Immortality

IMMORTALITY

Alternately titled The Wisdom of Crocodiles, Immortality (a film from 1998) follows a fellow named Steven who needs to ingest blood from a loving human once every few weeks lest his body break down and stop functioning.  He never refers to himself as a vampire, and he can walk around in daylight, but he is a blood drinker and a killer.  He has a pattern of picking up women, seducing them over time, and ultimately drinking their blood and disposing of their bodies.  When one corpse turns up, a police investigation seems likely to hamper Steven’s style.   The bulk of the story is about Steven’s relationship with a structural engineer named Anne.

Immortality has a promising premise and begins interestingly enough, but the middle drags on with one too many talky scenes of Steven yammering with a cop, and the ending feels anti-climactic.  For better or worse, sympathetic or unsympathetic, Steven is the protagonist of the story, and he wants to drink blood to survive.  After spending so much time watching Steven infiltrate Anne’s world, I wanted to see the protagonist get what he wants.  He does not.  In the final sequence, Steven bleeds to death from a small wound in his hand (his body by then so fragile from not drinking blood that such an injury could do him in). 

I give props to screenwriter Paul Hoffman for attempting a unique take on a tale about a blood-drinker, but Immortality sadly ends with a whimper and not a bang.

Fade to Black

FADE TO BLACK

A 1980 film about a movie buff’s descent into homicidal mania, Fade to Black features a nuanced performance by Dennis Christopher as Eric Binford.  Eric lives with his overbearing aunt (later revealed to actually be his mother) and is constantly strapped for cash.  He escapes from reality by immersing himself in movies.  One day Eric crosses paths with an aspiring model who bears a resemblance to Marilyn Monroe.  Eric gives her a lift to her workplace, then manages to snag a date with her for eight o’clock that night.  She stands Eric up, and shortly thereafter Eric snaps and kills his “aunt” (whose death is ruled an accident).  Soon Eric starts dressing as movie characters and murdering people.  His crime spree comes to an end when he’s riddled with police bullets atop the Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Fade to Black’s story doesn’t quite hold together (I’m not sure how exactly the cops investigating the murders come to the conclusion that Eric Binford is their prime suspect, and at one point someone references “the Dracula murder” when there were no eyewitnesses to see who the killer was dressed as that time around).  Despite these flaws, it’s an entertaining and well-shot story about the revenge of an underdog who has snapped under pressure. 

Fade to Black has a fantastic soundtrack by Craig Safan (I’ve had the CD of the music longer than I’ve had the DVD of the film). 

Vernon Zimmerman wrote and directed the project.  Vernon was my UCLA Professional Program in Screenwriting workshop instructor in the spring quarter of 1999, but I only just now got around to checking out his cult classic movie.  I’m glad I finally did.

Frailty

FRAILTY

A thriller from 2001, Frailty has two twist endings too many but otherwise is worth a look.  The story is told in non-linear fashion with an unreliable narrator and sometimes features flashbacks within flashbacks.  The tale begins with a man telling an FBI agent that his brother is a serial killer.  From then until the final couple of sequences, the narrative alternates between the present “guy telling a tale to an FBI agent” scenes and flashbacks to the guy’s childhood with his father and brother.  The father seemingly goes mad gradually, claiming that God has chosen his family to destroy demons.  He ropes the kids into helping him kidnap and murder these “demons” (an angel visits him and provides a list of names).  One brother believes in Dad’s mission, while the other does not.  To say much more would be to spoil the better surprises.

Frailty delves into unbelievable territory at times (an FBI agent working alone takes a witness/suspect to the middle of nowhere late at night with no backup) but is generally an engrossing and enjoyable film.  Screenwriter Brent Hanley also penned an excellent episode of Masters of Horror titled Family.  Frailty grows increasingly horrifying as the father progresses from a belief in a divine calling to full-blown ax murder in front of his children.  I’m sorry that Frailty slipped under my radar until now.      

Parasomnia

PARASOMNIA

One of the worst films I’ve ever seen, Parasomnia (from 2008) has such a ridiculous and convoluted premise that it’s difficult to summarize concisely.  Essentially, a fellow named Danny kidnaps (from a hospital) a girl named Laura who suffers from a condition that causes her to sleep most of the time.  Danny’s actions provoke the wrath of a serial killer hypnotist who wants to possess Laura.

Parasomnia’s script is absurd, and the special effects (specifically those in Laura’s dream sequences) look like poor live-action/cartoon hybrids.  Seriously, if the folks at Cinematic Titanic ever opt to riff on recent movies, Parasomnia would be a fine choice.  The script presents a wholly unrealistic tale in which the following events occur: Laura wakes up outside of her hospital room and grants consent for Danny to take her to his home.  The serial killer (Byron Volpe) communicates with Laura in her dreams.  Volpe also can hypnotize people and compel them to commit murder with just a glance.  Danny continues to obsessively protect Laura even after she kills a cop right in front of him.  Danny and Laura proclaim their love for each other after having known each other ever so briefly.  There’s a subplot about Danny’s desire to own a rare piece of vinyl that has nothing to do with the primary story.  The tale ends with Danny and Laura (he comatose, she asleep) afloat in a tank full of liquid with breathing apparatuses stuck in their mouths while a doctor observes them and gushes exposition to a fellow who has no business knowing any of it.

