I have slowly but surely been re-watching this series for the first time in about two decades and the main objection I've had so far is that the cursed object and its modus operandi are revealed far too early - usually in the opening sequence - which removes much of the mystery from what follows. This happens again in "Faith Healer", of which the story is not only formulaic (this is pretty much an exact remake of "Doctor Jack", only with a glove in the place of a scalpel), but lazy as well (we've already had an episode about cursed gloves, though admittedly of a different kind, in "Shadow Boxer"). Not to mention that Jack feels the need to explain the premise twice, when it is apparent to the audience after the first 2 minutes. Despite all that, this episode is a collector's item - if only for being directed by David Cronenberg! His involvement guarantees an emphasis on grisly makeup effects, and they are good. And the central moral dilemma - would you sacrifice someone else's life to save your own or that of someone you love - is depicted here with more clarity than in the aforementioned "Doctor Jack". **1/2 out of 4.
6 Reviews
Classic
mattkratz14 November 2020
This was a good example of how the objects work, as a fraudulent faith healer discovers a cursed glove that actually DOES heal. He then has to transfer the amplified disease to someone else or die from it while evading a peculiar debunker who is also a friend of Jack.
Everything about this episode is great, from the supporting characters to the special effects to the story. The debunker character was especially memorable.
*** out of ****
Everything about this episode is great, from the supporting characters to the special effects to the story. The debunker character was especially memorable.
*** out of ****
The Healing Glove
claudio_carvalho25 March 2024
The unscrupulous faith healer Stewart Fishoff is exposed by a man during his cult. He flees, hunted down by deceived costumers. In an alley, he trips and falls on the dirty floor, and finds one white glove. He wears the glove in his right hand and a woman arrives, sick and crippled, to complain of him. When he touches her with the glove, she is healed and the glove becomes dirty. He flees again and stumbles upon a police officer and, when he touches the man with his glove, the disease is immediately transferred to the policeman. Some time later, Ryan is watching Fishoff on television and Jack recognizes the glove that belonged to Lewis. Jack unsuccessfully tries to retrieve the glove, and Ryan and Micki see the effect of the cursed object in a woman. Now Jack visits his old friend Jerry Scott, who is the man that exposed the con artist Fishoff, expecting to retrieve the glove. But Jerry has other intention.
"Faith Healer" is another great episode of "Friday the 13th: The Series". Directed by David Cronenberg, the show has a good story and nasty special effects. The villains Stewart Fishoff and Jerry Scott have great performance. The price charged by the glove to heal people is cruel. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "O Curandeiro" ("The Faith Healer")
"Faith Healer" is another great episode of "Friday the 13th: The Series". Directed by David Cronenberg, the show has a good story and nasty special effects. The villains Stewart Fishoff and Jerry Scott have great performance. The price charged by the glove to heal people is cruel. My vote is eight.
Title (Brazil): "O Curandeiro" ("The Faith Healer")
Cronenberg crafts one of Season 1's most memorable episodes
movieman_kev2 April 2009
Friday the 13th: The Series 1.12 (Faith Healer) Jack calls on an old friend, Jerry (Robert Silverman who'd later have a part in the Friday the 13th movie fanchise with "Jason X" which as an interesting tidbit David Cronenberg, who directed this episode is also in that film) who debunks fraudulent faith healers to help with getting back a cursed glove that has the power to heal any ailment, but to do so must kill one person for every one that's healed. It's currently in the possession of televangelist who Jerry had exposed as a charlatan earlier in the episode. But Jerry has his own plans for the accursed glove.
Acclaimed director David Cronenberg bring his identifiable visual flair to this episode which ranks amongst the best of season 1's offerings. It has a very memorable cursed antique and a great storyline. Towards the end Micki references a cursed cape that will come into play in the very next episode, 'The Baron's Bride' (just thought I'd toss that in for trivia buffs). But yeah back to the episode at hand, it's a very good watch indeed.
