ALL DISQUIET ON THE EUROPEAN FRONT



THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE (1921)
Victor Sjöström, Astrid Holm, Hilda Borgström, Tore Svennberg, Tor Weijden, Einar Axelsson, Concordia Selander
Directed by Victor Sjöström
St. Sylvester's Night (New Years Eve). Sweden. A pious Salvation Army sister named Edit, suffering from consumption (tuberculosis), is on her deathbed and calls for David Holm (played by Sjöström). He however, is in a cemetery with 2 drunken pals and he tells them of his deceased friend Georges, whom recounted to him the legend of how a ghost chariot materializes every year to carry off those who will die near the start of the brand new calendar. The last sinner to die on Dec 31st before the clock strikes 12, becomes the new coachman who carries out the task for the full 365 before the reins are handed over to the next unfortunate doomed soul to fulfill the annual tradition. David is found in the graveyard and told of Edit's last wish to see him but he refuses to visit. When his wino friends try to take him to her, a brawl breaks out and he is accidentally killed when hit on the head with a bottle. As Georges died at the end of the same holiday night the year before, the old friend shows up, hooded and scythe-wielding, in the horse-drawn buggy to collect David, whose spirit rises from his body. David was a happy family man with his wife, Anna, and their 2 kids but Georges was a bad influence, and through flashback we are led through David's vice-ridden past deeds and see how his chronic drinking, and being mean & hateful both corruptingly ruined his life and destroyed his family -- with glimpses of him being thrown in jail for rowdiness, his brother sentenced to prison for drunkenly killing a man, and David returning to an empty poverty-stricken apartment to find his wife & kids gone and swearing revenge to find them. In his search, he arrived at the Salvation Army where he met Edit.

She sewed his filthy torn coat and he promised to come back and see her in a year as a follow-up, but he returned the act of kindness with cruelty by ripping out the stitching for pure spite, of which he took pleasure. Tender but naive Edit sees her mission as that of a savior who makes it their quest to please God. Her supreme task is to succeed in helping David overcome his personal demons. In a strange metaphysical way, her failure to prevent his pathetic self-destruction sees her contracting his same illness from contact alone, almost as a punishment (and thus reducing him, further and lower, to a literal walking disease). Making him keep the promise against his will, Georges takes David in the carriage to see Edit. In another flashback, David is shown at a bar and then a Salvation Army meeting with Edit pleading for him to give up booze but he is callous and unaffected. When Anna later tells her of the worry she has about his love of liquor, Edit plays mini-marriage counselor and the couple do alright for a little while but in no time at all, his inebriation drives her to total despair. Begging him for the sake of the children, she locked him in the kitchen and attempted to take off with the kids for safety, but fainted as he chopped through the door with an axe. When he awoke her with a cup of water, he immediately berated her. Georges enters Edit's room with David in tow. She blames herself for his welfare and family troubles, and seeks his forgiveness. Deeply remorseful for all his wrongdoing and kissing her hand, from this sincerity and having remained hopeful and virtuous to the end, she dies peacefully. Georges tells David that others will collect her, and then shows him that Anna, also afflicted from consumption and having lost the will to carry on, plans on poisoning the children & herself.

David begs Georges to stop her but he has no power over the living. Having regained consciousness in the cemetery, does David have a desperate last act of decency or for that matter, any selflessness left? With innocent lives in the balance, can he heroically prevent a terrible act of tragedy from taking place? Can he ultimately save himself from utter damnation? THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE is adapted from Selma Lagerlöf's 1912 novel, 'Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!' (In 1909, she became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for literature). With the Swedish name translating as 'The Wagoner' for this silent and spooky fantasy-horror movie, it also went under Thy Soul Shall Bear Witness!, The Phantom Chariot, and The Stroke of Midnight. Whatever the titles in trying to capture the genre, at heart is a morality tale of memory and warning, filled with modern issues of domestic abuse, abandonment, depression, misanthropy, alcoholism, addiction, abstinence, and rehabilitation -- all of which help give a sense of timelessness. Alongside his parallel with German directors like F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang, this specific Sjöström offering was a watershed moment in early Swedish cinema and so immensely influential on fellow director Ingmar Bergman, that Bergman reportedly said after first seeing it at age 15, that he went on to watch it every New Year's Eve, and had viewed the movie well over 100 times. He died in July 2007, at 89. As well, Bergman's character of 'Death' in his 1957 film, THE SEVENTH SEAL, was inspired by Sjöström's meditative presentation, and he further cast Sjöström in his other 1957 film, THE WILD STRAWBERRIES (which also references THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE). Sjöström (aka Seastrom during his MGM years in the USA) died in January 1960, at 80.

