Friday Nov 20th - Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)

Friday Nov 20th
Deaths of Ian Stone (2007)

I am one of those strange, few people who really like horror movies, but not necessarily to watch. For some reason, I enjoy reading about them, reviews etc but by and large, I don't really enjoy watching them. For me, the disgusting bloody stuff and overly violent scenes are kind of a cop-out, instead of a good story or script its kind of a gore movie Mad-Libs type of thing, insert stab scene here, girl walking down hallway there, freaky camera twitch effect here here and here. Especially in the last few years, you end up seeing a lot of the same re-hash stuff over and over again.

When I heard about the After Dark Horrorfesta few years ago, I was pretty jazzed. If I remember right, they had billed the first year as being 'films too extreme for normal release' or something to that effect. I'm still looking forward to seeing Gravedancers from 2007 here at some point. Anyway, 'Deaths of Ian Stone' was one that sounded interesting to me. The story of a guy who keeps dying in various ways and waking up in another life. He starts to piece together whats going on and how to stop it. So, on its surface, it sounded pretty cool. Oh and it had Jaime Murray (Lila in Dexter) so that was an added bonus...and creatures designed by the great Rick Baker. I intended to see it in the theatre during the fest, but timing and other factors prevented me. I intended to get it on DVD when it came out, but it drifted off, out of mind.

So I finally got the copy a couple weeks ago and got the chance to watch it Friday evening. Its a movie that has an interesting premise, good actors and some genuinely creepy moments, but is bogged down by abject silliness in the middle act and ultimately comes unglued. I dont want to go into too much plot recapping, thats what IMDB is for. The first half of the film is very enjoyable, the mystery of whats going on and why is handled very well, with some great, chilling scenes outside his girlfriends house and later in his apartment. Anytime you are in a car outside a house and a random swing starts to swing by itself, you know you have problems.

As the story progresses, Ian (Mike Vogel of Cloverfield) is killed in a few different ways, and slowly starts to piece together what is going on. The one constant is his girlfriend (at the beginning) Jenny(Christina Cole), who is in each one of the lives in some fashion or other. **if you are interested in not having the ending spoiled to a point, dont read the next bit** It slowly becomes clear that Ian is being stalked by ghostly forces, freaky looking things that are after him relentlessly. As it turns out, these things (harvesters) feed on human fear and over time, have gotten addicted to the most potent form, fear right before death. So they've transformed from your every day, run of the mill vaporous monster things feeding on pedestrian fear to creatures out to kill folks to harvest the fear. This is where it comes apart, logically. While the idea of ghostlike creatures roaming around and feeding on fear is interesting, the fact that they can kill to get it really opens up a large hole in the logic. They could literally just stand at the edge of a subway platform and push people off, one by one without much effort. Its not a distractingly big hole, but enough so as you'd notice.

At this point, it ventures into silly territory. Ian gets advice and explanation from a harvester who doesnt really like the killing part. He explains that love is the thing that can carry it through each life and ultimately save the soul as it were. If the other harvesters find this link, that'll kind of be the end of it. As it turns out, the old warner-guy went through this. So the big reveal is that Ian is himself a harvester and is the only one that actually killed another harvester. He is being chased from one life to the next, over and over again, so they can figure out why and feed in the process. The other harvesters cant kill him, but can put him through this until he cracks. So then he dives into his powers with both feet and becomes the John McClane of harvesters, killing one after the other to stop their attack on Jenny and free his soul. These sequences are cool looking to a point, but end up being kind of hokey. By the end of it, you really want to be touched by the emotional nature of the thing, but the logic just isnt there. Oh, and the harvesters when not in the ghostly vapor freaky form, look like a cross between Matrix extras and Devo. It was a choice that was amazingly distracting. When your main character is strapped to a gurney and is going to be poked and stabbed and all manner of nastiness beyond that, and all I can think of is Devo's "workin in a coal mine" you've lost me.

So overall, I really wanted to like this movie and for better or worse, I did. For those a little sensitive about violence/gore, there isn't much. Nothing more than something from CSI or an episode of True Blood or Dexter. If the middle 3/5-4/5 of the movie was like the first half, you'd have a seriously well regarded horror thriller, but as it stands, its a good, interesting film and premise undermined by odd choices about pacing, costuming and overall theme.