The Night God Screamed

The Night God Screamed is a 1971 American psychological suspense film, also classified as a horror film, independently made on a low budget by LaskyCarlin Productions producers Ed Carlin and Gil Lasky, with Lasky writing the screenplay. Due to the sensitivities connected with displaying such a provocative title, theater owners in small town and rural communities were offered the option of using the short alternative appellation, Scream.

In the sevenandahalfminute precredits sequence, a faceless hooded figure, dressed like a monk and carrying a sixfoot cruciform staff, walks through a forest, stopping on a hill overlooking a lakeside baptismal ceremony conducted by a Christlike figure Michael Sugich who starts making a speechplea to God, expressing gratitude for being shown the light and receiving a chance to be saved. He then thanks God for giving him the power and for making him Your son. He tells God that all those present were just a bunch of sinners, but I saved them, because I made them see that using dope was the way to turn on to you. Continuing, we got trouble, Lord the heat wont leave us alone they want to bust us for being hooked on you, he then declaims that they dont dig our kind of faith they put us down cause we aint one of them uptight establishment churches with one of them phony moneymaking ministers, lying and stealing He tells God and the assembled young followers that one among them was sent to spy on us and try to bust us. He focuses on one of the girls and announces, theres a chick that dont want to be baptized she dont want to follow me and finishes by pronouncing, Oh, yes, Lord, in our happy flock, maybe we got us a Judas. When the girl Andrea Darvi gets up and tries to run, she is quickly caught and held, as the Christlike figure, now revealed to be the leader of a Charles Mansonstyled cult, calls for The Atoner who, appearing from the bushes, is the initiallyseen silent hooded figure with the tall crossstaff. The cult leader, whom the girl addresses as Billy Joe, forcibly baptizes her, with The Atoner holding her underwater, in front of all assembled, until she drowns.As credits start appearing, a woman Jeanne Crain carrying a large shopping bag, and a smaller one in her arm, is walking through a busy shopping street of a rundown neighborhood, ignoring the stares and glances of various slum dwellers. As she stops alongside an aging, toothless denizen of skid row

Source: Wikipedia