Customer Reviews

Dark Angel - The Ascent [VHS]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Dark Angel was produced in 1994 by Full Moon Entertainment, a low budget horror house. I love this movie. Full Moon does a fair amount of crap, but sometimes - like this one - the lack of a serious budget forces the filmmakers to be really ingenious in compensation, and they turn out some surprisingly affecting work.

Dark Angel, subtitled The Ascent, stars Angela Featherstone. In case you're not familiar with the name, you might have seen her as Jess, Ben Stiller's girlfriend in The Zero Effect, or Nikki, the punked-out lesbian all over Eliza Dushku (and who can blame her?) in Soul Survivors. Probably best know as Chloe the "Xerox girl" who got between Ross and Rachel on Friends.

In Dark Angel, Angela plays Veronica, a teenaged demon from Hell who's always wondered about the world above. Her father is one of Hell's most fearsome torturers, and so impatient with her curiosity - demons have been forbidden by Heaven to ascend into the "real world" - that in a fit of rage he tries to kill her. She flees, ascends, and finds herself on the streets of a modern American city.

There are so many things to like about this movie. The view of Hell, and the demons' relationship to God and Heaven, is fascinating. The demons don't see themselves as being in opposition to Heaven, they have crosses in their rooms and worship God. Angels from Heaven visit Hell to give them orders. They have their place in God's plan, and their mission is to punish sinners.

And that's what Veronica, like any good demon, does in the world above. In one incredible scene she comes upon two police officers doing a Rodney King style beating on a black man. (Only, unlike Rodney King, this guy didn't have it coming, he was just some innocent guy out walking around.) The conversation between Veronica and one of the officers goes something like this:

"There's nothing to see here, miss. Just move along."

"And allow you to continue to abuse this man?"

"How would you like to spend the night in jail on a prostitution charge?"

"How would you like to die in a state of mortal sin?"

Veronica kills them both. She's a serial killer, her victims the sinners of the city, offed in various gory fashions. The sort of stuff that makes front page news. This, of course, attracts the attentions of the police. Two good cops, interviewing local residents in the course of their investigation, question Veronica. It goes something like this:

"We're just questioning everyone in the neighborhood. There were a couple of murders that occurred last night..."

"Good."

"What do you mean, 'good?' We're talking about men being murdered."

"How do you know they were not sinners?"

"These men were ripped apart. No one deserves to die like that."

"You have no idea how ugly sin is in the eyes of God."

What makes this scene simultaneously hilarious and creepy as hell (pun intended) is the reaction of the cops and the total calm certainty in Veronica's voice. Because while she sounds like the Son of Sam killer and the cops are looking at each other, thinking dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo, we know she's speaking the absolute literal truth. When Vernoica says these men died because sin is ugly in the eyes of God, she KNOWS.

And yet, for all this, Dark Angel is, at its core, a really sweet love story. I kid you not. There are moments in this film that are just beautiful, both visually and emotionally.

Angela Featherstone in the role of Veronica is the linchpin of the movie, and she carries it off wonderfully. Her normally blond hair is dyed red for this role. Combined with her pale skin and blue eyes, she's amazingly striking. Her eyes are so blue - and I have no idea if this was accomplished with contact lenses or it's her natural eye color - they really play that up in the movie. When Veronica is feeling angry or amorous, with absolutely no special effects other than expert lighting, her blue eyes seem to glow.

I give this movie my highest recommendation. If you have any liking at all for the genre, you will love it.

Dark Angel: The Ascent is about a demonness from hell named Veronica who wishes to explore the world above. Born and raised in hell, she has never experienced the pleasures of life on earth. Against her father's wishes, she makes "The Ascent" to earth and finds herself naked in a dark alleyway. She soon gets hit by a car and finds herself in the hospital to be tended to by a doctor named Max. Max brings Veronica into his home and Veronica, by watching local news on T.V. realizes earth is filled with evildoers. Soon, Veronica goes on a murderous vigilante rampage to rid the city of scum, including the town's crooked mayor.

