Eric Binford fades from memory

FADE TO BLACK (1980)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

(Originally reviewed in 2002)

A scrawny, unlikable weakling is an unlikely character lead in a movie but "Fade to Black" is one of those low-budget stinkers that tries a little too hard to be clever and ends up delivering nada in return.

Dennis Christopher ("Breaking Away") is the unlikable, scrawny weakling, Eric Binford, who loves movies more than life itself. He believes movies are life and among his favorites are "White Heat," "Kiss of Death" and anything with Marilyn Monroe. Eric works at a film studio handling film reels, and does the job badly. Everyone at work hates the kid including his boss. Eric lives at home with his aunt who is in a wheelchair, watches old movies all night and assumes the identities of famous characters in real life. Eric's identity crisis goes a little too far as he begins killing people in various disguises, including Count Dracula, Hopalong Cassidy, the Mummy, and so on. Meanwhile, a coke-sniffing psychiatrist (laughably played by Tim Thomerson) feels that the kid is a victim of society and can be helped. This conceit is nothing new and very popular nowadays in light of recent crime cases involving Colombine high school and John Grisham's uncle killed by hallucinating teens inspired by "Natural Born Killers ," but I digress.

"Fade to Black" has a terrific idea defeated by the most unlikable, unpleasant characters to surface in a movie in a long time. No one emits the slightest care in the world about anything and that makes it harder to care about them. Even Eric's aunt is unsympathetic and loud. Only Linda Kerridge as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike who takes a liking to Eric is borderline normal, but what does she find appealing in Eric?

The filmmaking is amateurish and the cinematography is badly photographed to the point where scenes are so dark that I had trouble figuring what was happening. I am assuming the filmmakers were aiming for a realistic documentary look in the style of George Romero's "Martin" but it hardly meshes with the underdeveloped story and characters. A climax at a movie theater is as ludicrous and laughable a climax as I have seen in a long time, and I thought "Dracula vs. Frankenstein" was bad.

"Fade to Black" seems to have been made for people who hate movies. In that spirit, it fades from memory long before it is over.

Footnote: Look for an early appearance by Mickey Rourke as a studio employee who knows everything about "Casablanca" except the full name of Humphrey Bogart's character.