The sfx are a stunning masterpiece of painstaking post-production with double exposures, match cuts, and multiple superimposed layering to create the dazzling ghostly transparency. Whether walking though walls or a great underwater sequence in a swirling sea, the beautifully lit haunting imagery of ethereal supernatural visions were a major, innovatively advanced, sophisticated, and superb technical accomplishment. And complicated as they were, however crude the process may be considered by present standards, to this day they nevertheless appear flawless, convincing, and still rival any current CGI. Without too much dispute, Stanley Kubrick's famous terrorizing axe attack from THE SHINING is an echo (if not an outright & overt rip off) from this picture -- which in turn could also have been Sjöström "borrowing" from a similar hatchet scene he may have seen in 1919's BROKEN BLOSSOMS by D.W. Griffith. The flashback narrative fabric of reviewing David's existence through the error of his ways and the damage he's inflicted recalls (in much bleaker manner) A CHRISTMAS CAROL's Ebenezer Scrooge, and IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE's George Bailey (with Georges as both Jacob Marley, and Clarence Oddbody). But David is no mere lovable reprobate and as Death's impending but reluctant new driver, he is told that the weight of each day on earth will feel like 100yrs, and his own painful journey shown through the filter of his somber conscience (feeling like a long funeral procession) is a miserable, wasted existence of selfish obnoxiousness. Glum and guilt-ridden for all the negativity he has wrought as an intoxicated asshole, he faces reckoning before any repentance or reform. And before any atonement, we see all that was anguished and appalling.

Realistically, David certainly deserves to have the extremely unpleasant task of being 'harvesting Grim Reaper' hoisted upon him. The most difficult thing about watching silent movies are having to sit through boredom from tedious storylines, reading from flashcards from start to finish, and the exaggerated silliness of long-outdated, corny melodrama histrionics. Even for the 1920's, films were still in their infancy, rife with rough shortcomings, and there was plenty of drawn-out preaching & lecturing as THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE, too, has it's fair share of Christian overture dwelling on prayer and humility throughout. Redemption is the big theme here, but its sometimes convoluted, and the certainly old-fashioned structure will have many attention spans waning for while an ambitious plot, it's very jumpy and that distraction unfortunately displays some lack of focus. But it's the larger delivery of what is viewed here that definitely more than makes up for the faults (and debatable ending). THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE saw a 1939 French remake, a 1958 Swedish remake, and a 2000 Swedish TV play, THE IMAGE MAKERS (which centers on the meeting of Sjöström and Lagerlöf, their clashing over her wanting to film on location vs. his wanting to use a studio, and the early shooting stages of the movie as they watch scenes). Overall, the 1921 Sjöström version is a splendid gem with even Charlie Chaplin repeatedly giving it his highest praise. And in closing, the movie is a very worthy spectral entry in the non-Hollywood arena of yesteryear -- daunting, often lost fare that is sadly too easily prone to being relegated/reduced to little more than silver screen footnotes. THE PHANTOM CARRIAGE is one celluloid chapter in a bygone era that should not be forgotten.




THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI (1920)
Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher, Lil Dagover, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Hans Lanser-Ludolff, Rudolf Klein-Rogge
Directed by Robert Wiene
In the small German mountain village of Holstenwall, a man named Francis is narrating our tale. On a garden bench with an elderly stranger, he speaks of his friend named Alan, and points to his nightgowned fiancée named Jane who passes by in a daze. In flashback, he tells of a madman named Dr. Caligari, a selfish hypnotist (and svengali-like evildoer who can mind control minions, like Dracula) and his zombie-ish sleepwalking henchman, Cesare (a fiendish Frankenstein-like Golem of sorts) who is claimed to have been in a snoozing slumber since birth for 23yrs(!) Caligari has gotten a permit from the boorish town clerk to open a curious carnival exhibit showcasing Cesare, which Francis and Alan attend. Cesare is a mindreader and foreteller of the future, and when awakened to answer questions from the audience, he forecasts Alan's death saying the doomed man will die at dawn. The shocked pair of friends leave but recover after they run into Jane, the daughter of the town physician. Both men are in love with her and are affably competing for her affection. When Alan is found dead in the morning, the baffled police investigating the alarming killing begin wondering if they have a serial killer on their hands (as the town clerk was also found stabbed in his bed), and if the deaths are connected to the arrival of the mysterious & suspicious newcomers. With Caligari running his sideshow tent as ringleader at the local fair, this prompts Francis to spy & snoop on him further, but Caligari with Cesare slyly sidesteps the police who are searching for the culprits responsible.

A recently arrested criminal caught in the act of attempting to knife an old woman, is charged with the 2 murders -- which the miscreant adamantly denies. Caligari orders Cesare to kill Jane, and our proto-Goth goon (with a blend of Mike Myers' Dieter character from SNL's Sprockets) glides into her bedroom where she screams and faints from his attack. Ghoulish but unable to harm Jane due to his attraction to her (as another instance of being spellbound), the pitiful Cesare instead abducts her, making his exit by carrying the poor maiden onto a crooked trail where he is chased by a mob that was alerted by her noise. Putting the unconscious Jane down, Cesare suddenly collapses & drops dead. And from this unsuccessful kidnapping, the townsfolk make their way to Caligari's wagon abode where they find him missing, and a dummy in Cesare's casket/coffin. Caligari returns but manages to escape during the stirred up commotion. Francis hits the nearby insane asylum to dig up possible info on Caligari, and is told by an employee to see the director who it turns out is Caligari. This convinces Francis that Caligari is indeed the murderer, and with the director asleep, the would-be sleuth along with some staff check his office. Scrounging through his books, Francis finds a diary which reveals that Caligari is obsessed with a same-named 18th Century mystic who had a companion -- a hypnotized, submissive servant (also named Cesare who is trapped in telepathic trance). This predecessor perpetrated a killing spree in northern Italian towns.

The director's pages are ravings about how he must become a new Caligari of infamy, as if to absorb himself into a very ideal of power -- not unlike a position he's already abusing. Through Francis exposing the duo's foulness leading to Caligari's unveiling, the police arrive with Cesare's dead body. When Caligari returns to his office, and is confronted with the corpse, the unraveled director has a psychotic break and goes crazy trying to strangle a doctor. He is quickly fitted with a straitjacket and confined to a cell as an inmate in his own institution. But SURPRISE(!), it is Francis who is the real madman relating his story (a fabrication) to us as a mental patient in the asylum courtyard. A quiet Cesare, and Jane are also patients (with Jane believing she is a queen, and who rejects Francis). And the real Caligari is shown as the director who has no sinister bone in his body but rather is a benevolent man whom is attacked by Francis in a screaming outburst. This earns Francis his own straitjacket and cell, with Caligari intent on curing him of the demented delusions that have twisted his brain. As for the real killer? (Perhaps Francis, unable to reconcile his guilt thus concocting a falsehood?) His face was never visible, and we are left open to subjective/metaphorical interpretations that contemplate identity, victimization, jealousy, paranoia, truth and deception. Perhaps the most immediate discussion in talking about THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI is the appearance of its unusual painted backdrops...

