The Blue Man

Winston Rekert is a fairly successful, but unsatisfied director of television commercials who learns the art of astral projection (letting his spirit travel around without his body) from Karen Black. This all seems cool until people around him start dying mysteriously. Cop John Novak investigates and the film crawls towards it's utterly predictable conclusion.

Hungarian born Canadian director George Mihalka directed this, his 2nd horror outing after the pretty nifty slasher flick "My Bloody Valentine". That film suffered from some pretty serious cuts to avoid an X rating. This film was clearly never in any such danger.

It was made as "The Blue Man". That title refers to how someone is supposed to appear when they are astrally projecting ... a shimmering blue phantasm of themselves. This effect was clearly beyond the budgetary means of the film, so instead they're invisible, even though the dialogue still describes them as the missing effect. We do see blurry POV footage of the travelling spirits, but basically, there's no effects in this film.

There's not much of anything else either. It's an interminably slow and uneventful film. It's hard to imagine any viewer that won't be miles ahead of this plot and wildly impatient for the film to catch up.

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.

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.

Eternal Evil (1985) is a Canadian horror 🇨🇦 film currently available on Tubi. The story follows a Canadian film director who learns a method to leave his body, only to discover he can't control it. When people around him begin dying, he's left struggling to stop the chaos.

Directed by George Mihalka (My Bloody Valentine), the film stars Karen Black (Five Easy Pieces), Winston Rekert (The Art of War II), John Novak (Legends of the Fall), and Vlasta Vrana (Upside Down).

This film is worth watching primarily for Karen Black, as the rest feels underwhelming. The storyline comes across as lazy and poorly executed, with dated horror effects. While the dream sequences offer a few decent jump scares, the kill scenes are weak, relying heavily on cutaways. The movie carries some giallo-inspired elements, but they don't fully land. However, the twist at the end is a fun highlight.

In conclusion, Eternal Evil is an average horror film best appreciated for Karen Black's performance. I'd rate it a 5/10.

"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.