10 Movies That Made New York City Look Like The Worst Place In The World

8. God Told Me To (1976)

An unsettling blend of horror, sci-fi, whodunnit, and occult cinema, Larry Cohen's God Told Me To gives New York City a distinctively nauseating and freakish glow. Tony Lo Bianco stars as Peter Nicholas, an NYPD detective who attempts to apprehend a malicious sniper in the film's opening scenes. The crazed shooter promptly picks off fifteen pedestrians, and directly tells Nicholas that God told him to do it, before hurtling himself off a water tower to his death. New York City soon becomes subject to killings from a variety of seemingly ordinary citizens who have abruptly flipped out and declared that God had told them to commit mass murder. Everyone in the city is thrown into danger as a demonic presence lingers over New York, with the film being a deeply affecting watch for anyone even remotely religious. God Told Me To is a movie that gives NYC a discernibly nightmarish, soulless quality quite unlike any other, making the city act as a hub for religious upheaval. Things eventually become so dizzily nefarious that it looks as though the Devil himself is there controlling the entire city with a menacing grin.