A Volta para Casa

Knowing that 'Trancers 4' and 'Trancers 5' were filmed back to back, and having found 'Jack of swords' extraordinarily lacking, I didn't have much hope for 'Sudden Deth.' Yet, amazingly, the filmmakers found a way to hobble this picture even further, as it begins with seven minutes of lazily narrated recap and exposition. This fifth entry has the same advantages as its immediate predecessor - but unfortunately, the same flaws, too. This is so direly uninteresting.

With the productions linked, everything that could be said about 'Trancers 4' applies equally to 'Trancers 5.' I like the music composed by Gary Fry, yet it can only do so much by itself. It's no small get to have Peter David onboard as screenwriter, but one gets the sense that he wrote the best story he could while still being desperately hampered by the scenario, and constrained by demands for tawdry rewrites. The filming locations, set design and decoration, costume design, props, and even makeup and hair all look swell - yet these are unquestionably the best parts of the film, and that in itself is a problem.

Worst of all, however, is the pervasive feeling that the entirety of the feature was subject to Deth's characteristic "long second" device, or that the movie is a flailing attempt at self-parody. Dialogue, action, and even the most cursory physical movement crawls along with the most listless, idle, slothful torpor. The delivery of would-be jokes falls flat, and supposed action sequences are more dull than a spoon. I once again had to check that my video settings weren't altered to reduce playback speed, but even within the same feature we're treated to rare, fleeting instances of normal, realistic movement that informs without a doubt the stagnant gait of the craft is totally deliberate. It's impossible to tell from 'Sudden Deth' alone if anyone in the cast possesses any acting skills, as everyone is forced into the most slacking, apathetic, and downright sleepy of performances. I wouldn't mind seeing these actors in other films, so I suppose there's that - but here they, like all resources of the film, just go to waste.

'Trancers 5' is ostensibly a sci-fi adventure film with elements of comedy and horror, but all these aspects are rendered almost wholly inert by the consciously plodding pace. The fourth and fifth entries in the series bear zero thrills and a single laugh between the two of them - and it's not in this one.

I'm simply flabbergasted. There were a few actual good story ideas within. Yet it's as though the filmmakers set out with the earnest intent to weaken the movie with utmost disadvantage. A job well done, I suppose - mission accomplished. But to what end?

There's no reason to watch 'Trancers 5' if you didn't already suffer through 'Trancers 4' - and there's no particularly good reason to watch that, either. I can't recommend this even to viewers who can't get enough of B-movies; only someone who has already committed to watching the whole 'Trancers' series could claim any rationale for sitting through it. This is a slog, and purposefully so, and with that design all meaningful entertainment is forfeited. 'Sudden Deth' is an emphatically bad movie.

Unfortunately, a step down from the fourth part here as we see the vampire trancers are now on the run since Jack Deth (Tim Thomerson) and the Tunnel Rats have run them out in this direct sequel to TRANCERS 4. Deth is now looking for a rock within the Castle of Unrelenting Terror that can take him back home to his own universe.

If you really enjoyed part 4 this might be for you, just so you can see how it turns out, but subtracting the credits and the recap I think they totally could have combined the two scripts into one movie that may have ran an hour and 45 minutes or so. They really kind of dragged this one out so they could make another movie. This one is missing that good old Trancers feel that did exist in the first 3 movies I would say. Both Alan Oppenheimer and Stephen Macht return as well. Same writer (Peter David) and director (David Nutter, who went on to direct some popular TV shows like X-FILES, ER and GAME OF THRONES to name a few) as Part 4.

During this period, Full Moon took to making films back-to-back: Subspecies II & III, Trancers IV & V, etc. Some reviewers think that these paired-off entries are ultimately too similar to one another to count as separate movies. And they complain. Bitterly. But hey, major studios have started using the same technique - "Kill Bill" has been bisected, and "Lord of the Rings," which was filmed all in one go, was subsequently turned into three very similar movies (Here come the Orcs - run! Wait...here come our guys! ATTACK!).

So, I don't mind that this film is, in some ways, a retread of its predecessor. In fact, the effects and acting are significantly better than they were in Trancers IV - maybe it took a while for all concerned to find their stride - and so it has a different feel to it. There's also a more focused, quest-style plot, as Jack Deth toddles off to the Castle of Unrelenting Terror to obtain a jewel called the Tiamond ("sounds like Diamond" - oh Peter David, your dialogue is just too much!).

Bizarrely, several plot elements are plundered from "The Twelve Tasks of Asterix," including a siren-like seduction scene (in both cases, the spell is broken because the hero becomes hungry) and a scene in which ghosts are dispelled simply by being yelled at. Ah Peter David, I know where you get your ideas! I don't mind, though - a good sequence is worth repeating.

All this praise aside, Trancers V does not stand up terribly well on its own, and the ending feels rushed and cliffhanger-like. Jack Deth impregnated someone? He's dying? He's going back to his own time? Wha??? Since the series never continued...not with this actor, or in this vein anyway...the final feeling is one of acute disappointment.

So ends Jack Deth's final, oddball adventure in sword-and-sorcery land. Shame that he didn't get to appear in one more detective-style movie, but I still like the fish-out-of-water quality of his final battle against the nefarious Trancers.

David Nutter directs this TV style fifth movie directly after his own fourth instalment. Seems Charles Band and Full Moon handed over the responsibility to a load of people unfamiliar with the series and told them to make a movie (well, two actually). Cast try their best, script is lifeless and the wooden, dull and additive Deth is here simply too drained to really work. Like the fourth movie this is a strange hybrid of Robin Hood (seems to be set in Sherwood Forest at times), Shakespeare plays and The Three Musketeers (though of course this is The One Musketeer!). This (and Trancers 4) were filmed at Charles Band's family castle in Romania and though an exceptionally striking place and one used to fabulous results in other films, here is is merely an option for cheapness. Unbelievably Trancers 6 (made several years later and virtually unrelated - something about a daughter) is even more obscure than the fourth and fifth instalments combined - and, Yes, they probably should be.

Filmed back-to-back with the equally bad "Trancers 4: Jack of Sword" on cheap Romanic filming locations, this final entry in the Trancers series (unless you count a cameo by Thomerson in Evil Bong) is more than a disappointment. Tim Thomerson once again plays Jack Deth and this time has to find some mythical MacGuffin to stop an evil Trancer king. Chases through castles and forests ensue. The original film was a lot of fun because it was as if someone from the Blade Runner universe stepped into modern day Los Angeles. I'm not sure seeing Rick Deckard in a Romanian castle nearly as interesting. Stick with the first film to leave on a high note and maybe part 2 and 3 if you're in a forgiving mood, but skip part 4 and 5. Dullsville.