Fire City: End of Days

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

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.

I am warning you up front that the first 15 minutes of "Fire City: End of Days" is confusing--so confusing that I was ready to turn off the movie. Fortunately, I resisted the impulse and what followed was a surprisingly good film--with a very inventive plot and awfully good prosthetics and make-up. While the film isn't for everyone, it is quite good and worth your time.

When the film begins, you see a lot of things that simply don't make sense. Don't worry and don't try to understand...just keep watching. Soon you come to realize that some of the characters living in this sleazy world are not humans after all but are demons disguised as humans...demons who literally feed off our misery. Seeing humans suffer and destroy themselves is what these creatures live for...and helping them do so is their job. However, something strange slowly begins happening to one of them. Atum Vine is a demon unlike any others because for the first time one of these horrible creatures begins to feel sorry for one of the humans...a young girl who reaches out to him for help. While he should take glee in her pain, Vine feels pangs of compassion. What's next and how this affects the humans and demon world is very interesting...but you'll have to see this for yourself.

The biggest surprises for me were that I usually hate films like this as well as learning that the director is actually a special effects guy who is now directing his first feature. While the make- up and look of the demons is incredible, I kind of expected this with the background of Tom Woodruff, Jr.. But I didn't expect a relatively low budget film like this to work so well. Now it isn't perfect--I do wish the beginning of the film had been less confusing and a little more to the point. But it is still darned good and well worth your time. My only reservation, and frankly it should come as no surprise, is that the film is NOT family-friendly. After all, it's about evil demons...and it does have some very explicit nudity and language that would make this a film for an older audience. So don't ask your mother or Father O'Malley or your kids to watch it with you!

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.