Fondu au noir

Dennis Christopher elevates what might as well be another generic slasher/thriller every step of the way with his thoughtful and committed performance as a movie obsessed loner who develops an obsession with a Marilyn Monroe lookalike and begins killing people he doesn't like while dressed as his famous cinematic heroes.

There's something a little too somber and serious about Fade To Black and if it could just let loose and have a little fun every now and then, it might have been a more enjoyable film. It plays more like Taxi Driver or the more recent Joker film, taking itself deathly seriously even when it should be adding a little levity to the story. It's admirable for the first half of the film, but once the killings start, it stops being that serious psychological study and turns into something entirely and logic flies out the window a bit.

There's also an entirely unnecessary subplot involving a police officer and the new, cocaine snorting psychologist she works with that adds very little except padding to the run time.

It's only Christopher's performance that holds the film together and it's worth seeing just for him.

I'd agree that "Fade to Black" works better in theory than in this actual execution. It should have been more fun, and admittedly the hook IS quite delicious: what if an unstable film geek murdered those who mocked him, while dressed up as his favourite cinematic characters?

The main problem is that our antihero, Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher), an employee for a film advertising firm, is not sympathetic in the slightest. This isn't a character whom you feel sorry for and root for so much as you want to smack him around. He's an ill-tempered, whiny wimp who attaches way too much importance to his knowledge of movie trivia.

Then again, this may well have been the intention of writer / director Vernon Zimmerman. One of my Internet acquaintances once described "Fade to Black" as "showing the dark side of being a film geek". Eric seemingly can't relate to anybody on a normal level, instead thinking entirely in cinematic terms. As unlikable as Eric may be, however, it's hard to say whether the problem is in the character as written or any ineptitude on Christophers' part.

Another thing that doesn't help are the scenes with the normally entertaining Tim Thomerson as a liberal minded police shrink. The character is a dolt and one doesn't want to root for HIM, either, even if he is sympathetic to Erics' plight.

It's still a fairly enjoyable experience, at least for any cinephile. Amid all the movie references, clips from classics such as "White Heat" and "Creature from the Black Lagoon" are edited in with ease. And it's cool to see Eric dress up as Dracula, The Mummy, and Hopalong Cassidy, etc. while in the act of doing away with his nemeses.

The good supporting cast includes Norman Burton, Morgan Paull, James Luisi, Eve Brent, John Steadman, Marcie Barkin, Peter Horton, and a swaggering young Mickey Rourke. The major bright spot is Australian beauty Linda Kerridge, a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who actually gets named Marilyn in the movie. As Erics' would be girlfriend, she shines.

A nice music score by Craig Safan and a rousing face off on top of Manns' Chinese Theatre are also highlights.

Six out of 10.

There are three types of horror films 1.the scary horror film (designed as you would think to scare you. 2.The black comedy (Its meant to be funny, but not everyone will find this true. Third and last are the dramatic horror films, they play like a drama film except they are much darker and usually have something to do with mental illnesses. This movie is of the third kind, It is a sad character study of a young man called Eric who spends all his time watching movies and finding out trivia about them. He has no apparent friends and he lives with his wheelchair bound aunt, who really is at odds with him. The film is very original and has a incredible lead performance from the actor playing Eric. They cops on the other hand are all really badly done, I just couldnt wait till they left the screen and every time they appeared again I grimly waited for there departure. Most of the other actors do quite a good job in this film and it also sports a young Mickey Rouke in what I think was his first film role. I would recommend this film only to horror fans, The film references, the characters and the direction are all tuned to giving any horror fan a good time for their money. Its not for everyone. But thats what I liked about it.

If you like the classics, bogart,monroe, brandon etc and also appreciate obscure horror like fulci, damato, ndeodato, chances are that you will fin this movie ubercool! i certainly did.

Dennis Christopher stars as a young film buff with no sense of a real family, no friends, and an obsessive need to live through film vicariously. He soon begins to act out the violence he sees on the big screen, and people close to him soon die. Although the premise for the film is original and innovative, the film does have some budgetary constraints and suffers from a weak overall plot. Notwithstanding the pedestrian direction and amateurish performances in general, the film does have a likable quality to it and does pay tribute to some great films while Christopher turns himself into various characters. Christopher does a rather good job in his demanding role, a role that really needs more flesh to it. The rest of the cast is rather blah with Tim Thomerson really giving an excrutiatingly bad performance as a psychologist working with the cops. Linda Kerridge stands out for her beauty if nothing else as an Australian Marilyn Monroe look-a-like. Christopher stands into such roles as Richard Widmark's killer in Kiss of Death, Dracula, the Mummy( a very poorly shot and conceived bit), Hoppalong Cassidy and Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl. For those of you with a good background in film, the movie takes on a different level of meaning and is fun as a homage piece.