A familiar name on the DIY horror and exploitation scene with a bit more of a political bent than usual, Ron Atkins (The Sins of Government, Dark Night of the Soul) branches into unexpected territory with his 2026 action melodrama Christ Rising. The idea of Christian scare films has been around for many decades (even the Pre-Code era depending how you want to stretch the definition), but it really took off with evangelical screening programs in the '60s and '70s when everything from the films of the Ormond family to the jaw-dropping A Thief in the Night could put the fear of God into audiences. More recently of course it's gotten a Hollywood veneer with titles like the Left Behind films and The Devil Conspiracy among others, but this one goes back to the scrappy roots complete with a looming electronicscore, ominous messaging galore, and splashes of gore and nudity.

"Sometime soon," solider Johnny Reeve (McCabe) has "gone rogue" on a murder spree "in the name of God" with orders to execute him delivered to treadmill-addicted gun-for-hire Rake Williams (Leprechaun 4: In Space's Colceri). A knifing in the desert, an impromptu burial, and a very dark night of the soul trigger a mission by Johnny's brother, Jake (The Invisible Maniac and Psycho Cop Returns' Sweitzer), and eventually his Uncle Jed (Friday the 13th: Part 3's Kratka) to find Johnny while the world is overrun by heat, the sound of trumpets, and apocalyptic radio broadcasts. With messages pointing to the imminent return of a certain title character, Satan's forces are hard at work throwing up obstacles to stop Jake's mission including hallucinatory visions of those he holds dearest. Along the way amongst the copious hiking, gunshots, and Bible readings you get some crazy familiar genre cameos, the being one near the end with Camille Keaton (I Spit on Your Grave) and Lynn Lowry (The Crazies) as a couple of sinister, cookie-peddling good samaritans.

The story isn't terribly complex but it does unfold in a very fragmented fashion, with a reliance on dissolves, flashbacks, hallucinations, and occasional switches to black-and-white. Despite being limited by a shoestring budget, the film aims high by delivering what the title promises with an apocalyptic finale (or is it?) that doesn't really arrive quite the way you'd expect with the bulk of the dramatic material ultimately falling on Sweitzer's shoulders. The digital special effects are mostly of the psychedelic variety, though the switch to heavy solid blue or red lighting during the final stretch makes for an effective change of pace.

As with most of his past films, this one was self-distributed by Atkins including a pressed Blu-ray release in 2026 featuring a scan that's true to the digital lensing framed at 1.78:1 with an effective LPCM 2.0 English stereo mix. Extras include a teaser trailer, a regular trailer, and most substantially, a 17m56s reel of deleted footage

Reviewed on September 20, 2026