Fire City: End of Days

Vine, a disillusioned demon, is forced into a choice to save his brethren or an innocent human girl when the misery his kind feeds on is diminished.

Director Tom Woodruff Jr. (special effects maestro, know for Aliens) offers a surreal neon monster demon film packed with makeup and special effects. Ryan Leach score enhances the vibe in this overlooked tight budgeted film with few locations. Although big on concept but small in scope and budget it has a comic book feel, and visuals echoing likes of Nightbreed, with touch of Hellboy.

The cast do a great job, nonchalant Tobias Jelinek is notable giving a standout performance as Jack Nicholson-like Atum Vine. Danielle C. Ryan Is memorable as Cornelia. Both Kimberly Leemans as succubus demon Amber and young Sara played by Keely Aloña deserve a mention.

Overall, it may not have the budget of the aforementioned, but with its premise and makeup effects Woodruff delivers enough horror ingredients to make it worthwhile.

Right from the start Fire City: End of Days got a big A+ rating in my book simply for the extensive and impressive use of practical effects. For a fantasy thriller and a low budget indie feature this film is remarkably deep and equally dark. For those of you familiar with Angel, the Buffy spin off, Fire City treads kindred ground steeped in the shadows and dust of an urban underworld. For all that this film bears in promise, it ultimately falls short somehow with its bewildering climax that feels both rushed and drawn out somehow. We are set up to expect more installments in the series that continue the story of Atum Vine (installments I await with more anticipation than I had for Desolation of Smaug (!).

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of Fire City is not a part of the story, but rather that the film strains its scant budget to the max, popping seams along the way.

I just turned it on for background noise to fall asleep then ended up staying up to finish it. Pretty neat film and I recommend it

The story had some issues and at times reminded me of a late night HBO flick. There were certain aspects I really wish they had cut out and perhaps elaborated a bit more on others. Even though we spend most of our time with the demons, I never really felt close to any of them with the exception of the main character. I'd have liked to have seen more WHY.

What really made the film were the costumes. Nightbreed kept popping into my head as I watched. That's something I give a lot of weight to in a film and for the most part, they were done well. Especially when it came to Vine.

Another pro of the film for me was the acting. I just kept hoping for a better, more cohesive story.

I had no idea what to expect from this movie when I sat down to watch it, other than I believed it to be a horror movie. I read the synopsis, and it seemed alright.

The storyline in "Fire City: End of Days" was very deviant from what I was expecting, especially since I found this movie in the horror section. It didn't really have an ounce of horror to it; this was more of a fantasy movie of sorts. And there was so little happening of any interest or anything riveting that made you hunger for more, so it was a very bland and uneventful pace that the movie trotted on in.

And just when I thought I just about had seen all there was to see, a demonic drug dealer pops up on the screen here.

So this was supposed to be demons coexisting with humans in our world? But somehow the demons looked like creatures from "Babylon 5". And some of the demons looked like something from one of the early Peter Jackson movies such as "Bad Taste". There wasn't a shred of demonic feel to the majority of the creatures in the movie. Which kind of baffled me, especially since they had definitely put a lot of effort into the make-up and prosthetic. The boar-like demon was perhaps the one with the worst demon design of them all, it looked like something from a low budget young adult TV horror show. There was a Moloch, though, that actually looked quite good and had that demonic feel to its design, aside from the mouth when it spoke and it spoke with Schwarzenegger-like accent, which made it difficult to take it serious.

The acting in the movie was adequate, and I was actually a bit surprised to see that Danielle Chuchran was playing the role of Cornelia. Aside from Danielle Chuchran, the only other familiar face on the screen was Matt Winston (playing Ron).

The characters in the movie were so trivial and generic that you don't really bother committing to any of them. The characters do appear to be rather pointless and could easily be replaced by cardboard cut-outs.

There was a scene where the Asian couple was sitting at the dining table with another woman, and when she got up and started to undress and dance naked then I was just about ready to get up and turn off the movie. Because that brought so much ridiculousness and pointlessness with it. And it served no purpose at all. Sure, I get that some demons are all about sexual prowess and seduction, but come on. It served no purpose other than director Tom Woodruff Jr. having a chance to put a fully naked woman into his movie.

"Fire City: End of Days" was by no means an outstanding or particularly memorable movie in any way. It was entertaining enough for the campy thing that it turned out to be. Just don't expect anything extraordinary here. And I doubt that you will watch the movie more than once, provided you actually make it through the first time, given its slow and mundane pacing.