Rare Flix: Fade to Black (1980)

A Film about a Film Buff who goes crazy and kills people?  This sure won't worry my friends and family.  This is Fade to Black, a 1980 Film about, well, what I just said.  It is about one guy who is clearly not well that just keeps getting piled on by life.  To be fair, some of that is his fault, as he's a complete weirdo and creep.  Even so, life seems to treat him like the donkey getting a tail pinned to him 9 times out of 10.  There are some notable Cast Members here including Tim Thomerson (in his pre-Trancers days) and our Lead is most notable for being in the 1990 TV Mini-Series Version of It.  In hindsight, maybe Pennywise was right to pick on him.  Oh and he was in Jake Speed, a Film that apparently only I've ever talked about since it came out in 1986.  Yea?  After the Comic Book version of The Joker hit it big, but before a The-less Joker got critical praise, this tale of a mentally-ill loner who dresses up to kill people was a thing.  It won no Oscars and got 1 Star out of 4 by Leonard Maltin, so I'm guessing the results were different.  To find out, read on...

Our Hero (of sorts) is Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher, who was ironically coming off of a Golden Globe Nomination himself) and he's obsessed with Films.

For the record, I don't watch my Films on 16MM and don't do the Voices, so I'm sane.  Right?

In an unrelated note, Thomerson is here as a Psychologist who keeps hanging around the Police Station (and later hooks up with this Detective).

I'm sure this won't tie together.

Eric falls for an Australian Model-would-be-Actress who looks like Marilyn Monroe.  It is pretty uncanny, even if it is only in the face.

She is somehow not creeped out by him doing an impersonation of The Creature From the Black Lagoon and agrees to see a Film with him.

She forgets though and he is dejected.  Aw.

Driven by his impotent rage, he kills his Aunt- who is actually his Mother- by pushing her down the stairs in her wheelchair just like a Cagney Film.

I guess you can blame Films- at least in part- for that murder.

The middle portion of the Film is him starting grudges with people and then killing them in a strange outfit.

He kills a Hooker- albeit by accident- who was mean to him while dressed up as Dracula.
Later, he dresses up as Hopalong Cassidy and kills a Co-Worker...who is Mickey Rourke.

RIP Mickey's original face.

He kills his old Boss- for rightly firing him for being terrible- by scaring him dressed as The Mummy.

Later still, he kills a Hollywood Producer- whom he randomly meets- dressed as a Gangster when he steals his idea.

After not factoring into the Plot for the entirety of the 2nd Act, Not Marilyn suddenly reappears and meets him as he's disguised as a Photographer.

Of course, his face isn't covered and she met him earlier, so is she playing along?
Oh well, she gets drugged, so I guess it's a moot point.

The Cops show up- after Thomerson does, mind you- and he eventually ends up on top of the famous Chinese Theater.

As an obsessed Cagney fan, he fittingly dies like the Actor did in White Heat.  In case you somehow don't know the famous bit, they play it as a parallel.  Good to know what you think of your audience, Film.

He dies.  The End.

A fairly-bleak, but interesting descent into madness.  The Plot is pretty simple.  I get that I'm supposed to feel bad for Eric here.  Thomerson literally says 'The kid was doomed from the start.'  That said, he's not exactly likable before he starts his killing spree.  He's weird.  He's mean.  Yes, he is picked on and doesn't deserve *everything* he gets.  It's a tricky thing to make a character like this and they don't quite nail it.  Granted- they do a better job than Return to Sleepaway Camp and their bully who is also bullied.  I do think that the situation could have been turned around for him, albeit not completely.  Even if he didn't kill his Mom/Aunt to start this, he wasn't going to be a well-balanced person.  I guess someone has to work for the Theater to deliver their Film Reels, right?  The performance by Christopher is...interesting.  It's all over the place and never quite seems to settle on a style.  In one Scene, he's manic and an asshole.  In another, he's lovelorn.  In another, he's depressed, but angry.  I get that he *could* be Bipolar (or Tripolar), but I don't get that vibe.  It just feels like an issue of an overzealous Actor and a Director who couldn't make up his mind.  There is some creativity in how he enacts his killing spree.  The deaths are varied and he dresses up in outfits ranging from Dracula to a Gangster to The Mummy.  The whole thing is kind of a glorious, endearing mess all around.  As a bonus, you have no doubt which Country made it...

Next up, I'll try to stay a bit lighter and in the '80s.  How much trouble can happen to a couple of Dudes?  Stay tuned...