Faust: Love of the Damned

This is like Wishmaster (1997) but with the devil instead of a malignant genie. The actual monster was seriously cool when it was on the screen but that is for a disappointingly short time. The story was full of twists and interest but something was missing so I found my attention drifting. The ending was great with a big thingy that burnt stuff with wonderfully tacky effects. Not very intense but the ending was worth waiting for.

I haven't read the graphic novel which inspired this terrible crap, so I don't know whether it's a bad adaptation, or just a bad movie. And it is a VERY bad movie! I liked Yuzna's debut 'Society' many years ago, and he produced 'Re-Animator' and some other good Stuart Gordon movies which I have a lot of time for, but this is just awful! The two leads Mark Frost and Andrew Divoff are both terrible, the script is an illogical mess, Faust's costume is absolutely ludicrous, and 'Re-Animator' star Jeffrey Combs, who plays a cop, is given so little to do you wonder why he bothered to participate. In short, there is no reason in the world to subject yourself to watching this, one of the worst movies I've seen in quite some time. Man, even 'Spawn' was better than this, and that's REALLY saying something!

This movie lives by those words. Faust is simply a fluff film meant to have fun with. You people have got to stop saying that this film ripped off Spawn. This comic was published back in the 1980's! The 80's folks. Got that straight? Now, Faust is not a good movie, it's a good looking movie. It's stylishly done. Brian Yuzna has certainly progressed as a filmmaker. Screaming Mad George's effects are, as always, different. There is a strange lack of gore, however (most reviews kept talking about the gore, but they obviously have not seen other Yuzna/George collaborations). It does get a little far fetched when M turns the chick into a blob of goo. It's just ridiculous, I wish Yuzna would take his films more seriously sometimes. I mean, sometimes it's funny, but at others it's inappropriate. There is also a monster that looks dead-on like Dr. Freudstein in Fulci's House by the Cemetery. My other complaint comes during the subway scene. Why do they have to have sex after they escape danger? It's over the top to say the least. Faust does have a plus side. You've got a couple of cult favorites starring. Jeffrey Combs always adds something to a picture and Andrew Divoff is perfect as M. He has one of the most evil voices ever (I'm just not sure about that haircut). Mark Frost gets the award for gratuitous over-acting. It is a comic book movie though. There's also a great soundtrack. Nothing like some good old fashioned heavy metal to drive a violent flick.

"You can't cure evil, Dr. It's not a sickness."

Yes, it's a strange movie. Yes, I still don't know if I like it: Divoff was right as M, I liked him. The plot place for Van Campen's character was right, too, although her own dubbing (to spanish) was bad bad bad. Mark Frost was Jim Carrey in a Gore movie but I liked his Faust part of the role. The psychiatrist character and actress are the most defined and well worked ones. The FX were right (wonderful make-up, specially the Van Campen-turns-into-DesireWoman one: horny at the beginning and more disturbing as it went on). But the mix of bad acting, Spawn-theft plot and bad worked scenes and connections didn't leave me clear one thing: did I like this movie? I don't know...

Brian Yuzna, the happily disturbed director of such films like `Society' and the `Re-Animator' sequels, returns here with an ultra-violent movie that goes straight for attacking the viewer's last bit of good taste. John Jaspers makes a pact with the devil…In return for his eternal soul; he's offered the change to avenge the death of his girlfriend. John is satisfied after this, but the devil (referred to as `M') wants John to go on with his killing spree. He refuses and gets buried, only to resurrect as Faust! A typical comic book and cloaked superhero, but slightly more bloodthirsty than the average Bat-, Spider- or Superman. Is `Faust – Love of the Damned' a good movie? No…not at all, in fact, but it could have been worse. The basic Faust plot outline (selling your soul to the devil) is as old as cinema itself. The eminent director F.W Murnau (Nosferatu) already made a film with this theme back in 1926. Try and compete with that, Brian Yuzna! The screenplay contains a few slightly ingenious aspects, like the character of the insatiable, sex-addicted sidekick of M, played by the ravishing Monica Van Campen. But the biggest goal of Faust is showing as much gore as humanly possible. Make-up artist Screaming Mad George gets to be his old, filthy self again and inserts grotesque gore such as eye poking and decapitations. There even is a melting-sequence, entirely in the tradition of `Society'. Regretfully, the acting performances are a giant letdown… Mark Frost overacts terribly and Andrew Divoff (who already annoyed the hell out of me in `Wishmaster') is the most undeserved horror lead ever. Jeffrey Combs still is the man, although it hurts to see him being downgraded straight to the supportive cast. Furthermore, there's not the least bit of tension, depth or atmosphere so I wouldn't exactly call this a successful new horror film. Lots of fun guaranteed if you're a gorehound, though