Based on the book 'Casting the Runes' by MR James, this story also name-drops the likes of HP Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley. Top-billed Steven Craine plays George Carney, a character he has played before, here a constantly stoned graphic novel illustrator.
There are some deft directorial touches; a Bladerunner-like low moan features constantly on the soundtrack, repeated regularly throughout. It is overused, but effective. As an actor, Craine makes a very good writer/producer/director - for he and Richard Driscoll are one in the same. Never one to shy away from ego, Driscoll casts himself as the lead, partner to stunning Lysette Anthony's Martha, and features in almost every scene, often in close-up. He is not a bad actor, he is certainly not a good one: in fact, he is not an actor at all, rather a void with an unconvincing, frequently incomprehensible, growling, occasionally forgotten American accent. Other characters talk to him, react to him, but his performance barely exists. How much more effective this would have been if he hadn't felt the need to play the lead - whilst not quite as bad as his Anthony Hopkins impersonation in 2001's 'Kannibal', or his Joker impression 'The Comedian' in 2018's 'Assassin's Revenge', the performance is still negligible. Twenty minutes in, the portly 69 year-old Craine trying to look unconcerned and cool in a strip club is fairly embarrassing and apart from whipping off his glasses and rubbing his brow every few minutes, is devoid of any personality whatsoever. This results in his scenes - which fill the 72 minutes running time - often being very dull.
Around him and Anthony are the supporting cast. Oliver Tobias, Bai Ling, Dudley Sutton, Sylvester McCoy, Michael Madsen and Robin Askwith are drafted in from other locations and productions, with the Carney character, and the Bladerunner soundtrack moan (which bears more than a passing resemblance to Doctor Who's TARDIS console in the 1996 television movie, also starring McCoy), the only constant. With these inclusions, the storyline soon becomes an incomprehensible jumble of set-pieces.
And yet in line with other Driscoll productions, this has much that is so good: it looks great. Sweeping panoramas and interesting optical effects that look anything other than low-budget. Scenes that aren't patchworks from other projects are well staged and nicely lit. The result is frustrating, a mixed bag of the truly risible and the genuinely impressive.
Richard Driscoll films are worth watching, not because they are particularly good on the whole, but it is always interesting to see what he is up to. He's out there and he's still doing it - and I'm glad of it. Just stay behind the camera!
