"GOD IS A BULLET" (**** OUT OF ****)

"Notebook" helmer Nick Cassavetes's R-rated feature "God Is A Bullet" (2023), toplining Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Jamie Foxx, and Maika Monroe, qualifies as an unforgettable crime thriller. Now, using the adjective "unforgettable" to describe a film has been so overdone that you may be inclined to shrug it off. Nevertheless, this 'based on a true story' melodrama takes its violence to heretofore untold levels of sadism. Once you lay eyes on this chilling film, you'll know whence I speak. The depiction of violence here is far beyond what most crime movie aficionados are accustomed to when we watch genre movies. "God Is A Bullet" concerns the search for a teenage girl who has been abducted by a warped family of hooligans who live on the fringe of society and have homicidal tendencies.

Our protagonist is a nice guy, pencil-pushing, sheriff's deputy, Bob Hightower (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau of "Gods of Egypt"), who has ridden a desk for years and earned little respect from his law enforcement colleagues. A regular churchgoer, Bob believes heart and soul in the word of God. Imagine our hero's alarm when nobody answers the doorbell. He is checking in at the home of his ex-wife and her new husband, so he can see his daughter. Entering the house cautiously with his service pistol drawn, Bob finds the two adults butchered like hogs. His ex-wife's African American husband has been slashed, gashed, and hanged spread eagle from the ceiling by his outstretched arms. He finds his ex-wife riddled with lead and floating face down in an outside pool. Worse, his teenage daughter is missing. The despicable dastards who abducted this innocent girl are the devil's own brood in the flesh. They make Rob Zombie's unhinged hellions look like kindergarten kids. Ghoulish tattoos cover every inch of their bodies. One member of this evil bunch, Case (Maika Monroe of "Independence Day: Resurgence") will quit the gang after the diabolical ringleader, Cyrus (Karl Glusman of "Greyhound"), has kicked her front teeth out of her mouth. Case believes Hightower's daughter is still alive, but for how long she has no idea. This spit and polish sheriff's deputy, decked out in his creased uniform, with his neatly trimmed mustache, struggles to deal with his disaster.

Initially, Hightower doesn't trust Case. He refuses to play by her rules to find his daughter. Case ushers the reluctant Hightower into the world of these subhuman thugs who stole his daughter. Poor Bob must undergo a thorough makeover. He has to shun his boy scout uniform and attire himself like gutter trash. Jamie Foxx appears in a cameo as the 'Ferryman.' He is a legendary tattoo artist who lives in the middle of nowhere. Bob's antagonists are blasphemous maniacs. They suffer no guilt from their depredations, have no conscience, and kill without a qualm. Cyrus has upside down crosses tattooed under his eyes and has no respect for life. In one scene, we see him shoot one of his relatives in the head at point blank range without any warning so her brains splatter the wall nearby like strawberry jam. We're talking about the vile scum of the earth. Reluctantly, Mr. Formal, Nice-Guy Deputy must turn into one of these predators to rescue his daughter.

Not only is Bob compelled to remake himself in the image of his enemies, but he must also renounce all of his Christian beliefs. Once Bob and the villains have met each other in a standoff of sorts, the ringleader Cyrus decides to slip him a surprise present. These fiends catch a rattlesnake, pin it down to a table, and inject the reptile with a solution (presumably speed). The rattler's tail shivers twice as fast, and Cyrus stashes it in a bag and sends a disciple to slip it in Bob's unattended truck. Unbeknownst to him, Bob climbs into his truck, spots the bag, and hoists it into his lap to check it. This rattlesnake surges out of the bag like a whip being cracked and strikes our hero several times. He has to shoot the snake to keep it from streaming more venom into his neck. Afterward, Case takes him to the 'Ferryman' and Bob has to undergo a long process of recovery. Such is Bob's tenacity that he bounces back from this debacle. Nevertheless, the end is no closer in sight because the villains are prepared for him. Bob's arranges a swap with Cyrus involving a bag full of money in return for his daughter. The showdown commences in a quarry with fireworks exploding in starbursts while Bob takes down the bad guys without an ounce of remorse.

Clocking in at two hours and thirty-five minutes, "God Is A Bullet" amounts to a clenched jaw, white-knuckled, ordeal that features heavyweight toxic villains who are scary as all get-out. Director Nick Cassavetes also wrote the screenplay based it on pseudonymous American author Boston Teran's novel which was based on a true story. If you're sick of predictable, namby-pamby crime thrillers, "God Is A Bullet" will hit you like a Mac truck and leave you stunned by its revelations.