Immanence proves to be a fascinating and frustrating film. The premise is an interesting one with great possibilities for sci-fi horror: a meteor streaks through the sky, landing in the ocean off Florida. It might just be an alien, so a group of astrophysicists charter a party boat (it is what’s available and affordable at the moment) to sail out to the crash site and listen to the signals. The deck hand, Jonah (Michael Beach), is a deeply religious former Pentecostal snake handler who engages in discussions on belief and faith with scientist Naomi (Summer Bellessa). The Biblical names are not a mistake, nor is the fact that the leader of the scientists, the closest the film comes to a “bad guy” is named Roman (Anthony Ruivivar).

The first half of the film involves a great deal of talking heads discussing aliens and God, with more than enough technobabble to make every Star Trek: The Next Generation screenwriter lift their voices in songs of praise. We get our title explanation early on from Jonah: God does not just show up, he can only manifest himself indirectly, as an immanence. The best example of this is that God shows us the devil to let us know he exists, too. A problematic theology, but good enough for a horror film.

The long discussions of science and religion can slow the pace quite a bit, but promise to build to something deep (pardon the pun). Instead of an alien craft, however, our four scientists and two sailors find the duplicate of their boat, and, being a horror movie, they all go over to that boat, leaving no one in their boat, just in case. They hear messages over that ship’s radio of apparent future events, in which only two of them survive to be rescued.

Meanwhile, things begin happening that don’t make sense. A fish trap full of boiled fish thrown overboard comes back up with a live pig in it. Naomi then wakes up to find herself in that same cage. Harper (Kasia Pilewicz) becomes seemingly possessed. Finally, instead of finding the alien craft, we get the eponymous character. Turns out the devil, called “Immanence” here (Jamie McShane, recognizable from hundreds of television appearances) arrives on the boat to kill a few people, bully the rest and mock Roman for not being a believer: “You’re realizing you’ve been wrong this whole time? Everything you hated, everything you mocked – it’s all true. God. Jesus. The Bible. Me! It’s all really real. History and Fact. And so many people knew it. Millions and millions of people said so for centuries.”

And here is where I got confused. Immanence comes across as a prissy little pissed off believer. So the Devil goes around telling people Christianity is real and true? I thought that was the opposite of what Satan allegedly does. And why say Roman “hated” everything that Christianity stands for? Roman argued with Jonah that science offers a better approach to understanding the world than mere acceptance on faith. Hardly “hate.” It just seemed so out of the blue and petty. I’m surprised Immanence didn’t add that everybody who was ever mean to him and all the girls who didn’t go out with him in high school were going to suffer as well! (I realize just by making these caustic remarks I am placing myself firmly in the camp of “haters,” according to the film, except that would not be true either).

In other words, Immanence starts as an interesting & mysterious low-budget examination of how faith and science each deal with the idea of “mystery” via flawed messengers (is a single-minded, snake-handling sailor the best advocate for the essential correctness of the Christian worldview? Is a snide, arrogant scientist the best advocate for that worldview?), but then immediately undercuts all that by knocking down all the questions and mystery. The film then offers a solution it has been foregrounding all along, but if what Imminence said is true, none of it matters anyway. If this is how God lets us know he exists, he needs to work on his messaging.

5 out of 10