I saw this when I was a kid when it was at the theater, remember it being pretty cool. It's got the guy from Breaking Away. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078902/?ref_=nv_sr_5 Dennis Christopher that is.
Seen it on dvd in the early 2000's didn't care for it. its got a young mickey rourke in it.. It had good potential but kinda fell flat..
Yeah thats what drew my attention to it. Last night I was watching 3 Women (1977) and saw a very young Dennis Christopher in a small role and couldnt place his face so looked him up and saw its the guy from Breaking Away. Then I noticed he as in Fade to Black.
I read the paperback book in 1981 before I had seen the movie. Loved the book but the film wasn't as intriguing. Let's not mention the fact that an actual one sheet poster for HALLOWEEN was destroyed on camera...I was livid
I always thought Fade to Black was a lot of fun. It was one of the first DVDs I ever bought back when I got my first DVD player. Dennis Christopher is bananas!
I knew it wasn't going to be scary or gory or anything. But I at least expected it to be interesting. It was shrill, heavy-handed, predictable, and Christopher was the only thing with any life to it... and he was so over-the-top in such a dead movie that it wasn't any fun.
Without meaning any offense, I had almost expected you to like it. Mainly because I kinda have the impression that if it's 80's and excentric, there's a good chance you'll like it - don't shoot me! But your reaction to the movie is similar to mine. Only I at least appreciated how hot late 70's/early 80's Tim Thomerson was.
I do enjoy most 80's flicks on the kookier side (Slugs is probably a lesser movie than Fade to Black but I will definitely watch it again while never giving FtB a second thought). Their quirk was genuine to a point, until it became calculated and prepared. I call that line 1989. Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers I buy as made with love and a spirit of fun. Transylvania Twist was a soulless cash-grab. Oh, man, I forgot about the drug habit subplot... I got a few good riff jokes out of that. Okay, that was a plus for the movie. Thomerson's okay.
I have the novelization of this, but for some reason I don't own the movie. Well, the reason is probably that it's out of print and expensive. I can barely remember anything about it.
It's more of a character study, than anything else. I'd liken it to a stripped down, Los Angeles variation of Taxi Driver or Maniac with a younger, geekier main character, but it's not a gorefest like Maniac. I like it, though I don't think it's as good as either of those New York-based films. It's a film I watch maybe once or twice every 5 - 10 years or so.
This isn't a great movie by any means. But it has a lot of the cathartic appeal of the Death Wish series. The people Christopher targets have it coming and then some. Film buffs should also get a kick out of it. And although there aren't many chills, the vampire stalking sequence is tremendously creepy. There's something genuinely unsettling about the way it unfolds. The rest of the movie isn't up to the same standards. But I still think it's well worth seeing. It's no holy grail though. Don't pay a lot for the OOP DVD. The transfer is lousy and the film is more of an interesting miss than a knockout. If you pay more than a modest sum you'll almost certainly be disappointed.
