have to rate it as slightly below average.

Written and acted by sincere amateurs, produced by some exploitation monger, this is dull and hard to watch.Not the worst movie ever, but at least schlock like _Plan 9 From Outer Space_ usually had a real actor or two. I'd recommend _A Thief In The Night_ only to hardcore ironists and hardcore Dispensationalists. I'm neither.Don't believe me? Watch it for free (albeit sourced from poor VHS) here: http://www.archive.org/details/Thief-In-The-NightRelevant links added mostly to reach IMDb's 10-line minimum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dispensationalism http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/3199/thief-in-the-night-se-a/

Funny - how we *embrace* the very network of computers (the Internet) they are calling "Satanic" in the film. Amazing how something is always alright when *we* do it.Well, they say this needs 10 lines of text, so here goes...I'm quite sure that, in the future, the "666" branding will be as indiscreet as the Internet - we all (including all Christians) will just *embrace* the way it is - not even knowing that we are accepting "the mark of the beast" - just as we have accepted that "evil" network of computers (the Internet).Funny - ALL churches and congregation have Internet access - even those who have seen this film. Now if THAT ain't "irony"...