Another decent release by Full Moon, the studio that put out a plethora of quality straight-to-vid B-movie horror in the 90's. The budget here is limited but it is exactly this that helps lend the film its atmospheric and surreal feeling. Many scenes like those in hell, in dark alleyways, in graveyards are dark and chilling even though they often look too much like a set. It's a bit of a hard film to categorize, starts off with many elements of the fantastic while they're in hell, then switches to a gory horror film and towards the end in the last 1/3 of the film becomes a hokey love story that puts aside its horror elements completely. This is certainly not a film that takes itself seriously and capitalizes on this with an injection of clever humour and intentional puns.

Dark Angel does fall prey to its low-budget trappings eventually though. For one, isn't it odd that the city they're in is obviously Eurpopean in its architecture and style (it's actually filmed in Romania) yet all the actors have American accents? And strangely, the acting is actually decent except that is, for the title character, played by Angela Featherstone. You see, her looks are perfect for the role; shoulder-length red hair, blue eyes, clear skin, and a hypnotic gaze. Whenever she opens her mouth however it becomes absolutely painful. I understand that being from hell and not accustomed to earth she was expected to act robotically to a certain extent but that is not an excuse for her wretched performance in this film. If you want an example of this being well done then look no further than Natasha Henstridge in "Species", Featherstone's performance however is a disaster. I'm surprised she got any other film roles after this. Still recommended overall, it's a flawed film that certainly has many b-movie charms and interesting ideas.

We loved this movie, I only wish Netflix would get it so we could rent it and see it again. Cool story about a beautiful young woman whose parents are supervisors in hell. She becomes curious about what earth is like, so she ascends to see. But then these bad guys gotta pick on her and....heh heh.

Wish they'd do a quality sequel to this, it would be cool!

Life is hell for Veronica Iscariot. Unlike her underworld brethren, the sultry demon takes no pleasure in tormenting the eternally damned. However when Veronica leaves Hell in search of salvation, things take an evil turn. The land of the living is polluted with corruption, and the self-righteous she-demon feels compelled to put things right.
Along with her bloodthirsty hound Hellraiser, Veronica delivers powerful retribution, unceremoniously tearing the wicked and the unforgiven limb from limb.
Only one person stands in the way of the rising body count-Dr. Max Harris, a handsome young surgeon with a pure heart. When he and Veronica fall in love, their innocent romance quickly turns into a sinful adventure as the couple becomes intwined in a supernatural struggle for Veronica's very soul.

A movie using the best special affects at the time thought getting very simple by todays level of technology. There is an underlaying message that good and evil do exist. The main actor is the daughter of evil and she has rebelled from her parents ways, especially her fathers. So she and her beasty(Hellraiser) enters the world of mortal beings where they meet a young doctor. She is kind and gently to those who are good at heart. But quick and ruthless to punish and send straight to hell, those which do wrong unto others. She is really good by vertue and deed but beware all who sin!
A good movie for all to watch.

A pretty keen Full Mooner. Again, not terribly strong on the script or acting fronts, but high on creativity. I like how all the demons are just servants of God doing their jobs, and not something evil. And how angels don't nessicarily have to come from Heaven. If you can't watch it for any other reason, watch it for Angela Featherstone alone. She's so darn cute.

I've seen this movie several times and it always spellbinds me. The beauty of Veronica, the characterizations of the police officers and the reactions of those who realize who she is make you want to see what happens next. She is a dark angel, but what she does really is deserved by the "victims." I am sure there are lots of religious issues here and have sent the review to a former priest friend of mine to get his reactions !

i bought this movie Brand New From Amazon about a year ago for 19.99 and i have to say it was money well spent. it had some weird sequences for example,there were demons in hell that worshiped God. Ive Got To tell the truth that made some parts of the movie not worth watching,but overall it was a good movie. i love the little non release to theater full moon movies.they are actually pretty entertaining to be low budget.i watch this movie ever now and then but its not a regualar for me.its a pretty rare,expinsive movie to be a vhs. now dont get me wrong i would pick VHS's over DVD's any day of the week. well before you do anything rash,go rent this movie first before you buy it.you might like it you might not. its just one of those kinds of movies.

I love this movie! I agree whole heartedly with every good review that I read here. I just wish someone would re-master this and create a DVD of it.