Customer Reviews

Fade to Black

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher) is an obsessed film buff who lives with his domineering Aunt Stella. A sad, strange young man, Eric hates the real world and has good reason to: he works as a delivery boy for a film supply company where his boss hates him and his colleagues think he's a wierdo. Even hookers hate him, and yes; not surprisingly he drives a moped. Yup, poor old Eric lives smack dab in the middle of Gimpsville and only exists for his love of movies. But one day he meets a gorgeous Aussie Marilyn Monroe lookalike (creatively named Marilyn) in a diner and he asks her out to a movie (of course). Unfortunately she quite innocently forgets their date so is two hours late... but Eric thinks she has stood him up. This drives Eric over the edge and he starts dressing up as various movie characters and killing off the people he feels have wronged him In his defense, the movie playing is Robbie Benson's DIE LAUGHING so you can't really blame the guy for snapping. (Why doesn't he just subject his victims to repeated screenings of it? That'd work).
Eric's delusional mania continues to worsen to the point where he thinks he's James Cagney in PUBLIC ENEMY, not to mention Christopher Lee's Dracula and William Boyd's Hopalong Cassidy amongst other characters. Christopher's poor acting doesn't help the viewer gain sympathy for the character of Eric but it's still an interesting movie. What I like best is how the film makers are thumbing their noses at people who think movies influence people into committing crimes. If that were true most of the population of western world would be on death row!
But best of all are the film clips from PUBLIC ENEMY, HORROR OF DRACULA and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD among others. FADE TO BLACK isn't brilliant, but it's an entertaining movie for genre fans, with a few now familiar faces popping up. This is good viewing for your next Halloween party. Check it out.

I had forgotten how good this movie was, what a classic. Its a treat to see it so clear and without commercials. Im easy to please when it comes to DVDs I admit, Im sure that it will be release a few times, cleaned up and remastered etc. But I recomend it to old timey horror fans and to old timey classic movie buffs alike. I just love Cagney.

BREAKING AWAY's (1979) Dennis Christopher stars in FADE TO BLACK, a wry comment on how Hollywood is gaining influence over the worldview of the average citizen in contemporary Western society. Christopher plays Eric Binford, a young man so obsessed with the cinema that he soon begins to blur the line between reality and the plots of his favorite motion pictures. As his life begins to unravel, Eric looks to the movies for the solutions to his problems, and of course, it's only a matter of time before Eric starts eliminating those "problems" following the example of his favorite movie characters--with murder!

Christopher's over-the-top performance is exuberant and flamboyant, but since his Eric Binford is a person whose behavior is governed by the cinema, such a performance makes the character seem both plausible and sympathetic. Another strong performance is offered by Linda Kerridge as Marilyn O'Connor, the object of Eric's unrequited love. (Of course, it helps that Kerridge, a former Australian model, is a very convincing Marilyn Monroe look-alike, a fact that is intricately weaved into the plotline.)

Admittedly, the supporting cast is not nearly as strong as Christopher and Kerridge, and a great deal of the dialogue for minor characters is pure caricature. Indeed, if taken too seriously, FADE TO BLACK will come across as cartoonish and the plot will seem outlandish. But if viewed as the Juvenalian satire it is meant to be, the film definitely works. Cinema buffs will enjoy the clips from old classics, and horror fans will get a real kick out of watching Eric commit acts of mayhem and murder while costumed as Dracula and The Mummy.

Viewers who do not appreciate dark satire--and especially those who do not enjoy thriller films--will probably regard FADE TO BLACK as made-for-TV fodder. True, it is not destined to be a classic. But it is definitely an entertaining film, and it's a genuinely fun ride for cinema buffs and devotees of the horror and thriller genres.

"Fade to Black" is one of the most thought provoking horror films I've seen in a long time. From the creative minds who brought us "Halloween" and "Hell Night, comes another slasher flick. This one, however, is unique in that it serves as a social commentary on the influence of movies, especially horror, on troubled young minds.

Eric Binford is a loner with no friends who spends too much time watching movies on television and at the theatre. He actually tells this girl he's just met that he watched three movies a day for an entire year. Add to the fact that he is constantly surrounded by people who psychologically and physically abuse him and you have a bomb that could explode at any minute. When Eric does become mentally unhinged, he disguises himself as vampires, mummies, bandits, gangsters and other villains and begins murdering his enemies in creative ways that mimic the movies he has loved to watch.

