Reflections of Evil

Go to any big city and you'll encounter scores of wacked-out individuals wandering around, conversing angrily with no one in particular, watch this film and you may get some inkling of just what the hell is going on in these poor soul's minds. Reflections of Evil is essentially a "day in the life" of one such man as he navigates the gauntlet of his private hell. The manner in which director, producer and main character: Damon Packard achieves this can be best described as "experimental" you have never seen anything quite like this. There is no sense in even attempting to catalogue the many unconventional devices used, satirizing Universal Studios with the depiction of a "Shindler's List ride" is hysterical, and they just go on and on. Reflections of Evil will be hard to swallow for many, but if you appreciate, daring or even reckless film-making that goes where mainstream film doesn't dare and makes no apologies, this film will not disappoint

I've heard of going outside the lines. This bizarre film goes outside the known universe.

The whole thing plays out like a psychotic episode. In washed out cheap film, we witness a sick obese man who wears many layers of clothing like he's homeless, (but he's not) suffering from a life threatening eating disorder making him eat like he's always feeling starved, who wanders around Hollywood, peddles watches, yelling at anybody he sees. He hobbles around like a beached whale, and frequently cracks his skull on the pavement. He's middle aged, but still lives with his nagging mother. Are we to laugh at him? Pity him? Hate him? Who knows?

Whereas an art house director partially assembles a jig saw puzzle for you and gives you the remaining pieces to figure out the meaning, this director just takes the jig saw pieces and throws them all over the place, landing anywhere they might, some lost forever. The "non-structure" structure is taken too far, and becomes a nuisance. It was actually entertaining to see old footage of some vintage 1971 TV programming, and I wonder how he found all this stuff. It jumps on to the screen at spasmodic intervals. The obese guy's late sister pops in occasionally going OD with hippies or dancing around in an angel dress. Vignettes mock Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios. The director makes a caricature of himself as the deranged obese guy. There is some attempt to attack the movie industry, and bash people who just vacantly stare at whatever is on TV; an apathetic couple watches the Movie of the Week (in 1971) while outside their house, the heavy guy (in 2002 ?!?!) yells and pukes.

Nothing fits together. How all this relates to the eating disorder or the hippies and drug overdose victim is anybody's guess. A lot of it looks like a couple of guys with cameras wandered through Hollywood, and filmed anything they saw: helicopters, birds, posters advertising a Sandra Bullock movie, and mentally ill people. Apparently the film was meant to say something about disturbed people and their eccentric behavior, but does it mean-spiritedly and poorly. The value of viewing this is solely for the curious novelty of how odd it is. Nothing more.

This movie should be watched!!!! I think that Damon Packard could be called a genius. There is no other film like this one. His camera angles and editing techniques are phenomenal! I really dug the 70's parts. I really can't explain what I think of the Film. I really think someone needs to give Damon Packard 4 million bucks to make an even greater film. MAD PROPS Damon!!!

Reflections Of Evil is without doubt one of the most intellectually challenging and demanding films I've seen since the golden days of the underground scene in 1960-70. I can agree with the opinion that it does come down very hard on the viewer, but as demanding as it is it's also refreshingly relieved from all the Hollywood main stream production values that has been the obvious and only choice for much to long. Personally I'm quite fed up with all that, and I strongly recommend everyone who feels the same way to take a good look at Damon Packards film.

As difficult as it might seem to be for an average viewer to agree with the narrative style, it's well worth the effort to put up with it. On the other hand, if you are at all familiar with the work of Bunuel, Kenneth Anger, Morrissey, productions from "The Factory" and overall experimental film making as such, you will probably find the use of overdubed sounds and the visual compositions as an effective audiovisual exclamation to the very quintessence of the various ideas.

This aggressive and abusive in-your-face tale of an over consuming, over developed and high speed accelerating culture bursting in it's own gloating can be very hard to accept, and I can understand why the main stream viewer have serious problems with the daring and provoking approach of this film.

But It's not a question whether you like it or not, that's hardly the point. The point is that it truly is a most remarkable piece of work, and probably more related to experimental, over expressive and self dissective art form culture than anything else.

Either way it is indeed impossible to ignore a film like Reflections Of Evil, and if you are at all interested in what's happening on the true alternative scene of independent film making today it definitely is a must see. For all you others, take a refreshing holiday from Hollywood with Damon Packard as your tour guide and host. I personally guarantee you a unique film experience!

I recently found a copy of Damon Packard's "Reflections of Evil" on DVD at my local record store. This version runs 90 minutes, I guess the original was over 2 Hours. Anyways I thought the film worked perfectly on a 90 minute running time, because it's literally non stop massive insanity. Acid lovers be warned. The director will probably never make a film again, because of all the celebrities he sent thousands of copies to. The film is post dubbed, so all the dialog sounds very surreal and funny, especially some of the voices that are sped up. Anyways, the plot of the story concerns Bob, an overweight watch salesman who aimlessly roams the dirty streets of L.A, trying to sell watches to people when he's not cursing them out. The beginning of the film we see his sister, almost in a dream like sequence. The intro feels like an ode to filmmakers Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Then we are treated to psychedelic color filters and street bums and drug addicts galore. A dark nightmarish underbelly of L.A is exposed to the viewer. Bob never has luck selling the watches, and his mom gets on him about his weight. He loves sugar and is constantly consuming sweets. One scene he's seen shoving his face with Mcdonald's food, an obvious critique on American consumerism. Yelling obscenities in front of Miss Congeniality posters, and falling head first on to the pavement over and over. Then the film goes into a 70's flashback. Bob goes to Universal studios with his mom and sister, his sister witnesses a cocky young Steven Spielsburg directing, before overdosing on PCP. Throughout the film he is haunted by images of his dead sister, she's returned to warn him about his eating problem. The universal studios turns into hell where people are forced to ride amusement rides over and over till they repeatedly fall and splat on the pavement. Images of chaos are thrown at the viewer full force, symbolism of of a 911 world, where chemicals affect the insanity of L.A's population. There's not much else I can say to describe "Reflections of Evil". Damon Packard is definitely an artist, maybe ahead of his time. In the history of cinema there have been directors like Bunuel and Jodorowsky, who have shown viewers what they don't want to see, but need to see. Packard definitely has the early shock element that was part of surrealism in cinema. Reflections of evil is funny and frightening in it's excess. It takes the viewer on a chaotic roller-coaster ride (literally) and doesn't stop till it falls head first. In other words I loved it!