"The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

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Doctor Scratch
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"The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Doctor Scratch »

Friends and colleagues:

I'd like to call your attention to a startling short film called The Angel, distributed via a YouTube channel called Alter, which bills itself as "what horror becomes next." The movie was made by a LDS husband and wife team named Barrett and Jessica Burgin, and it features a memorable and disturbing performance from the actor Doug Jones, who you may (vaguely) recognize from his many mainstream Hollywood roles (esp. Pan's Labyrinth and The Shape of Water).

Image

The filmmakers themselves, in the YouTube comments, describe their intentions this way: "Our film draws on the mystic folk doctrines of early Mormon settlers to evoke a cosmology that has rarely, if ever, been depicted on screen, brought to life by the incomparable Doug Jones. We approached the material with rigorous historical care, aiming to fill every frame with authentic detail while revealing the more obscure, unsettling spiritual traditions that exist on the margins of this religious history."

The Angel tells the story of a pair of polygamous wives and their encounter with... Well, I won't spoil it, other than to say that the title essentially gives it away. But I was struck by the way that the filmmakers included clear LDS iconography--the material with Jones, to me, was absolutely chilling, and I think it captures some of the same fear that Joseph Smith described upon seeing celestial beings. The Angel is compelling, well-acted, well-photographed, and I think it demonstrates that, yes, it is genuinely possible to make compelling narrative and cinematic art dealing with Mormon subject matter. I highly encourage you to check out the movie--it's only ~18 minutes long, and is worth it for the scene with Jones alone. He may be the single most unsettling Mormon character ever captured on film.

But The Angel also serves as a perfect contrast with Bowdlerizing Brigham and shows what is possible when someone is willing to actually engage with the more narratively interesting aspects of LDS belief and history. This movie, in other words, was made by people who actually care about telling a compelling story versus the kind of product that results when the Executive Producer is an unimaginative and propagandistic philistine.

It will be interesting to see if The Angel gets any kind of mention on "SeN." Again: it was made by a couple who, as far as I can tell, are loyal, TR-carrying Latter-day Saints. But their film is willing to go to "riskier" places that are usually only explored by "fringe" or "apostate" or non-LDS artists--I'm thinking of the Under the Banner of Heaven series, or Brian Evenson's The Open Curtain, or even the Gilgal Gardens in SLC--all of which I personally think are interesting examples of Mormon-related art, but which tend to get dismissed as "anti" or relegated to the margins because they aren't "faith-promoting" enough. The Angel is definitely loyal to LDS religious iconography and history. But is its narrative too far outside of the typical expectations for Mormon filmmaking?

In any case, I urge you to watch The Angel for yourself!
"If, while hoping that everybody else will be honest and so forth, I can personally prosper through unethical and immoral acts without being detected and without risk, why should I not?." --Daniel Peterson, 6/4/14
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Tom
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Tom »

Thank you, Doctor Scratch, for drawing attention to this short film. I’ve shared links to the film with a few people, and it’s been interesting to hear reactions. It’s a film that C.D. Cunningham and our old friend Brother Smoot have praised. (I note that Cunningham makes no mention of the Interpreter Foundation’s two motion pictures in his essay on the future of Latter-day Saint cinema.)

I thought about The Angel as I recently watched a scene from Six Days in August that is excerpted in the latest episode of Bowdlerizing Brigham. (The scene depicts Thomas Sharp and Joseph Smith having a conversation. I’m struck, in particular, by Smith’s comments responding to Sharp’s question, “Do you have more than one wife, Mr. Smith?” The historical record shows that Smith engaged in various forms of evasion, deception, and tortured technicalities when speaking about plural marriage. It’s difficult to imagine the historical Joseph saying anything akin to the words spoken by “Joseph” in the scene. It’s fictionalized pseudohistory.) As played by Paul Wuthrich, Smith is idealized, pedantic, condescending, and uninteresting.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Gadianton »

This was a great little film. I'm a little surprised at the low number of views so far, but noted that Alter has about as many subs as there are active members of the church. I definitely think it can be viewed from a faithful standpoint. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by I Have Questions »

They have an interesting and innovative approach, the Directors say...
This film is a Mormon pioneer folk horror story. It is the only one of its kind, exploring the obscure lore of a peculiar religious movement rooted in time and place.

Horror is a genre that is continually in need of fresh and frightening concepts. Our film mines the mystic folk doctrines of the Mormon settlers to portray a demonology never before depicted on screen, brought to life by the magnificent Doug Jones (SHAPE OF WATER, PAN'S LABYRINTH). We are uniquely qualified to tell this story, as both of us are direct descendants of that culture. We also worked with wonderful collaborators, such as our Sundance-decorated Director of Photography, Oscar Ignacio Jiménez (THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS, I HAVE NO TEARS AND I MUST CRY).

THE ANGEL serves as a proof-of-concept for an award winning feature screenplay, THE THIRD WIFE, demonstrating our craftsmanship and storytelling capabilities to investors and distributors. THE THIRD WIFE has received distribution interest from recognizable industry partners and was spotlighted by the Sundance Institute in 2024.

