Wise Blood

Wise Blood (1979) is John Huston's pitch-black tragicomedy, available to watch online on iFILM. Back from the war and adrift in a small Southern town, Hazel Motes (Brad Dourif) founds his own "Church Without Christ" and preaches on street corners that there is no redemption and the Bible lies.

The harder Hazel denies faith, the tighter it grips him. A gallery of con men and holy fools circles around him: a blind street preacher and his daughter, a small-time grifter eager to cash in on the new church, and the oddball Enoch, fixated on what he calls his "wise blood." Huston films these obsessives without mockery and without pity, as a dark comedy about a man sprinting away from God straight into His arms.

Adapted from Flannery O'Connor's debut novel, with the director himself in a brief turn as a preacher grandfather, plus Harry Dean Stanton and Ned Beatty in support. A strange, acrid, deeply Southern picture for viewers who love literary source material and characters teetering on the edge of madness. Stream Wise Blood (1979) online on iFILM.