My Grade: A
Acclaimed director David Cronenberg bring his identifiable visual flair to this episode which ranks amongst the best of season 1's offerings. It has a very memorable cursed antique and a great storyline. Towards the end Micki references a cursed cape that will come into play in the very next episode, 'The Baron's Bride' (just thought I'd toss that in for trivia buffs). But yeah back to the episode at hand, it's a very good watch indeed.
My Grade: A
Have a little faith
allexand6 July 2009
Warning: Spoilers
A disgraced televangelist finds a cursed glove with the power to heal anyone of any injury or illness. The catch is that he must transfer these maladies to an unsuspecting victim or absorb it himself. Jack immediately recognizes the glove during a TV broadcast and enlists the aid of an old friend who has his own reasons for getting the glove back...
"Faith Healer" has everything a good Friday the 13th episode needs: tons of good scares, great special effects, great writing, great performances and an imaginative premise. David Cronenberg even directs it! They really threw some money at this one and it shows. No episode can truly be perfect, but this one comes pretty close.
This episode is high on gore and the effects used to convey it are really good. The effects of each disease on Stewart Fishoff's gloved decaying hand are gross, and unique too as every illness is different. The after shots of each victim are pretty grotesque and we're even given a few transformation scenes as a bonus. Jerry's tumor is suitably disgusting although it's so massive I did wonder why he wouldn't already be dead by that point.
The writing is very solid. Plot holes are few and far between here mainly because we're given just enough to keep the story moving at a reasonable pace. The whole story is set up nicely at the beginning: Jerry exposes Stewart for the fraud he is, Stewart finds glove, heals someone, discovers he now has disease, finds bumbling policeman, touches cop, cop decays before our eyes. Jack's friend, Jerry, comes off as a tragic villain as he is given a valid motive for wanting the glove.
There are a few problems, but they're mostly minor. Jerry is a little too quick to believe in a cursed glove, as many people on this show seem to be. The second victim, a woman with a poodle, is very annoying and unsympathetic, even for the two minutes that she's on screen. She also seemed oddly overdressed for the neighborhood she was in. I don't consider either one of these a big deal, though.
"Faith Healer" is one of the high points of this season and firmly establishes that this show is here to stay. I was about 10 when I first saw in and I couldn't look at the TV it was so gory. The only other episode to send me running out of the room was "The Quilt of Hathor" but that's for another review.
"Faith Healer" has everything a good Friday the 13th episode needs: tons of good scares, great special effects, great writing, great performances and an imaginative premise. David Cronenberg even directs it! They really threw some money at this one and it shows. No episode can truly be perfect, but this one comes pretty close.
This episode is high on gore and the effects used to convey it are really good. The effects of each disease on Stewart Fishoff's gloved decaying hand are gross, and unique too as every illness is different. The after shots of each victim are pretty grotesque and we're even given a few transformation scenes as a bonus. Jerry's tumor is suitably disgusting although it's so massive I did wonder why he wouldn't already be dead by that point.
The writing is very solid. Plot holes are few and far between here mainly because we're given just enough to keep the story moving at a reasonable pace. The whole story is set up nicely at the beginning: Jerry exposes Stewart for the fraud he is, Stewart finds glove, heals someone, discovers he now has disease, finds bumbling policeman, touches cop, cop decays before our eyes. Jack's friend, Jerry, comes off as a tragic villain as he is given a valid motive for wanting the glove.
There are a few problems, but they're mostly minor. Jerry is a little too quick to believe in a cursed glove, as many people on this show seem to be. The second victim, a woman with a poodle, is very annoying and unsympathetic, even for the two minutes that she's on screen. She also seemed oddly overdressed for the neighborhood she was in. I don't consider either one of these a big deal, though.
"Faith Healer" is one of the high points of this season and firmly establishes that this show is here to stay. I was about 10 when I first saw in and I couldn't look at the TV it was so gory. The only other episode to send me running out of the room was "The Quilt of Hathor" but that's for another review.
It Never Got Better Than This
Gislef16 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
"Faith Healer" is one of my favorite episodes, and rewatching it recently, it's good to know the memory doesn't cheat in this case. Part of it is that episode focuses on Jack, rather than Micki and Ryan. Robey and LeMay were never at their strongest, particularly in the early part of the series, and their involvement here sticks out like a sore thumb but is kept to a minimum.
