Eternal evil

"A bored television director is introduced to the black arts and astral projection by his girlfriend. Learning the ability to separate his spirit from his body, the man finds a renewed interest in his life and a sense of wellbeing. Unfortunately, the man discovers while he is sleeping, his spirit leaves his body and his uncontrolled body roams the streets in a murderous rampage," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.

The synopsis isn't entirely correct, as it turns out.

Anyway, the movie opens with a dizzying "out-of-body" example of handsome director Winston Rekert (as Paul Sharpe)'s newly discovered "astral body" experience; it also foreshadows an upcoming dogfight. Young Andrew Bednarski (as Matthew Sharpe), being a kid, draws pictures of "The Blue Man", as his murder spree begins. Handsome detective John Novak (as Stewart Kaufman) discovers the victims are connected to Mr. Rekert. Mr. Novak's investigation leads to the supernatural; a prime example of which is Karen Black (as Janus), with whom Rekert fears he is falling in love.

Several in the cast perform well; but, "The Blue Man" winds up tying itself up in a knot. Aka "Eternal Evil", its unsatisfying story tries to be far too clever for its own good.

I don't know if astral projection is actually possible - I like to keep an open mind about such things - but I love the idea of it, and it's perfect for the horror genre, as evidenced in entertaining films such as Psychic Killer (1975) and Out of the Body (1989).

Canadian horror Eternal Evil (AKA The Blue Man) also explores the supernatural world of soul wandering, but the result is far less enjoyable than the aforementioned movies thanks to muddled storytelling from director George Mihalka (the man who gave us the excellent slasher classic My Bloody Valentine) and the fact that his protagonist isn't a very likeable character from the start.

Paul Sharpe (Winston Rekert) is an ex-film-maker turned director of commercials who learns the art of astral projection from the enigmatic Janus (Karen Black, in one of her stock-in-trade eccentric roles). When those around Paul start to turn up dead, their internal organs having haemorrhaged, a curious cop (John Novak) starts to investigate...

Despite a very promising premise, this film doesn't do anything very interesting with it (obvious budgetary limitations means no special effects and no gore) - stuff happens, but nothing to prevent the viewer from slowly drifting off. Hey, maybe I'll watch this film again to help me reach the meditative hypnagogic state necessary for my soul to leave my body and travel to the astral plane - gotta be worth a try.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

I never figured out what the attraction of Karen Black was. She always had those beady eyes and kind of an odd look about her. She seemed to often be eccentric or cast as the "other" woman. In this one, she is the psychic adviser and expert on the occult to a crummy producer of bad commercials as he learns astral projection. He is a mean sucker, even without the new baggage. Apparently this is the avenue to immortality, because if you get good at it, you can inhabit the bodies of future generations. I believe Star Trek had a plot like this with Jack the Ripper hanging on for several centuries. Anyway, this guy is really dangerous. He has a nice family and makes them miserable. He begins to murder friends, just because they have an unkind comment for them, or he doesn't like them. You can see the ending coming from the back row in left field. It's a very harsh, humorless movie. Most of it must be taken as truth. Why are some called but few chosen? I found it long and not very satisfying.

I saw this little bootlegged DVD at the local mom and pop discount store for $1.99 and was attracted by the title. It was released under the title "Eternal Evil" and the distribution company that released this feature isn't even on the box, if that means anything (the back of the DVD only reads, "(c) 2005 Mircale Pictures a division of PMC Corp. De.") I read the synopsis and thought it would be rather interesting ... then i read the credits and find that this film was directed by none other than George Mihalka - - the director behind the cult fave & horror classic "My Bloody Valentine" (which is in my top five of all time, by the way). Well, the premise is great, but it doesn't quite deliver the way it should. There are loops in the plot and the story tends to d-r-a-g in places. Not to mention the forty minutes in the film where I was completely lost as to where the story was going. There are scenes that don't make sense and don't cohere with the story line, also. The final "twist" of the film was satisfying, if I can use the term loosely. I guessed it wrong though, even during the exact moment in the film where you can pretty much tell how it will end...lol. The opening sequence is very effective, and it's one of the few highlights of the film itself. I read somewhere that this was a made-for-TV movie, which would explain the lack of gore and the absence of any type of foul language for a film of this nature. Oh yes, the soundtrack wasn't all that great for the film, but there are one or two scenes where the music shifts in the direction that masters Goblin did with "Suspiria" back in '77 to get your attention. I was sorry that didn't last any longer than it did.

All in all, this isn't a bad film, but it's not as great as I was hoping from the director of a great classic like MBV.

This is a good plot concept, so why-o-why is it such a poor film. The acting is terrible and every shock is signposted so far in advance that it is almost laughable by the time it reaches you. Spend your time and money elsewhere, this is not worth watching.