In Development | Who are we? | Film Reviews | Filmmaking Articles


The Widows Might, a family film with tremendous heart.

When the lights went down at The San Antonio Independent Christian Film Festival, it was a packed house. It was the last major showing of the festival, and The Widows Might was due to play in the big theater projected in HD. Tech geeks (like myself) were very excited to see a feature shot on the RED camera projected in all its glory with a 1080HD signal pumping through, and man did it deliver. The film looked fantastic on the screen. That isn't the only place the film delivered, it knocked the audience out of their chair and got them to stand up more than 3 times after the film was over. I have NEVER seen such a response from an audience, the noise was ear busting. The film fit like a glove to the intended audience, it was perfect.

Now lets move on to the film itself. The film is at heart a family film, made for people of any age. Kids will no doubt eat up the film, all the elements in it are tailor made to appeal to children, especially the western sequences. The music in the film is excellent, probably one of my favorite parts of the film. I'm not sure anything of this sort has been done in a "Christian" film before, and if it has, I doubt it has been done to this quality level. The acting is decent and sometimes very good, but the quirkiness of the entire project itself makes a lot of the acting in my opinion fit just right, regardless of whatever mistakes might be there. The story itself is crafted very well and has enough going on to keep you interested, you care about what is going on, and cheer when the good guys win and when the bad guys lose. The comedic moments are definitely the most well crafted parts of the story. Everything worked perfect with the audience, including the homeschool jokes which caused clapping throughout the viewers. Timing is everything in comedy, as are the cuts in the edit to create the beats, all of which was done very well. The look of the film is excellent, although not my cup of tea. None the less the film looks great, not even like 35mm but like something else entirely. It's its own look, and has a very Disney like quality to it. The colors are saturated and pop very easily, and the camera work during the musical sequences is especially well done. James Burgess has done a fine job throughout, I look forward to what he does in the future.

Overall this film was wonderful, and the audience it played to and will be sold to absolutely loved it. John Moore has done something really special here, let this be a lesson to all of you. If you create a good story idea, make sure you can sell it, and make sure you know WHO you are selling it to. All your decisions should revolve around that, this film is only one of many that prove that point. Know your audience, and know them well. This film doesn't include the gospel, but it wasn't made for the non-Christian. This film was made to be clean, family viewable entertainment for the Christian household. It fits the bill, and fits it well.

Kyle Prohaska
CEO, Praise Pictures
http://www.praisepictures.com