F

Conservative Christian audiences may be prone to approve the central plot point of “Echoes of Innocence,” which concerns a high school girl’s commitment to abstain from sex until she finds (or more properly, is reunited with) her true soulmate in marriage. But despite a certain patina of religiosity in the script–the girl has her “secret place” in an old chapel, she regularly visits a Catholic priest to ask for absolution (even though she’s not a Catholic herself), and the big confrontation at the end is presented in terms of Good vs. (demonic) Evil–the movie can’t really be called religious in the strict sense. Certainly it doesn’t embrace any particular denominational perspective. And some of its twists actually seem more generically supernatural than anything else. (As when a cow intervenes in the last act to prevent the girl from being deflowered by that Satanic schoolmate. Do cows have some particularly sacral character?)

In any event, the scenario runs thus: eighteen-year old high school senior Sarah (Sara Simmonds) is a youngster from a troubled family–she was removed from the care of her mother (Dana Jackson) and placed with her grandmother (Scottie Wilkison)–who dresses rather like a Goth but is ridiculed by her fellow students for her fascination with Joan of Arc and her decision to refrain from sexual activity until marriage. (Her nickname is “Virg,” which isn’t short for “Virginia.”) Her pledge to remain chaste, we learn, originated in a mutual promise made five years earlier between her (played earlier by Madison Walls) and her closest friend Christopher (Cody Linley) to save themselves for one another with the intention of marrying at eighteen. And though Christopher left town with his family shortly afterward, Sarah’s been true to her vow ever since. She also has visions, like her heroine Joan, which she shares with nobody but her confidante Beth (Natali Jones) and finds hard to interpret. But while she easily resists the advances of the likes of the black-coated bad boy Alec (Matt Vodvarka), her steadfastness is challenged by the arrival of a new student named Dave (Jake McDorman), a handsome, sensitive kid who takes such an interest in her that he wants to do a profile on her for the school newspaper. As they get closer, her commitment is challenged by her feelings toward him while Alec shows every sign of being willing to use force against her.

The gabble of themes operative here makes for a picture that’s more weird and confusing than enlightening or uplifting. And while from a purely production perspective it’s fairly well-made for an extremely low-budget effort (it’s the first feature by Nathan Todd Simms, who’s previously worked on commercials and videos), it definitelyfeels more suited to a TV screen–preferably late-night cable–rather than a theatre auditorium. The acting is mostly mediocre, with Simmonds getting by, Vodvarka and Jackson chewing the scenery mercilessly, and only McDorman, who underplays nicely, coming across as of really professional caliber.

Though the “religious” overtones are a new touch, “Echoes of Innocence” ends up seeming like one of those amusingly cheesy semi-supernatural thrillers regularly broadcast as “originals” on the Sci-Fi Network. That’s not intended as a compliment.