And when they are involved, at least two of the scenes are funny. First there's Micki being worried about Jack and Ryan dismissing her concerns. And then later their opinions flipping. And the end, where Jack and Micki wager over which can cure Ryan, is kind of amusing.
Part of it is also that Jack really isn't that involved, either. The episode is more what the show should have done more often: focused on a tragedy of someone with a cursed object, with any or all of the trio peripherally involved. In this case, Fernandes as Fishoff and Silverman as Jerry pretty much carry the show and are the focus of the whole thing.
Another is that it's one of the episodes that tries to deal with the moral complexity of the situation. Jerry is forced by his own fear of death to toss away his beliefs, and then try to kill his friend Jack to heal himself. The whole thing makes Jerry out to be sympathetic, particularly with his final plea to Jack to pray for him. Writer Christine Cornish captures it all, and it doesn't look like she did a lot of writing. That's a pity, because her writing here perfectly encapsulates what the series should have been about.
Another is that it's freaking David Cronenberg directing. So we get all the body horror and undefined diseases (what the heck does the first woman that Fishoff cures, and later Jerry, have disease-wise?) that Cronenberg specializes in. Like Cornish, they should have brought him back at least once more for the series.
There's not anything bad about this episode, and I tried to find something. There is a plot hole of sorts: why does Jack need Jerry? Yeah, Jerry's presence does help sell the ruse of getting Fishoff to cure someone. But Jack is a con artist: it's hard to believe he needs Jerry to help him get the glove. But it gives us Robert Silverman as Jerry, so can't complain there. Silverman gives such an eccentric, distinct performance of what ends up as a tragic figure that it's hard to fault anything that brings him in. The actor is one of Cronenberg's stable of regular actors, and I don't remember his later presence in season 3 of this series when he showed up as a different character. I'll be looking forward to seeing it, although as I recall it isn't as distinctive as Jerry is here.
Overall, "Faith Healer" is the best episode of the series. I'd put it on any "must watch" list.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
And when they are involved, at least two of the scenes are funny. First there's Micki being worried about Jack and Ryan dismissing her concerns. And then later their opinions flipping. And the end, where Jack and Micki wager over which can cure Ryan, is kind of amusing.
Part of it is also that Jack really isn't that involved, either. The episode is more what the show should have done more often: focused on a tragedy of someone with a cursed object, with any or all of the trio peripherally involved. In this case, Fernandes as Fishoff and Silverman as Jerry pretty much carry the show and are the focus of the whole thing.
Another is that it's one of the episodes that tries to deal with the moral complexity of the situation. Jerry is forced by his own fear of death to toss away his beliefs, and then try to kill his friend Jack to heal himself. The whole thing makes Jerry out to be sympathetic, particularly with his final plea to Jack to pray for him. Writer Christine Cornish captures it all, and it doesn't look like she did a lot of writing. That's a pity, because her writing here perfectly encapsulates what the series should have been about.
Another is that it's freaking David Cronenberg directing. So we get all the body horror and undefined diseases (what the heck does the first woman that Fishoff cures, and later Jerry, have disease-wise?) that Cronenberg specializes in. Like Cornish, they should have brought him back at least once more for the series.
There's not anything bad about this episode, and I tried to find something. There is a plot hole of sorts: why does Jack need Jerry? Yeah, Jerry's presence does help sell the ruse of getting Fishoff to cure someone. But Jack is a con artist: it's hard to believe he needs Jerry to help him get the glove. But it gives us Robert Silverman as Jerry, so can't complain there. Silverman gives such an eccentric, distinct performance of what ends up as a tragic figure that it's hard to fault anything that brings him in. The actor is one of Cronenberg's stable of regular actors, and I don't remember his later presence in season 3 of this series when he showed up as a different character. I'll be looking forward to seeing it, although as I recall it isn't as distinctive as Jerry is here.
Overall, "Faith Healer" is the best episode of the series. I'd put it on any "must watch" list.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
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