A Thief in the Night (film)

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A Thief in the Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDonald W. Thompson
Written byJim Grant
Produced byDonald W. Thompson
Starring
  • Patty Dunning
  • Mike Niday
  • Colleen Niday
  • Maryann Rachford
  • Thom Rachford
  • Duane Coller
  • Russell S. Doughten Jr.
  • Clarence Balmer
CinematographyJohn P. Leiendecker Jr.
Edited byWes Phillippi
Distributed byMark IV Pictures
Release date
  • March 22, 1973 (1973-03-22)
Running time
69 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$60,000

A Thief in the Night is a 1973 evangelical Christian horror film written by Jim Grant, and directed and produced by Donald W. Thompson. The film stars Patty Dunning, with Thom Rachford, Colleen Niday and Mike Niday in supporting roles. The first installment in the Thief in the Night series about the Rapture and the Tribulation, the plot is set during the near future, focusing on a young woman who, after being left behind, struggles to decide what to do in the face of the Tribulation.

Sequels to the film include A Distant Thunder (1978), Image of the Beast (1981), and The Prodigal Planet (1983).

Background[edit]

Russell Doughten and Donald W. Thompson, two Iowa-based filmmakers, formed Mark IV Pictures in 1972 to produce A Thief in the Night.[1]: 577-578  Thompson had been working in radio.[2]: 69  Doughten had worked with Good News Productions on The Blob in 1958,[3] and had produced other films in Iowa through his production company Heartland Productions.[4]: 7-8 

The film was produced in 1972 for a budget of $68,000. It earned roughly $4.2 million during its first decade of release, the majority of which came from audience donations. It was "one of the first films to take on fundamentalist apocalyptic narratives within a fictional motif."[5]: 92 

Plot[edit]

In medias res, Patty Myers awakens to a radio broadcast announcing the disappearance of millions around the world. The radio announcer suggests that this might be the rapture of the Church spoken of in the Bible. Patty finds that her husband has also disappeared. The United Nations sets up an emergency government system called the United Nations Imperium of Total Emergency (UNITE) and declares that anyone who does not receive the mark of the beast identifying them with UNITE will be arrested.

Several flashbacks occur to times in Patty's life before the Rapture. The story begins with Patty and her two friends, who all have different destinies. Her friend Jenny considers Jesus Christ her Savior; her other friend Diane is more worldly-minded. Patty considers herself a Christian because she occasionally reads her Bible and goes to church regularly; however, her pastor is shown to be an unbeliever. She refuses to believe the warnings of her friends and family that she will go through the Great Tribulation if she does not put her faith in Christ. Meanwhile, her husband has been attending another church and has accepted Jesus. The next morning, Patty awakens to find that her husband and millions of others have suddenly disappeared.

Patty is conflicted: she refuses to trust Christ, yet she also refuses to take the Mark. She desperately tries to avoid UNITE and the Mark but is eventually captured. She escapes, but after a chase she is cornered by UNITE on a bridge and falls from the bridge to her death.

Patty awakens and realizes it has all been a dream. She is relieved, but her relief is short-lived when the radio announces that millions of people have in fact disappeared. Horrified, Patty frantically searches for her husband only to find he is missing too. Patty realizes that the Rapture has actually occurred and she has been left behind.

Cast[edit]

  • Patty Dunning as Patty Myers
  • Mike Niday as Jim Wright
  • Colleen Niday as Jenny
  • Maryann Rachford as Diane Bradford
  • Thom Rachford as Jerry Bradford
  • Duane Coller as Duane
  • Russell Doughten as Rev. Matthew Turner
  • Clarence Balmer as Pastor Balmer
  • Gareld L Jackson as UNITE Leader
  • Herb Brown as UNITE Officer
  • Herb Brown, Jr as UNITE Officer
  • Betty D. Jackson as Wedding Guest

Themes[edit]

The film's title is taken from 1 Thessalonians 5:2, in which Paul warns his readers that "the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night."

