In 2023, Angel Studios purchased the Tim Ballard-based film Sound of Freedom from Disney, who had shelved it several years before. As of the writing of this review, Sound of Freedom has made upwards of $200 million, enabling Angel Studios to move forward with faith-based films like The Shift that endeavor to reach and exceed the quality of their mainstream counterparts.

The Shift

A mysterious figure tries to recruit grieving father, Kevin Garner, to help him sow chaos throughout the multiverse. When Kevin refuses, he finds himself stranded in a dystopian world that is not his own. Never giving up hope that God will lead him home, Kevin uses his time to spread The Word to a people in bondage and misery.

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Starring Neal McDonough (Yellowstone) and Sean Astin (The Lord of The Rings), The Shift is an audacious undertaking, especially for a Christian movie studio best known for a series about the life and teachings of Christ and a biographical film about child sex slavery. With The Shift, Angel Studios has reimagined the story of Job as a multi-verse-spanning sci-fi thriller, and the seriousness of their desire to compete against secular fare from the “big guys” is apparent in every frame.

With his barely restrained menace and piercing stare, McDonough shines as The Benefactor. Fans of McDonough know that he’s no stranger to playing the villain, and he brings his 30+ years of experience to bear in The Shift, providing audiences with a nuanced if sinister evildoer seething with dark ambition.

The film’s lead is the relatively unknown Kristoffer Polaha, who some may recognize from his small roles in Jurassic World and as “Handsome Man” in Wonder Woman 1984. Pholaha infuses Kevin with a sincerity and heart that keeps the audience rooting for him throughout, but more than that, we see in him the Godly and stalwart Christian that each of us hopes we would be were we to find ourselves in similar straits and through his tribulations, we glimpse the promise of God.

Written and directed by Brock Keasley, whose feature-length resume includes The Shift, The Shift, and The Shift, The Shift gets a lot right. There are scenes of nail-biting suspense and moments that Christians (especially) who have felt the seductive call of decadent temptation will find incredibly poignant as Kevin is offered all that he wants and more for seemingly so little in return. This, along with the strength of its leads, carries The Shift, even through some of its more repetitive moments.

With all that it gets right, The Shift is tantalizingly close to crossing that barrier from “Christian film” to mainstream offering that is incidentally Christian, and being able to see the finish line makes the fact that it doesn’t quite cross it that much more frustrating. It’s always a gamble for a film’s writer to direct it. Understandably, they can get too close to the material and have blinders on as to what should be cut or smoothed out, and The Shift suffers from this, giving us some cumbersome dialogue and overtly convenient moments.

Based solely on Keasley’s thin pedigree and the weight of his dual roles, that the film is only occasionally problematic rather than a total dumpster fire is a testament to his potential as a filmmaker. However, it does falter in some key areas. The story is peppered with well-meaning subplots designed to elicit sympathy for Kevin, but they are unneeded and serve to fill time instead of narrative buckets. The result of this lack of focus is a film with interesting yet underdeveloped characters and an interesting yet underdeveloped plot.

Even though The Shift is imperfect, and the script would have benefitted from one more draft, it’s still Worth it. Not only is it crucially important that we support films such as this, but for all its flaws, The Shift is a stirring sci-fi thriller that holds a mirror up to the faithful and asks them, “Who are you, and how deeply does your faith run.”

ROLE MODELS IN THE SHIFT

Kevin is a model of Christian faith. Even though he has every excuse known to secular man to hate God, he chooses to serve Him and lean on him in his darkest hours. He does so, not in the hopes of rewards but to honor the creator of all things.

WOKE ELEMENTS

None.