This story is deeply personal to us. It is a wrestle with certainty, spiritual deception, and the complex power dynamics fundamental to our heritage.
As I understand it, "The Angel" is a sample, put out there to draw funding for the main project - a full length feature film called "The Third Wife". Using a fictional tale to give thought provoking insights into Latter-day Saint polygamy, is a laudable undertaking. I hope it gets the attention needed to allow them to proceed with the feature film. They have certainly received a lot of industry attention, as can be seen here on their web page.
Premise 1. Eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable.
Premise 2. The best evidence for the Book of Mormon is eyewitness testimony.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Tom »

The Salt Lake Tribune published an article on the film: https://tinyurl.com/eyx7mwtx (spoiler alert)
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Gadianton »

Great article Tom. So, one of the co-creators has a relative from that period who recorded interactions with spirits in her journal. According to the article, this was very common for the time. That would make sense as if the Church is true, then there are spirits all over the place. This is not pure fiction, but based on a true story.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by yellowstone123 »

Dr. Scratch, thank you for the post.

This was interesting, kind of unsettling at times—I’m sure some people would agree. The scenes depicted, and the language used in the movie of righting a wrong through a magical thought processes and physical harm, accompanied by the eerie music seems right up religion’s alley, a point well made. And in a way, the two ladies created a unique and very personal Court of Love, just sayin’.

Then there was the Angel in the air appearing to the woman who the husband loved—that scene brings back old memories—the old 1970s first vision film with 14-year-old Joseph Smith Jr. seeing God the Father and Jesus Christ in the air accompanied by that eerie uplifting music.

Of course the only thing for me to do is go back, rewatch it and at the bed scene, turn off the volume of the movie and make sure the captions are on, then open a new tab and turn on the Mormon Tab singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic accompanied U.S. Military Academy Band which changes the spirit and makes that bedroom scene uplifting.

Lastly, I hope the creators’ next project is to remake Wings of Desire and change the city from Berlin to Salt Lake City.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Gabriel »

Tom wrote:
Thu May 07, 2026 10:36 pm
The Salt Lake Tribune published an article on the film: https://tinyurl.com/eyx7mwtx (spoiler alert)
Just a couple of (hopefully) spoiler-free observations:

The story takes place somewhere in the Utah Territories in 1881.

The rhythm of the sparse conversation between the husband and his wives is a little bit King Jamesy and Quaker-like – typical of that genre of stories in the 19th century.

Wife Number 1 appears to be the prettier of the two, with olive skin and dark eyes. Personality-wise, she seems to be stronger and more assured than her plainer, fair-skinned sister wife (who is also happens to be pregnant.)

The husband is of the rugged variety. Unfortunately, he has no issues with a public display of affection that clearly favors Wife Number 1. This is as obvious to the viewer as it would have been for the spirit who directs Human Resources from his preternatural jumbotron. The husband is not long for retribution.

Wife Number 1 laments to her sister wife that it might be better if they all move back East, where there “is more water and less barbarism.”

Of the books on the shelf of their tiny cottage, the one that can clearly be identified upon pausing is “The Stories of A. Conan Doyle.” Doyle was a Scotsman and a Catholic who eventually turned towards spiritualism in his declining years. His first book, “A Study in Scarlet,” which first introduced Sherlock Holmes to the world, dealt with the Mormons and polygamy and the Danites – 'The Avenging Angels.' However, it came out in 1887, six years after this story takes place. (Uncertain if Doyle had any published works before that.)

In their cottage is also a painting of Joseph Smith kneeling down before an angel.

The Angel in the story appears to be associated with water. He’s also wearing what looks like a gray apron. The outline of it is indistinct. My eyes are shot so I was unable to tell whether the gray is the natural color of the fabric or whether it might be a black apron overlaid with a thinner white outer garment.

Wife Number 2 is reading from The Book of Commandments, Chapter 129, “Three Grand Keys by which Good or Bad Angels or Spirits may be Known.”

At night, Wife Number 1, after glancing at an empty cradle prepared for the future child of Wife Number 2, opens a trunk. At first, one sees what appears to be a weathered, green grimoire with a gold leaf, 6-pointed star on the cover. From it, she takes out a newspaper, “The Anti-Polygamy Standard,” dated sometime in 1881.

Given the time limits, I thought that this was a charming little story with high production values. Being so heavily Mormon-coded may be a feature rather than a bug for a wider audience. It adds to the mystery.
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Philo Sofee »

It was quite a startling little film!
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Re: "The Angel" and the Future of LDS Cinema

Post by Gadianton »

Gabriel wrote:Wife Number 2 is reading from The Book of Commandments, Chapter 129, “Three Grand Keys by which Good or Bad Angels or Spirits may be Known.”
Were the grand keys implemented?
Lost Gospel of Thomas 1:8 - And Jesus said, "what about the Pharisees? They did it too! Wherefore, we shall do it even more!"
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