...An abstract and bizarre landscape in a theatrical visual style filled with tilted chaotic distortion, twisted sharp points, curves & jagged edges, and diagonal, zigzag & slanting lines galore -- all evidenced in narrow passages, uneven windows & stairs, peculiar furniture, and spiked trees & thorny grass. [It's an impelling misshapen look of exaggerated asymmetry and defied gravity, whose out-of-joint weirdness, revolutionary approach, and captivating dark flair plays like a disturbing dream that has surely inspired Tim Burton]. The film has been shown in dirty yellowish brown, green, and blue tints, and along with its use of light & charcoaled shadow, iris lenses, words representing surrounding voices, and set design, its manner of framework keenly juxtaposes competing stark contrasts of insanity vs. stability, and reality vs. nightmare. The intellectual, philosophical, and psychological academic context of the film has even gone far beyond the analytical discussion of a radical discordant artform, to present scholarly theories that through symbolic teutonic obedience to authority, prevailing disorder, and corruption of the world, what we view in its entirety is a subliminal premonition/precursor/predictor of the tyrannical rise of Nazi fascism 13yrs before Hitler came to power. Arguably the world's genuinely first horror movie, we can quite literally trace the whole trope of a twist-ending, beginning with this famous and foreboding German film alone and with it's pioneering techniques, it is highly notable that this movie also introduces the clever craftsmanship of what are now-familiar premises of bait & switch reversals, red herrings, maguffins, and most specifically: unreliable narrators.

An iconic and incredible foundational landmark of huge historical importance, this quintessential film is a magnificent gold standard recommended BIG time, and is an absolute must-see, seminal classic for both film buffs and first-time enthusiasts. Fractured and still fresh with it's longest running length at 78 minutes, even if you have a strong aversion to silent movies (and especially foreign ones), you should see this atleast once in your life and all the way through. Overall, with its avant-garde expressionism, and early template for all lurking lunatics and villainous stalkers to follow, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI was an experimental and cerebral groundbreaker WAY ahead of it's time that stretches into additional referential subject matter such as modern art, the scarred psyche of post-WWI, the Weimar Republic, repressed memory, Sigmund Freud, Friedrich Nietzsche, and film noir. And ultimately, the filmmakers couldn't have possibly imagined in their wildest dreams how much their surreal and mesmerizing, creepy creation would clear a trailblazing path to influence later horror for decades & generations afterwards. [It spawned a 1962 20th Century Fox version; a 1989 sex-driven horror comedy sequel; a 1991 rendition (with just music score and no dialogue) that was screened only during the 1992 Sundance Film Festival and never released to cinema, starring Joan Cusack, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Peter Gallagher, and Werner Klemperer; and a 2005 US indie release which is a nearly shot-for-shot remake with sound]. A century on, THE CABINET OF DR. CALIGARI continues to remain a fantastic, engaging, and enduring potent piece of work that brilliantly stands the test of time.

FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST, WHAT THE DEVIL HAS GOTTEN INTO YOU?



STIGMATA (1999)
Patricia Arquette, Gabriel Byrne, Jonathan Pryce, Nia Long, Dick Latessa, Rade Šerbedžija, Jack Donner
Directed by Rupert Wainwright
Father Andrew Kiernan is the Vatican's top investigator (with a scientific background making for a contradictory combo) who is in Sao Paolo following up on reports of the Virgin Mary's face having appeared on the side of a building. Turns out it was just a rust stain. While in the city, he inadvertently hears of a bleeding Virgin Mary statue in a church and visits. A revered priest, Father Paolo Alameida, has just died and during his funeral service, a young boy steals the dead man's rosary and sells it as a souvenir to a female American tourist out in the street. Anxious to study more, Kiernan returns to Rome where the Vatican are disinterested and hostile to his findings. High-ranking Cardinal Houseman abruptly orders him to drop the matter. Back in rainy Pittsburgh, Frankie Paige, is a young hairdresser in her early 20's (whose cutting edge salon also does tattoos, well before the merging of ink and cosmotology was prevalent). She is an atheist and thinks she might be pregnant (but isn't). She opens a small gift package from Brazil sent by her mother. It's the rosary. From that moment, she begins having strange visions such as a woman tossing a baby into a busy street, and starts suffering violent, invisible attacks. They are the work of stigmata -- Jesus' crucifixion wounds. When punctures in her wrists result in an Emergency Room visit, she is accused of self-inflicted cutting made as a suicide attempt, and medical staff discuss if she may have epilepsy. Another attack occurs on the subway when her back is whipped, and these lacerations are witnessed by a Priest who immediately informs the Vatican. When they get word of Frankie's situation, Houseman sends Kiernan to report on the case that is drawing uncomfy attention, that all the same is oddly regarded as insignificant.