If you crave crap in high-definition, check out the Blu-ray of Parasomnia.

Ghost Ship

GHOST SHIP

A 2002 picture about a salvage crew that sets out in a tugboat to recover a derelict ocean liner, Ghost Ship opens with a fantastic prologue set in 1962 but rapidly devolves into mediocrity after the “present day” scenes begin.  The plot grows muddled as members of the salvage team encounter strange happenings aboard the rusted-out vessel but don’t communicate about them with each other (Maureen Epps, the protagonist, says nothing after she has a full-blown conversation with the ghost of a little girl who warns her to get off the ship).  The nature of the true antagonist is convoluted and just plain silly (I won’t spoil the third act by getting into specifics).  When the tugboat’s engine room explodes (at the midpoint) while the bulk of the crew is aboard the ocean liner, no real sense of panic or trauma radiates from the characters who are now stranded with naught but maggot-invested canned goods for food.  I’m always up for a great tale of supernatural happenings at sea, but Ghost Ship’s story is neither great nor even very good.  The best compliment I can muster about this project: the sets looked pretty cool.  Steer clear.

She Creature

SHE CREATURE

A 2001 project with a promising premise, She Creature begins in Ireland in 1905 where a fellow named Angus (played by Rufus Sewell of Dark City fame) runs a sideshow with attractions that purport to be an actual zombie and a real mermaid.  The “zombie” is an employee of Angus named Bailey, and the “mermaid” is Angus's girlfriend Lily.  One night a fellow named Mr. Woolrich attends the show and protests when he discovers that Lily is not an actual mermaid.  He gets a lift home from Angus and Lily, then invites them inside and gushes some exposition about the nature of actual mermaids (somewhere there are Forbidden Islands that the mermaids call home, and the lair has a Queen Mermaid).  Woolrich then shows Angus and Lily an actual live mermaid that he keeps in a tank.  Later that night, Angus and a couple of his men break in at the Woolrich house and steal the mermaid along with a journal that Woolrich’s late wife kept about the creature.  Angus plans to take the mermaid to America and become rich and famous.  The bulk of the story takes place on the ship that Angus, Lily, Bailey, and a fellow called Gifford take across the ocean.  Turns out mermaids have a taste for human flesh and the ability to psychically control some people.  The mermaid compels the captain to re-route the ship to the Forbidden Islands.  Once the ship crashes, the mermaid assumes her true form: a fearsome fish-creature who is Queen of the lair.  She makes quick work of the ship’s crew, and she ultimately kills Angus but allows Lily (who she’s somehow impregnated) to escape. 

The last fifteen minutes of She Creature are quite cool, like a riff on Alien but with a large fish-monster aboard an early-twentieth-century vessel.  The journey to this sequence, however, is not especially engaging.  Some of the Irish accents were so thick that I had to watch the whole film with subtitles on.  Most of the deaths occur off-screen.  Some conflicts between Angus and Lily seem dragged-out to pad the movie to its 89-minute run time. 

I would’ve liked to have seen the story structured so that the ship arrives at the Forbidden Islands much sooner, say at the midpoint or even at the end of the first act.  The tale then could’ve been about the ship’s crew struggling to survive while hunted by flesh-craving fish-beasts on their own turf.  I imagine that version would require a much larger budget.

She Creature boasts fine special effects from Stan Winston’s company but sadly hasn’t got a plot worthy of such visuals.

The House of the Devil

THE HOUSE OF THE DEVIL

In this film from 2009, a college sophomore named Samantha pursues and lands a babysitting gig only to discover that instead of a kid she’ll be staying with an elderly woman.  At a large and isolated country house, Samantha explores without ever actually laying eyes on her charge, who allegedly keeps to herself upstairs.  In a closet, Samantha finds a photograph that suggests the people who hired her might not be the actual homeowners.  Samantha eats some apparently drugged pizza and passes out.  When she comes to, she discovers the true nature of her employers.

House of the Devil reminds me a bit of John Carpenter’s Halloween in terms of its pacing: the first three-quarters of the story gradually introduce the characters and world, and then the final quarter has the viewer biting fingernails and sitting on the edge of the couch while glued to the screen hoping that the protagonist will survive.  Unlike Halloween, however, House of the Devil has a terribly unsatisfying finale.  I can’t get into specifics without spoiling the plot, but the last twist of this project packs none of the punch of the moment in Halloween when Dr. Loomis realizes that Michael Myers is not laying in the grass downstairs.  House of the Devil looks and feels like a horror film from a bygone age, and indeed I believe it’s meant to be a period piece though the exact year in which the tale takes place is never stated.  If you’re willing to sit through about ninety minutes of terrific suspenseful filmmaking to get to a letdown of a denouement, House of the Devil may be for you.