Saved!

Anybody who grew up with Christianity as a mandate rather than a choice should get a kick out of the premise of Saved!, where high-school students armed with the power of religion manage to create Hell on Earth for fellow classmates and themselves. Directed by first-timer Brian Dannelly, this uneven film starts off as a satiric slam on religious hypocrisy but gets lost along the way, degenerating into more of a happy-go-lucky, everything’s-coming-up-roses scenario rather than the merciless slag of organized religion it first seems to be. It’s a shame because Dannelly’s film shows much promise in the first half, so much so that the lack of punch in the film’s finale is quite the shocker; it seems as though Dannelly (who also co-wrote the script) became afraid of his own film. Mandy Moore is very good as a psycho Christian girl, as is Macaulay Culkin as her atheist brother.