Meeting her for the first time (via haircut), he is at first skeptical of the authenticity of her afflictions, and explains that stigmatics are the truly devout worshippers who experience this phenomena from their profound reverence. So why is party girl Frankie getting her butt kicked and hospitalized by these bloody assaults? [Maybe some exposition involving St. Francis of Assisi said to be the first true stigmatic, and Frankie's near-sounding name positioning her as a fellow recipient, might have something to do with it]. Her next seizure-like attack occurs at a nightclub with injuries to her forehead and blood streaming down her face, as if wearing a crown of thorns. In her apartment, Kiernan then witnesses her possession when she talks in a foreign tongue, in a man's voice -- speaking and then writing on her wall in Aramaic (the alleged language and text of Jesus). These observations further test Kiernan's already troubled spirituality for as he has become doubtful & disillusioned with his calling, there is an implied determination of him to restore his conviction and remain firm in his profession. As he steps up as protector, there is nothing miraculous in Frankie's plight as far as she sees it. This torment of Jesus' worst day is an equally torturous nightmare being visited upon her, and undergoing such a painful, terrifying and even humiliating ordeal, is slowly killing her. To her credit, she tries to maintain a normalcy the whole time, where others would have completely imploded at this stage from the inability alone to grasp what is happening to them. As the severity of Frankie's wounds & worsening physical harm increases, Kiernan's worry about her vulnerable condition becomes less concerned with proving or debunking any miracle, and more about saving her life.

Kiernan sends voice recordings & pictures of her scrawlings to a colleague in the Vatican, Father Delmonico, but Delmonico's warning of the translation indicating dangerous content for the Catholic Church, is overheard from a phone call to Kiernan, with the eavesdropped chat told to Houseman. Kiernan realizes something malevolent is using her as a vessel for an extraordinary life-altering message that threatens the very foundations of the Church. And the implications of this secret point to a cover-up, as well as a fight for Frankie's very soul. In another incident, she levitates with full arms outstretched as if on the most famous cross in all of human history [and perhaps amazingly, the scene is not accompanied by Soundgarden]. The 2 have an obvious mutual attraction. She flirts & makes passes at him, and he has charisma. But for each, it's more due to an intellectual connection in the chemistry (thin as it is). While she wants him in bed, he doesn't succumb to temptation. And seductive symbolism is laid on thick that even with sex on offer, their association transcends getting busy between the sheets. Houseman and some cronies show up in Pittsburgh telling Kiernan to send Frankie to the Archdiocese to be cared for, but the Cardinal has her prepared for the casting out of what they treat as Satanic chicanery. Kiernan meets with Marion Petrocelli who tells him of a secret gospel found near Jerusalem, reputed to be the actual words of Jesus which nullifies the need for the Church. Alameida had stolen the document and was ex-communicated by Houseman. Naturally, the bigwigs in charge would want this shocking discovery and its ramifications stifled. At any cost. Kiernan races back to the Archdiocese, throws down with Houseman, and offering himself in exchange for Frankie (it is Alameida possessing her), he steps through literal flames of damnation [Byrne in Hell?] to free her.

