Die Rückkehr des Unbegreiflichen

Manic depressive artist George Miller snaps one Halloween night, decides he wants to end it all and jumps from the top of the inner-city fleabag motel he calls home. Across town, small-time gangster Vito Minelli finds out the hard way, what happens when you don't pay off your gambling debts, as his vengeful cronies blow out his kneecaps, then douse him in gasoline and set him on fire.

Somewhere between life and death, George's and Vito's lives intersect, and both will be changed forever. This is not a good thing for George, and even worse for Vito's assailants, as they will each discover to their horror and dismay...

As low-budget supernatural thrillers go, RETRIBUTION manages to strike a nice balance between the yen of those horror fans who like character-driven stories, and the gorehounds who like to see "folks git blowed up real good." TV and movie vet Dennis Lipscomb, who very rarely gets to carry a picture, delivers a scary and sympathetic performance as the troubled George. He has the chameleonic ability to disappear into his character, which is both a blessing and a curse to the best character actors. They make it look so easy, most people don't even consider what they do to be "work," and that's the trouble.

Another out-of-print, hard-as-hell-to-find but worthy entry into the B-movie hall of fame.

Starving artist George (Dennis Lipscomb) decides to end his life by jumping off his apartment building on Halloween night. As he lays dying, his body receives the spirit of a man who shares his birthday and is killed at the exact same time (confused?). He lives and the spirit takes over when George goes to sleep and seeks retribution on folks who burned him alive (Freddy who?). Of course, his psychiatrist Dr. Curtis (Leslie Wing) thinks he's crazy and Lt. Ashley (Hoyt Axton) thinks he is the killer. This is a pretty solid horror flick that I liked even more watching it now than back in the 80s. You can hear the filmmakers whisper, "It is like ELM STREET, see?" (the burned villain even looks like Freddy), but writer-director Guy Magar does enough to make it stand apart. The only misfire is a visit to one Doctor Rasta, a Rastafarian voodoo doctor. Oh, and lots of 80s neon. Was it really that prevalent? Lipscomb, looking like a nerdy Christopher Walken, is an interesting choice for a leading man and I like that casting. On the technical side, there is lots of great camera work and some interesting use of lighting. The gore appears to be cut, but is still plentiful. Magar cut his teeth on TV work and this was his first feature. He went on to do THE STEPFATHER III, which I also thought had great cinematography, and one of the CHILDREN OF THE CORN sequels.

Solid B-movie with OK performances and slam-bang special effects. This is one of those neglected little thrillers that set out not to offer anything new to the genre, but at least to give fans of those movies their money's worth. And this one generally seems to know its business (although it does get a little too loud near the end). (**)

Dennis Lipscombe is a depressed artist who throws himself off the roof of the hotel he lives in on Halloween. He survives, but starts having visions of a small time gangster who died the same night. Soon he is having nightmares about stalking and killing strangers, and the murders he dreams of are really happening. His psychiatrist and his hooker girlfriend try to help him figure out what is going on, while cop Hoyt Axton investigates the murder spree. This is a pretty solid mid-80's horror flick with colorful photography, creative, gory deaths, and a really solid cast of recognizable character actors.

I think i'd like to live in this world - all low rent film noir, new wave neon, coloured gels where your best friends are bikers and hookers and its full of Rastafarian mystics and cliched cops in shiny suits and dogs in sunglasses.