Fade to Black

If you like the classics, bogart,monroe, brandon etc and also appreciate obscure horror like fulci, damato, ndeodato, chances are that you will fin this movie ubercool! i certainly did.

Dennis Christopher elevates what might as well be another generic slasher/thriller every step of the way with his thoughtful and committed performance as a movie obsessed loner who develops an obsession with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike and begins killing people he doesn't like while dressed as his famous cinematic heroes.

There's something a little too somber and serious about Fade To Black and if it could just let loose and have a little fun every now and then, it might have been a more enjoyable film. It plays more like Taxi Driver or the more recent Joker film, taking itself deathly seriously even when it should be adding a little levity to the story. It's admirable for the first half of the film, but once the killings start, it stops being that serious psychological study and turns into something entirely and logic flies out the window a bit.

There's also an entirely unnecessary subplot involving a police officer and the new, cocaine snorting psychologist she works with that adds very little except padding to the run time.

It's only Christopher's performance that holds the film together and it's worth seeing just for him.

A movie-obsessed nerd has enough of people not taking his cinematic ambitions seriously, so he kills them in disguises inspired by his favorite movie characters.

As many good things as Fade To Black has going for it, the finished product is unsatisfying in a variety of ways. It's torn between tortured character study and also trying to keep up with the culture's current obsession with slasher movies and doesn't commit to either fully enough to satisfy and it's neither as thrilling or psychologically complex as it could be. Dennis Christopher's performance holds it together even when it comes close to crumbling down.

There are three types of horror films 1.the scary horror film (designed as you would think to scare you. 2.The black comedy (Its meant to be funny, but not everyone will find this true. Third and last are the dramatic horror films, they play like a drama film except they are much darker and usually have something to do with mental illnesses. This movie is of the third kind, It is a sad character study of a young man called Eric who spends all his time watching movies and finding out trivia about them. He has no apparent friends and he lives with his wheelchair bound aunt, who really is at odds with him. The film is very original and has a incredible lead performance from the actor playing Eric. They cops on the other hand are all really badly done, I just couldnt wait till they left the screen and every time they appeared again I grimly waited for there departure. Most of the other actors do quite a good job in this film and it also sports a young Mickey Rouke in what I think was his first film role. I would recommend this film only to horror fans, The film references, the characters and the direction are all tuned to giving any horror fan a good time for their money. Its not for everyone. But thats what I liked about it.

Dennis Christopher turns in the performance of his career as a movie obsessed loner who disguises himself as his favorite film characters to get revenge on those he believes have wronged him.

Fade to Black is somewhere between a classy psychological thriller and a slasher movie, but it refuses to lean into either or and ends up not being much of anything other than a missed opportunity. It's hard to imagine a bloodthirsty slasher fan getting much out of this and it's not quite smart and insightful enough to get any mainstream attention.