If you believe the cult horror Zombie Nightmare is Adam West's magnum opus of the horror genre (and I do), well, wait until you watch this 90s supernatural horror-mystery film everyone is not talking about, and should be. Okay, actually scratch that... the opening sentence was what I was thinking when I held a copy of the film in hands, but after watching Maxim Xul it's wishful thinking on my part and quite understandable why this film virtually disappeared off the face of the earth. I didn't even know of the film's existence and by chance late last year I came across a cheap VHS copy. Highlight cheap. The front cover screams at you, and I just couldn't resist the smokey mist, pink lighting and West in business suit attire standing there with a medieval sword in one hand and a medieval flail in the other. That is where the excitement mainly lies... in your expectations after seeing the image. Oh boy, I was wrong. I didn't find it to be completely awful, because for a low-budget production it showed some nice moody visual flair and made perfect use of dingy urban atmospherics, but the main issue was the stilted and drab storytelling of the concept. It's definitely no Zombie Nightmare, well at least not as fun because quality wise both are hard to split. I might actually lean on this film for the latter though.
A monotone West doesn't look all that interested either, even at times possibly uncomfortable as his occult professor character simply shows up unannounced at murder scenes rambling on about ancient evils, and then walks away. You know... the exposition guy, who drops in tell us what's happening and walks off to only magically reappear when needed... like the final fight of good against evil. B.Y.O sword and flail... thankyou West. Because the good guys (police detective & investigative reporter) would be screwed otherwise.
The plot is a real hot mess. There are plenty of dead weight, talky scenes of investigative digging, and inner conflict over the ripper killings. The core characters tail suspects and follow up on new, and old leads surrounding the unnatural, and superhuman inflicted mutilations rocking the city, but to little on the simmering horror of these incidents it just lacked the potent shocks. One or two scenes maybe throughout, but it's not until the climax when it follows through on its promise. Slow motion, night time mist, abandoned warehouses, Adam West, an unexpected demon transformation (or better put mask) and the two in a physical tussle... although expect something rather clumsy than gangbusters... like the laughable moment when West swings around flail for it to only bounce of the demon's head?! And then we get the closing money shot... yep, back view of West walking off. Job done.
The script goes all out throwing out the usual mythological, religious and philosophical traditions of soul and spirit clashing with unexplained evil. Those empty of such are the ultimate evil (a demon force) feeding on life, forced to kill to fulfil the hunger and addiction, as these soulless entities are without the amoral constraints. This begins connections between a whole rash of murders. So it could've been high concept in wanting to breakdown the psyches of motiveless killers, but instead the execution and limited resources can't match the ambition of its storytelling by going out on a silly, and cheap note. All... another way of looking at its underlining meaning - defence lawyers of murderers are soulless, and a harbourer of evil... therefore the devil's disguise? Yep, quite heavy-handed, but this junk is just that.
