Fire City: End of Days

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.

The story had some issues and at times reminded me of a late night HBO flick. There were certain aspects I really wish they had cut out and perhaps elaborated a bit more on others. Even though we spend most of our time with the demons, I never really felt close to any of them with the exception of the main character. I'd have liked to have seen more WHY.

What really made the film were the costumes. Nightbreed kept popping into my head as I watched. That's something I give a lot of weight to in a film and for the most part, they were done well. Especially when it came to Vine.

Another pro of the film for me was the acting. I just kept hoping for a better, more cohesive story.

When I grew up in Western NY, in the mid-1960's, the Catholic Church was very strong. The Church had television programs, broadcast over the three major networks. The shows were strange and eclectic. One show, called Lamp Unto My Feet, was an exposition of scripture, as interpreted through modern dance. And who could forget Bishop Sheen, and his weekly homilies? This movie, Fire City, reminded me of yet another show produced by the Church, in which demons come up with plans to please Satan. Turns out Satan thinks procrastination works best.

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.

Short version: this movie is a very enjoyable film noir, with an interesting mystery story, using demons as plot attributes. It's not a demon horror action movie.

Long version: First off, this movie is weird. Not just in the sense that it's about "weird" stuff like demons, but in that it's a movie trying to mix film noir, mystery, horror, and drama. As I started watching it, I was expecting it to be some crappy demon-horror B-movie, but I've not often been so surprised (and wrong in my initial judgment). I believe the reason for most bad reviews of this movie, is that people were expecting a radically different movie. The best I can describe it is as a film-noir mystery detective demon drama. If that sounds ridiculous to you (and I can't blame you), then you're probably better off watching something different. If instead you're intrigued by this seemingly random combination of genres, you might want to give it a try.

I found the script to be surprisingly intelligent, with pretty few plot holes, and after the first "what the f*ck is this?" moment passed, I really got into the story (which I will not spoil). Most of the movie is very bleak (although it has a somewhat happy ending), including domestic abuse, alcoholism, child rape (although that was thankfully only implied, but never shown), etc., so it's probably not suited for the faint hearted. I found the acting to be much better than I expected: not Oscar nomination material obviously, but it was adequate enough. Also the special effects, being mostly the demons' body prosthetics, were quite nice. At times it was clear they were just rubber masks and floppy prosthetics, but I found the designs very elegant and was impressed with the film's visual style. Overall I would say it's very entertaining to watch and very different from what you would expect from something called "Fire city: end of days". I also found it to be thematically intriguing, and most of all a very original combination of different genres. I would give it a solid 7/10, but it gets an extra +1 because it's really much better than the 5/10 it has now on IMDb.

If you're going to watch the movie, just keep in mind you'll actually have to pay attention to the story - otherwise it's just going to seem like a strange, confusing, meandering movie. But believe me, it actually does make sense in the end. Just think of it as a film noir that happens to feature demons, rather than a demon movie, and you'll know better what to expect.