The film presents a pre-tribulational dispensational futurist interpretation of Christian eschatology and the rapture popular among U.S. evangelicals, but is generally rejected by Roman Catholics,[6] Orthodox Christians,[7] Lutherans, and Reformed Christians.[8] According to Dean Anderson of Christianity Today, "the film brings to life the dispensational view of Matthew 24:36-44."[9]

In the film, everyone must receive the mark of the beast on their forehead or right hand in order to buy or sell.[10]: 185  The film's producers used three rows of a binary number six ("0110") to represent the number 666, an interpretation of Revelation 13:11-18.[5]: 207 

Production[edit]

Filming locations[edit]

The movie was filmed entirely on location in Iowa, with scenes being shot in Carlisle, the Iowa State Fair, and at Red Rock dam.[4]: 83 

Music[edit]

The film's title track I Wish We'd All Been Ready was composed by singer/musician Larry Norman. It was performed in the film by The Fishmarket Combo.[9] The song also became the anthem of the Jesus movement.[2]: 411 

Legacy[edit]

A Thief in the Night has been translated into three languages and subtitled in others. In 1989, Randall Balmer wrote that the film's producer, Russell Doughten, estimated that 100 million people had seen the film.[2]: 62  More recently, Dean Anderson writing for Christianity Today says it has been seen by an estimated 300 million.[9]

It was a pioneer in the genre of Christian film, bringing rock music and elements of horror film to a genre then-dominated by family-friendly evangelicalism.[9] Randall Balmer has stated that, "It is only a slight exaggeration to say that A Thief in the Night affected the evangelical film industry the way that sound or color affected Hollywood."[2]: 65  MIT professor of film and media Heather Hendershot says, "Today, many teen evangelicals have not seen A Thief in the Night, but virtually every evangelical over thirty I've talked to is familiar with it, and most have seen it... I have found that A Thief in the Night is the only evangelical film that viewers cite directly and repeatedly as provoking a conversion experience."[10]: 187-188 

The film has been described as traumatic for children, who made up a significant part of its original audience, and criticized for using scare tactics to produce religious conversions.[11] According to Hendershot, "Evangelicals who grew up in the 1970s or early 1980s often cite Thief as a source of childhood terror." This is partly due to depictions in the film of characters who believe themselves to be saved but are not, and are instead left behind.[10]: 187 

A quarter century later, the authors of the Left Behind series of books and films have acknowledged their debt to Thief. Indeed, even the title Left Behind echoes the refrain of Norman's theme song for A Thief in the Night, "I Wish We'd All Been Ready," in which he sings, "There's no time to change your mind, the Son has come and you've been left behind."[9]

Sequels[edit]

See also: A Thief in the Night (film series)

References[edit]

  1. ^ Balmer, Randall (2002). Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 0-664-22409-1. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d Balmer, Randall (2014). Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey Into the Evangelical Subculture in America. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-936046-8. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  3. ^ Albright, Brian (2012). Regional Horror Films, 1958-1990: A State-by-State Guide with Interviews. McFarland & Company. p. 286. ISBN 978-0-7864-7227-7. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Knepper, Marty; Lawrence, John (2014). The Book of Iowa Films. ISBN 978-0-9904289-1-6. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  5. ^ a b Edwards, Jonathan J. (2015). Superchurch: The Rhetoric and Politics of American Fundamentalism. Michigan State University Press. ISBN 978-1-62895-170-7. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  6. ^ Guinan, Michael D. (October 2005), "Raptured or Not? A Catholic Understanding", archived from the original on February 26, 2014, retrieved February 8, 2021{{citation}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  7. ^ Coniaris, Anthony M. (September 12, 2005), The Rapture: Why the Orthodox Don't Preach It, Light & Life Publishing, archived from the original on November 9, 2012, retrieved February 8, 2021
  8. ^ Schwertley, Brian M., Is the Pretribulation Rapture Biblical?, Reformed Online, archived from the original on March 11, 2013, retrieved February 8, 2021
  9. ^ a b c d e Anderson, Dean A. (March 7, 2012). "The original "Left Behind"". christianitytoday.com. Christianity Today. Archived from the original on April 16, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  10. ^ a b c Hendershot, Heather (2010). Shaking the World for Jesus, Media and Conservative Evangelical Culture. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-32679-5. Retrieved February 8, 2021.
  11. ^ "Iowa's "A Thief in the Night": Not Just a Horror Flick". iowapublicradio.org. Iowa Public Radio. December 13, 2012. Retrieved February 8, 2021.

External links[edit]

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