Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
A young woman with no strong religious beliefs, Frankie Paige begins having strange and violent experiences, showing signs of the wounds that Jesus received when crucified. When the Vatican gets word of Frankie's situation, a high-ranking cardinal requests that the Rev. Andrew Kiernan investigate her case. Soon Kiernan realizes that very sinister forces are at work, and tries to rescue Frankie from the entity that is plaguing her.
Stigmata is a slick but derivative late-90s religious horror thriller that borrows heavily from The Exorcist and similar possession films. The plot is muddled — mixing stigmata with a Vatican conspiracy and demonic possession in ways that don't quite cohere theologically or narratively. Patricia Arquette gives a committed physical performance and Gabriel Byrne brings gravitas, but the material doesn't fully utilize either. The cinematography leans on MTV-style rapid editing and stylized visuals that were trendy at the time but feel dated now — occasionally striking but more often frenetic. The concept of an atheist receiving stigmata had potential for genuine originality, but the film mostly squanders it by retreating into familiar possession-movie beats. The ending is rushed and unsatisfying, resolving the Vatican conspiracy thread too abruptly and undercutting the more interesting spiritual questions the film briefly raises.