Where is YOUR Heaven hiding?
"Again!"
— Lucifer, opening the first song
Alleluia! is the sequel to The Devil's Carnival. Lucifer continues sending condemned souls back to Heaven, including one Ms. Merrywood. This is the prelude to all-out war... but first, he needs to tell a robed figure a story about Heaven, "the Filly and the Lapdog" (cf. "The Ass and the Lapdog"). In this story, about what happens when a "filly," June (Emilie Autumn) fraternizes with God's prize "lapdog," The Agent (Adam Pascal); additionally, the workings of Heaven are explored, introducing figures such as The Translators (Jimmy Urine and Chantal Claret), The Publicist (Ted Neeley), The Designer (David Hasselhoff), The Librarian (TechN9ne), and The Watchword (Barry Bostwick).
The film was released on a road tour in 2015. One trailer can be found here
, or the promotional website here.
Featured tropes in tonight's film include:
- Almost Kiss: June and Cora, several times. Twin-as-Cora actually does kiss June.
- Arc Words: "Always Alleluia".
- Black-and-Grey Morality: You're very clearly supposed to be on Lucifer's side, but he'll be the first to admit he's "no saint."
- Break the Cutie: June and Cora. June was beaten and banished from Heaven, and ended up becoming the Painted Doll, while Cora had to watch all this happen to a friend she had feelings for, and was probably forbidden from expressing any sadness over it lest the same thing happen to her.
- Callback: The Painted Doll and The Agent have a scene very similar to her meeting with John in the first film. She even makes The Agent "drink a cup of her scorn" as mentioned in her song "Prick! Goes the Scorpion's Tale" from the first film.
- Camp Straight: The Designer and most of the unnamed male angels are very camp, but The Designer is clearly attracted to the women in his employ.
- Chekhov's Gun: The horseshoe pendant that the Agent gives to June is a non-chronological example. The audience first sees it when Merrywood picks it up on the train ride to Heaven. Then in a flashback, we see that the Agent was the one who originally gave the pendant to June, who ended up losing it to the Twin in Hell, which foreshadows the later reveal of who "Merrywood" actually is.
- Crapsaccharine World: Heaven is depicted as The Golden Age of Hollywood with a dark undercurrent.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: "Translation."
- Divine Ranks: All of Heaven's rankings and their system is spelled out by the Librarian during the lyrics of his Villain Song, "Hitting On All Sevens", ranging from lowly Sevens to the highest Ones. The Sevens are the laborers/slaves of Heaven who are put to work under the lecherous Designer. The Sixes are The Translators who serve as brutal enforcers of Heaven's rules and brutalize any dissenters before sending them to Hell when finished. The Fives are the Watchwords, who endlessly survey Heaven for any wrongdoings to report to authorities. The Fours are The Publicist and His Ladies of Virtue who continuously sing God's praises and entertain Him. The Threes are the artists and designers of Heaven who decorate and design the architecture of Heaven to God's wishes. The Twos are the coordinators and educators of Heaven such as The Librarian who dictate and declare the rules of Heaven to new recruits while guarding its secrets. The Ones such as The Agent serve as God's personal agents, Yes-Men, and sometimes sexual playthings He picks from the cast of new recruits or lower levels to be later discarded.
- Dystopia: Heaven, with propaganda everywhere, Thoughtcrime, and Cold-Blooded Torture.
- Honestly, Hell isn't much better. Down there, you're either a mentally broken victim or the one torturing those victims...or both.
- Establishing Character Moment: In a promotional video released before the film, one of the Librarian's minions keeps singing and speaking, despite the myriad signs around the place telling him to be quiet (and the Librarian's repeated warnings). The Librarian pulls his tongue out.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Lucifer himself, for all his flaws, considers God evil. He also makes a point of telling the Ticket Keeper that he "hates martyrs" and would never allow the Ticket Keeper to become one for him.
- Fate Worse than Death: Members of the lowest caste in Heaven are forced to spend all eternity doing sweatshop labor.
- Foreshadowing: Each of the Rosy Bayonettes' "terrible plans" features an element of Lucifer's actual plan.
- The intro, which briefly summarizes the events of the first film, specifically includes a shot of the Twin shapeshifting into Merrywood, which turns out to be one of the pillars of Lucifer's plan to take down Heaven.
- During Merrywood's initial interrogation, the Agent questions her about a horseshoe pendant that she picked up on the train ride to Heaven and is noticeably agitated by her refusal to answer. This hints at two separate reveals later in the film: that the Agent recognized the pendant because he was the one who originally gave it to June, and that the "Merrywood" we've been watching is actually the person who took the pendant from June, the Twin.
- During an early scene of Merrywood alone in the interrogation room, the tune in the background is from the first movie's song "Beautiful Stranger", a duet between Merrywood and the Twin.
- Genre Roulette: From swing to pop standard to sitars and back at breakneck speed.
