God Is a Bullet (2023)

God Is a Bullet is the kind of scorched-earth revenge thriller that doesn’t flirt with darkness so much as move in and lock the door—an intense, gritty descent into a cult underworld that feels sweaty, dangerous, and weirdly hypnotic. Nick Cassavetes stages the mayhem with a hard, forward momentum, but what really sells it is the committed pairing of Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s desperate, unraveling determination and Maika Monroe’s steel-trap resilience, giving the violence a raw, human pulse instead of empty spectacle. The vibe is nihilistic and punishing, yet there’s a catharsis in watching two broken people claw back agency inch by inch. It’s absolutely not for the squeamish or anyone allergic to bleakness, but if you want an uncompromising, full-throttle thriller that goes all in on its fury, this one hits like a fist.

God Is a Bullet is clearly aiming for a grimy, vengeance-fueled cult thriller with a hard-edged noir vibe, and it commits to that darkness without blinking. The problem is it’s punishingly long and oddly inert for something sold as action: the story meanders, the characters stay thin, and the momentum keeps stalling just when it should be tightening the screws. The violence is frequent, ugly, and often feels more like endurance-test exploitation than meaningful escalation, so if you’re sensitive to brutality—especially against women—this is an easy skip. There are flashes of atmosphere and Maika Monroe brings grit and presence, but unless you specifically want a bleak, nihilistic slog and don’t mind wading through bloat to get to the payoff, this will likely feel like wasted time.