Review by Peter Syslo
THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE (2007) is a film from the 2007 Afterdark Horrorfest collection. Surprisingly, this was a fairly good movie and I think that it stands up alongside some of the better Horrorfest films (from either year). My top pick from the 2007 batch was definitely FRONTIERS and THE DEATHS... comes in a close second to that. This film is a prime example of how a really good storyline can save a movie from complete disaster. I know that I sound like a broken friggin' record player at times, but this film embodies this tried-and-true principle: if the story is truly good, all else can be forgiven.
THE DEATHS... is directed by Dario Piana and is written by Brendan Hood. The film stars Mike Vogel, Jaime Murray (Lila, from “Dexter” Season 2), Christina Cole, and Michael Feast.
The film is pretty detailed and you have to stay alert to know what is going on, but all in all, it is fairly easy to consume. Basically, the film opens with our hero, Ian Stone (Vogel), at a hockey game. After the game, and after saying goodbye to his sweetheart (Cole), he hops in his car and makes his way home. However, things start to go south as he realizes that he is being pursued by an evil entity, which is sort of like a black spirit cloud (the creature actually looks pretty cool, it is difficult to describe). Right at the moment when the entity kills Ian, he wakes up in a totally different life, where he is now an office worker. The sweetheart from the first life is still there, but now he actually is romantically involved with an eerily beautiful woman, Medea (Murray), in this life. Medea turns out to be one of the entities that chased him in the first life and she kills Ian, causing him to shift into another life. From that point on, there ar e several twists and turns in the story as Ian learns about the truth behind his predicament.
My summary of the film doesn't really do it justice but I assure you that the film is worth watching. Honestly, it did start out a little slowly (it takes about 20-25 minutes to really get cooking) and it did take me a few nights to get through the whole thing – I kept dozing off around the same point in the film. But, I am glad that I completed it because it has one of the most original stories that I have encountered, in a long time. Let's face it, horror has been pretty derivative over this past decade (with a few exceptions) and even the really good films have been heavily influenced by previous genre work. THE DEATHS... was a really original story that was largely unpredictable (in parts). It bucks the trend too, by the way that the twist is revealed about halfway through the film, not at the ending. Once the film “kicked in” it was enjoyable and was one of those conceptual kind of films, like THE MATRIX, where the story just prevails over everyth ing else in the film.
When I speak of the story prevailing and saving the film, I meant that it does exactly that. The directing, cinematography, and effects were all positives and I am not including them in the critique. In fact, the directing was very slick (again, kind of like THE MATRIX) and I really liked the eye-popping, yet not overly-flashy appeal of the on-screen action and effects. Getting to the point, the thing that really would have dragged the movie down (if not for the story and other positives) was the acting. No offense to the actors but a lot of the dialogue delivery just made you wince because it seemed so overly dramatic and “false” at times. Apart from Vogel, Feast, and Cole (who arguably gave the best performance in the film), I just didn't believe the rest of the cast. Regrettably, I didn't like Murray's performance in this film; she is stunningly beautiful and she was great as a villain (Lila) in the second season of “Dexter”, but she just didn't see m genuine as Medea. Another drawback of the film was that the villains took way too long to get around to destroying Ian. They make grandiose, “Shakespearean” statements and then “uh-oh, Ian escaped!”. It's funny, because it reminded me of the AUSTIN POWERS films; the villain gives a long “spiel” about how he is going to kill the hero and then he leaves the hero alone and unsupervised. Seriously, if you are a villain and you want to kill your enemy (the hero), don't make a grand show of it. Just say, “Now, you are dead” and kill them instantly! Sheesh, when are villains going to learn. Plus, think about the monetary investment that goes into building a killing machine or a killing scenario (Jigsaw must have had a better union deal than UAW to afford to build all of that torture crap).
Gnawing through the flesh: (yep, it's time for a new saying) THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE was a fairly good film with a really interesting story and slick directing. The film looked good and flowed pretty rhythmically after the initial, slow start. The creature effects were very good, I thought; the entities had a very unique look - they were mainly CGI, but it was pretty decent CGI. Also, some practical makeup effects were used, such as the look of a half human/half creature and some limb prosthetics (the creatures would often remain in human form and kill with a creature arm, which was sort of like a skeletal sword (sort of like the ALIEN tails)). At the end of the day, the film turned out to be engrossing sci-fi/horror which had that “awe” flavor to it. Yeah, you have to be able to stomach the acting and other “loopholes” in the film but if you could do it, I do recommend this movie mainly because of the highly original storyline. If you like films that twist the fabric of reality, like THE MATRIX, THE FRIGHTENERS, etc. then you may like it. I give THE DEATHS OF IAN STONE an 7/10.