- Glasgow Grin: Geraldine is given one because "her cheeks weren't smiling" when she was "serving" God.
- God and Satan Are Both Jerks: Lucifer is, well, Lucifer, but God is a deeply unsympathetic character, and Heaven is a Dystopia.
- Good Luck Charm: The horseshoe charm give to June by The Agent for luck in the applicant process. It doesn't work.
- Hellevator: An elevator runs from Heaven to Hell. Naturally, only Heaven gets call buttons.
- Heteronormative Crusader: The Watchword. "Your feelings are not only inappropriate, they're illegal."
- Historical Rap Sheet: God sings about he caused the Black Sunday dust storm of 1935, one of the worst dust storms in American history.
- Honey Trap: The Agent is intended to act as one for June's suspected heresy. During the climax of the film, they end up swapping roles.
- Hope Spot: A brief one for the Agent when he reunites with June. He apologizes to her and she gives him a long, passionate kiss. And then she suddenly disappears, and a couple of the Carnies march up and force the Agent into a chair. The look on his face suggests that he knows he's almost certainly completely screwed.
- I Didn't Mean to Turn You On: Cora is visibly set off by the mixed signals June sends brushing lint off her shoulder.
- I Meant to Do That: God decides to claim he purposefully allows Lucifer to send condemned souls back.
- Ironic Echo: The Agent tells June the story of St. Dunstan (not named) coercing the Devil into avoiding homes with horseshoes. After the Agent's arrival in Hell, The Smith - a carny - nails a horseshoe over his shed and says, "feels like home."
- Kill the God: The grand plan for Lucifer and his minions. Their major plan includes having The Twin infiltrate Heaven as a redeemed soul, impersonate God's most closest servant, and convince him to come to the Elevator to Hell alone, where Hell's minions will be waiting to slay Him.
- Last-Second Word Swap: "An Applicant's lips are for praising, and her fingers... (The Watchword glares at her) are for prayer."
- Light Is Not Good: Far, far more than the first film, having gone from creepy workshop to full-on depraved Dystopia.
- My God, What Have I Done?: The Agent when he sees what became of June in hell. Unfortunately for him, it's too little too late.
- Never My Fault: June fits this to a T.
- Pet the Dog: Lucifer gets a moment of this, surprisingly enough, when he swears that he wouldn't allow the Ticket Keeper to become a martyr for him. This is in contrast with a rather important aspect of Christianity. And with how God treats The Agent.
- Prayer Is a Last Resort: The Agent when he realizes he's been poisoned by The Painted Doll.
- Propaganda Machine: The Publicist and His Ladies of Virtue.
- Putting on the Reich: The angels and applicants wear Nazi-like armbands, and many of them - especially The Agent and The Translators - have very Nazi-esque outfits. Lampshaded when Painted Doll sings to The Agent in German.
- Secret Relationship: The Agent and June.
- Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: God. He's a Heteronormative Crusader who dislikes any perceived imperfections or hiccups to his strict and uncompromising wishes, but is also a depraved deviant who likes to harm others for no justifiable reason and sexually abuses his female subjects and creations for his own amusement.
- Sex Slave: God's "special job" for Geraldine.
- Speak of the Devil: God does not want to hear the name "Lucifer."
- That Poor Cat: The Translators at one point throw their truncheons away in a squeaky-clean interrogation room, and cat noises are heard; when God makes an unexpected appearance in the nightclub scene, a cat noise precedes the sudden hush that falls over the room.
- This Means Warpaint: Lucifer changes his clown makeup to blue strikes across his face that are evocative of this.
- Trailers Always Lie: There's a shot in the trailer that looks like the Watchword is interrogating the Twin which is taken from two different scenes. The characters don't interact at all in the finished film.
- The Stinger: The Twin (disguised as The Agent), serenades God with "Songs of Old".
- Then Let Me Be Evil: "After The Fall," sung by Lucifer to June as she begins her process of transforming into The Painted Doll.
- Thoughtcrime: The Watchword and The Librarian are both tasked with finding this, the former in applicants, the latter in stories.
- Trojan Prisoner: The Twin
- Twist Ending: The "Merrywood" under interrogation is The Twin.
- Villain Song: Many.
- "Only by Design," sung by The Designer.
- "Good Little Dictation Machines," sung by The Translators.
- "The Watchword's Hour," sung by The Watchword.
- "Bells of the Black Sunday," sung by God.
- Wham Shot: When The Agent opens the book God gave him as a present, a look of terror comes over his face. The movie cuts to a shot of the book's title page, which reveals the book is a copy of The Filly and the Lapdog. Doubles as an Oh, Crap! moment for The Agent.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: God often does this to his subordinates, even his most faithful servant The Agent strictly For the Evulz. It's strongly implied Lucifer himself was a former One who served God faithfully, was horribly abused, and cast down into Hell by God, explaining his hatred of Heaven.
