Ticket to Heaven

The "Moonie" cult of the 1970s and '80s has been cited as the principal inspiration for the 1981 Canadian production Ticket to Heaven. Nick Mancuso plays impressionable youth David Kappel, who, after breaking up with his girlfriend, tries to find an emotional balm by joining a religious sect. The ...more

In certain respects, Ticket to Heaven feels like a guttural response to the wretched spate of Canadian tax-shelter horror films from the early '80s, such as My Bloody Valentine and Death Ship -- as if director Ralph L. Thomas felt over-nauseated by the cloying sensationalism and Grand Guignol of Canadian axe murderers and, hungry for some everyday terror, went straight for the central nervous system of the viewer. Even decades later, the film benefits from the shrewd intelligence with which ...more