Fade to Black

Mediocre Horror Kills Are Fairly Tame What Makes This Movie Fascinating Is The Main Character And His Obsession With Movies

The idea of a murderous cinephile has potential & some of the murders are visually compelling (the inserts of old movie footage also work), unfortunately, a lot of this is executed terribly, esp the last 20 minutes which has cops inexplicably discovering things they didn't know before & a painfully contrived Cagney recreation. The most egregious aspect though is an attempt at social commentary w/ the kind of dopey bleeding heart liberal Stallone films mock - only here he's meant to be the hero!

Not a bad idea, but it's too dumb to really work as a character piece on alienation induced 'madness', and there is zero tension. Zimmerman's material is adolescent and relies too heavily on an obvious gimmick while Christopher's borderline cartoonish performance never finds the appropriate balance between rage and pathos. The monster movie footage is surprisingly well integrated, and a few of the deaths are decently staged, but there is no escaping the flimsiness of this nerd revenge fantasy.

This slasher tale is enlivened by countless in-references to genre-film lore -- plus clips from _Public Enemy_, _Creature from the Black Lagoon_, _Kiss of Death_, and _Night of the Living Dead_. Unfortunately, Zimmerman ultimately runs out of inspiration before his movie runs out of reels.

As a film nerd, I very much want to like a movie about a film nerd who goes around killing people dressed as his favorite movie villains. This just isn't very well done, unfortunately

A movie that may have unintentionally willed Quentin Tarantino into existence.

He’s just like me fr

Though not the best horror movie, I loved all of the movie references. A killer (with a lifelong obsession with movies) utilizes movie characters/costumes to enact revenge on those who wronged him.

How you can start to view the world if you become truly obsessed with motion pictures. How your interactions with women can go, the idealization of them. How your interactions can go with former friends (if you even have any) But of course it’s a horror flick so we need that weird Freudian psycho(wink)sexual motifs between him and his aunt (later revealed to be his mother) and how her interactions with men and Hollywood played into her decisions. Violence as homage. A perfect little LA movie.

The premise is interesting but the execution is a bit slow and filled with plot holes. Still worth a watch

A failed attempt at a ready-made cult film from the director of _The Unholy Rollers_, this suffers from an unlikable central character and an uneven mixture of dark comedy and straight horror. Kerridge is terrific, though, as Christopher's Marilyn Monroe lookalike dream girl. Whatever happened to her, I'd like to know?

Escuridão da Morte estreava há 40 anos nos EUA. Fiquei surpresa por esse filme não ser mais famoso do que é, é um olhar interessante na obsessão cinéfila, tenho certeza que se um dia eu surtar e sair matando quem merece é assim que vou fazer. Rá! WEBRip RARBG.

Held together by its unique premise, solid performances from Christopher, Kerridge & others- including Mickey Rourke of all people- & many fun kill scenes, it's unfortunately not very memorable beyond that. The kills themselves are very boring minus Eric's elaborate costumes. None of the characters are very likeable, and the narrative feels disjointed & incomplete. It's worth a watch for genre fans just for the concept, but it's not as good as it really should be.

A lot of knowledge went into the characterization of the movie-buff hero. All of this, or much of it, is frittered away, however, as the psychotic-killer tendencies of plot and character gather steam. What had started out to be a made-to-order cult movie, holding up a mirror to the minuscule buff population, ultimately has to spend too much time trying to appeal to the vast body of mainstream moviegoers, and without really trying to educate them.

Binford a film geek? I bet he hasn't seen Fade to Black.

I'd be inclined to give the film more credit for it's good parts if it didn't completely fall apart in the last act. The police abruptly know that Christopher is a murderer and where to find him, even though the police chief was still declaring that the deaths were unrelated last time we saw him. A decent if flawed flick is rendered comically inept.

This is often labeled as a slasher and while it has some such scenes, it's more of a character piece which relies on Dennis Christopher's role. It's also a delight for film fanatics with plenty of vintage posters, theaters and film clips. The story could have been even darker had it gone deeper into the obsession with Marilyn who is now largely forgotten until she is needed for the ending - which was also probably the least surprising part. Still, a good film which deserves more attention.

Fade to Black succeeds on the back of its premise and the outlandish performance from Dennis Christopher. The actual narrative is filled with nonsense (the entire police angle) but there are enough crazy set pieces from Christopher that it does end up being fun.