God Told Me To (1976)

God Told Me To is the kind of fearless 1970s New York thriller that starts like a hard-boiled police procedural and then keeps slipping the floor out from under you, pivoting into something stranger, darker, and weirdly exhilarating. Larry Cohen turns a simple, terrifying hook—ordinary citizens committing sudden murders “because God told them to”—into a provocative fever dream about faith, authority, and the stories we tell ourselves to make horror feel orderly. The city feels lived-in and raw, Tony Lo Bianco plays the detective with bruised conviction, and the movie’s restless imagination makes every new lead feel like it could open a trapdoor into another genre entirely. It won’t be for viewers who want tidy explanations or subtle shocks, but if you’re open to an entertaining, unsettling ride that’s as clever as it is audacious, this one sticks to your ribs.

God Told Me To is clearly aiming for a grimy, street-level police thriller that swerves into big, provocative questions about faith, mass violence, and something far stranger lurking behind it all. Larry Cohen’s ambition is the selling point, but the execution is messy: the pacing lurches, the editing can feel rough, and the story’s logic doesn’t always connect cleanly from one shocking incident to the next. If you need tight coherence, polished camerawork, and a payoff that feels elegantly earned, this will likely test your patience. But if you can enjoy a scrappy 70s NYC mood piece with bold ideas, unsettling set pieces, and a “what on earth am I watching?” energy, it has a cult-film sting that still lands.