Eternal evil

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.

Paul Sharpe (Winston Rekert) believes that he can use astral projection to leave his body while he sleeps. Coincidentally, Paul's friends and relatives start dropping like flies. Somehow, their hearts are exploding in their chest cavities.

Meanwhile, Detective Kauffman (John Novak) tries to make sense of it all. He's led to a strange woman named Janus (Karen Black), who harbors a deadly secret.

ETERNAL EVIL (aka: THE BLUE MAN) holds up well for its vintage, in spite of the silly 1980's fashions. There's some actual suspense and the paranormal instances are effective...

"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.

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.

A Canadian production brought to us by the man who previously gave us the '80s slasher favorite "My Bloody Valentine". As a director, George Mihalka is an interesting fellow, especially when you take a look at his choice of projects during the '80s. He really caught my interest some years ago after having seen his offbeat & eerie hostage thriller/drama "Hostile Takeover" aka "Office Party" (1988). "Eternal Evil" - which may not be the best of aka-titles possible to slap on this production, although "The Blue Man" just sounds too silly - is yet again an interested effort not at all lacking a sense of originality. It deals with a burned-out TV-director who, after having met the mysterious dancer Janus (Karen Black), learns to control the powers of astral projection. 'To control' might be a bit overstating things, as events turn for the worse and people from his circle of acquaintances start dying unnatural deaths. A detective starts puzzling the pieces together. Granted, the film has a hard time to keep the viewer excited, as the pace is a little slow and it's not exactly a spectacular thrill ride. But the story does try to provide a bit of mystery, and that's basically what keeps the viewer going. The film's decently made and Mihalka has some impressive camera-tricks up his sleeve (especially during the astral projection sequences). And the story does have some original elements and a satisfying conclusion (don't expect a terrifying climax, though). So it receives a whole extra point for that. If you want to see another horror film revolving around the concept of astral projection, you might want to check out Brian Trenchard-Smith's "Out Of The Body" (1989). It's also half-way decent.