VIATICUM

Synopsis

Genre: Black Comedy Logline: A priest performing Last Rites is challenged by a hospice nurse who believes her patient should not be absolved of a deadly sin. Tagline: A dip in the road to redemption. Synopsis: The life of Albert Lewis has reached its final station, and his son, Jason, an amateur saucier, is preparing him for the journey across the Great Divide. He invites a local priest, Father Kettinger, to perform the Last Rites, and during the confession, Albert reveals that he killed a man in his youth, a crime for which he escaped punishment. Albert’s hospice nurse, Regina, pleads with Father Kettinger to notify the police, and when he refuses, the two engage in a fierce tete-a-tete about the nature of sin. In dispensing the viaticum (Latin for “that which you take on the road”), the priest honors a most unorthodox request from Jason, agreeing to dip the body of Christ in some of his homemade barbecue sauce. Unwilling to accept the murderer’s tasty absolution, Regina performs her own Last Rites on Albert—and awakens him to the monster of evil.