Eric Stark

"If you believe in God, jump. If not, you come to me."

- Eric Stark to Cody O'Conner. "After you."

- Cody O'Conner to Eric Stark.

Eric Stark is the main antagonist of the 2000 supernatural horror/thriller film Bless the Child which is based on the novel of the same name by Cathy Cash Spellman. He is the founder of a crooked self-help organization called "The New Dawn" which is really a Satanic cult who are after his brainwashed new wife Jenna's beloved 6-year old daughter Cody O'Conner as he sought to change her and control her in order to manipulate her hidden special powers.

He was portrayed by Rufus Sewell.

Biography
Eric Stark was a former child star who portrayed the character "Little Luke" in a fictitious TV show "Family Days", and became a drug addict by the age of 15. There were even rumors that at one point he would actually die from overdose during his teen years, but he lived and soon not only no longer being addictive, but also began helping people. Later in his years of community services, Eric founded The New Dawn, one of America's fastest and growing self-help organizations as he helps runaway kids, abused children and getting them off the streets and off the drugs, and into his rehabilitation centers. Stark and his organization, according to his reasons for the purpose of his group, is that they are trying to these young people tortured with morality they must look inside themselves and find the child within.

But at the heart of the New Dawn Foundation lies a Satanic sect of Luciferians headed by Eric Stark himself, and he and followers bore a trident-like symbol once used in ceremonial sacrifice dating far back as the 16th century Europe. The tines (prongs) on the trident icon pointed left, signifying the Left-Hand Path of Satanists. The symbol itself was a sign of of this Luciferian cult who took the fallen angel mythology literally. This dangerous group of people can predict the future and can make bad things happen to people. The New Dawn has been under scrunity and investigation from authorities including the FBI for harboring runaways and there were allegations of money laundrying and tax fraud within the organization but nothing solid. And Stark himself is protected on political grounds and he keeps a pack of high-priced lawyers in attack mode year round.

Stark and his followers were responsible for the dissappearances and murders of several young 6 year-old children including Martin Casillas and Tania Riley in their search of a special person with unique supernatural powers comes from God and born on December 16th under a star called the "Star of Yacov" (also called "Christmas Star") that some say resembles the Star of Bethlehem 2000 years ago. They first put these children through a "test" of demostrating hidden powers. After being killed when they failed their tests, the kidnapped children would be branded with not only the cult's symbol, also the 2 symbols alongside the icon, and these symbols represents "Pascua Negra" (translated as "Black Easter"), meaning the children who were unable to succeeded in the cult's bizzarre tests would be slain on the eve of Easter. And in the end, the murders of these chosen children referred to by the cult as the "Slaughter of the Innocents". They murdered more children they selected before back in 1993 after they discovered each child were born on the 16th of December, same birthday as the murdered children 7 years later.

Trivia

 * Film critic Bruce Kirkland felt that Bless the Child was mocking Scientology in the guise of the fictional cult "The New Dawn".