Dennis Christopher is excellent as the downtrodden Eric who lives with his abusive, crippled aunt. The viewer feels much sympathy for his plight even though he brings a lot of his troubles upon himself, like most humans do. (You might say that a little bit of Eric Binford is in all of us.) There is a hazy line between reality and fantasy, between sanity and insanity. Eric has definitely crossed that line, which leads to tragic consequences. The ending is very sad and disheartening.

"Fade to Black" reminded me of the horror masterpiece "Theatre of Blood" in which Vincent Price is an actor who is very much immersed in Shakespearean plays. He also kills his enemies - reviewers who have constantly rejected his acting - according to these plays.

When stressed, we all have a tendency to slip into fantasy in order to relieve tension. We have to learn when not to stay in fantasy too long and become forever trapped there like Eric Binford. We must confront our problems instead of running from them.

"Fade to Black" is highly recommended for those who love slasher ficks of the eighties and for those, like me, who watch too many horror movies in general. This film will make you think, it will make you analyze your own life, but, most of all, it will make you glad you're not Eric Binford. His life is like a movie reel that has come to an end and the screen must now FADE TO BLACK.

Anchor Bay did an excellent job of restoring and releasing this film in its original widescreen theatrical aspect of 1.85:1. A theatrical trailer has been provided. In lieu of commentary, there is a movie poster replica and brief liner notes on the cast and crew. However, there are no closed captions or subtitles for the hearing impaired.

This is a parody of slasher flicks that is also an intelligent horror movie. It shows how the line between fantasy and reality can become blurred and how that can lead to tragic results. Eric Binford was raised under rather bizarre circumstances by an old hag who is determined to make his life a living hell. He retreats to a movie based fantasy world. Combine this with the boss from Hell and a chance encounter with a Marilyn Monroe look-alike, and you have a perfect set-up for a descent into insanity. Things get so insane that by the end of the movie, your suspension of disbelief has been violated which is why this film does not merit a 5 stars out of 5 rating.

A Young Man in his Mid-Twenty by the name of Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher), which his First Love is Movies and he also Absorbing Them. When Eric falls in Love with a Marylin Monroe look-alike (Linda Kerridge). But Eric has Problems with People, who are Giving Him a Hard Time, soon, He goes over the Edge.

Written and Directed by Vernon Zimmerman made a Suspenseful Thriller, which Movie Buffs and Horror Fans will love this. Because of the film`s Interesting Promise. It`s a Thriller with Some Horror Elements. Dennis Christopher gives a Tour de Force Performance in this flawed but Genuine Film. Mickey Rourke has a Small Role in this. Peter Horton has a very Small Part in this. This is a Excellent Film. Grade:B+.

Saw this movie a about 1986 and haven't forgotten it. Very cool and scary.

This is a great film about film's and good soundtrack. I Highly recomend it if you're a big time movie buff.

Really intresting and good movie, I highly recommend this movie as it is really rare...........

One more film, you may say, on the cinema as a perverted model for young men. It came out in 1981, at a time when the campaign against violence in films and on TV was going on full blast under the accusation that it was the teacher in violence for a vast array of violent teenagers and young men. The film though is slightly more positive than that and critical of this easy and narrow-minded position. It analyzes one concrete case and is very careful to show how the young man has become a film-addict because of the absurd family position in which he was living : raised by a crippled mother (a car accident) who refused to declare herself his mother not to break her dancing career which was broken anyway four years later by the car accident. Frustration, loss of references, destructured or unstrustured emotional landscape, and a vindictive henpecking rather bitchy mother/aunt who is also slightly perverted and requires her son/nephew to massage her back in the evening. It is the meeting of a girl looking like Marylin Monroe, her not coming to a promised rendez-vous and several ensuing mishaps that lead him into realizing a few vengeful crimes on the model of some of his favorite films and actors. It is an already sick mind that falls in the trap of imitating violence in films. In other words this violence is only active on already disturbed young males. Strangely enough, at the time, the case of women was not even considered. Since then of course many other films have been shot on the subject. This film takes advantage too of this opportunity to nail a big stake in the back of some policemen who only think that the solution is and can only be « Shoot them down and eventually bring them in, if it is not too much of an effort to do so, otherwise go back to the first instruction and shoot them down. » This attitude has widely changed and we have learned a lot that we have to be preventive, without segregating against some who could be sorted out as potential criminals, and afterwards reformative, though the persistance of the death penalty prevents that reformative stand from prevailing.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Université Paris Dauphine, Université Paris I Panthéon Sorbonne