[Interestingly enough, Byrne's next film role was playing Lord Lucifer himself in END OF DAYS released that same year]. It is impossible not to find the landscape of STIGMATA familiar: it plays as a slanted Gen-X version of THE EXORCIST, swirling with resemblances of an innocent victim seemingly under demonic possession, and the Priest with good looks out to rescue her from an entity literally tearing her apart. Frankie and Kiernan are cut from the same cloth as Regan MacNeil and Father Damien Karras. Even the cliché of a growling beast with sexual taunting is not spared. Some pretentious, clergy discussions aside -- whether in Rome or in the climax of last confrontation -- yeah, STIGMATA has problems. What it lacks in being engaging, is just as lacking in Frankie's weak dialogue, and the rather huh?-logic of the fiery (and conventional) finale is muddled. Upon its release, there was some complaining within a few pious circles calling the movie anti-church, and the Church got their feathers ruffled causing a minor uproar saying the movie was anti-establishment. In its defense, finding anything here to be offended & outraged by is quite laughable. A theme of mysticism vs. cynicism manages to be thought provoking, as does the idea/forgotten concept of individualism being more important than institution. Alameida's spirit carrying on as a sinister deliverer is puzzling. His immortal true message for the removal of barriers between Man and God sounds simple enough in layman's terms, but the unfolding of events in direct relation to him are confusing & mishandled. It's unclear how much (or even if) he preached this doctrine to his parishioners while stationed in Brazil but now an invested Kiernan, and an especially indifferent Frankie are the happenstance tools of theology meant for her to house and profess this holy creed -- not through peaceful divinity but instead by a dark force of wicked belligerence, that incredibly is not 'evil' but is infused as such. Right.

And strangely, with Frankie as the 'chosen one', she really isn't; not in the sense of a deliberate intention seeking her out. But thus is her depiction nevertheless. It's by pure chance of receiving the rosary that she undergoes her agony. [Which in itself is creative license as stigmata cannot be transferred by object]. And her portrayal is a sympathetic transformation, albeit predictable: a lost member of the flock who by movie's end has changed almost as if gracefully reborn into purity. She has to endure excruciation before experiencing the blissful ecstasy of all sins forgiven. And nothing says love like a gentle dove. Also up front is how the movie's jarring editing has too much of an arty MTV feel for some sequences. With heavy-handed, slick splatterings of blurred/bleachy/muted/hued dream-like frames that onslaught the senses, the cuts of disturbing montage imagery of hammered spikes into flesh, and deeply marked skin from flagellation, look very music video-ish. Speaking of which, the movie was scored by Billy Corgan and the soundtrack features Massive Attack, David Bowie, Bjork, Chumbawamba, Sinéad O'Connor, and Natalie Imbruglia. Lastly, STIGMATA's end post-script is controversial for lending itself to conspiracy. There are just as many who will agree about the inference of corruption to suppress a real history and keep it from the public, as those who won't. An alternate ending has Kiernan back in the Sao Paolo church, unrolling an unearthed, papyrus scroll (Ta-dah! The sacred lost gospel) with the exact script Frankie had written on her wall, and him placing a framed picture of her on an altar, suggesting her death. With this final scene of the manuscript, what is left at the very least (whether you discredit or not) is still a post-discussion on modern religion through personal faith, reason, the power of belief, and ecclesiastical politics. Overall, it's a mixed bag but if you liked 1988's THE SEVENTH SIGN, you might dig this also as it makes for an adequate companion piece that continues the conversation.




FALLEN (1998)
Denzel Washington, John Goodman, Embeth Davidtz, Elias Koteas, Donald Sutherland, James Gandolfini, Gabriel Casseus
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
The movie starts with Philadelphia detective John Hobbes in voiceover mentioning how he almost died during the ordeal we are about to view. An imprisoned serial killer named Edgar Reese, whom Hobbes helped capture is about to be executed. In his death row cell during a final talk, Reese reaches for a handshake, speaks in a foreign language (later identified as Aramaic, which he couldn't have possibly known), and hints at revenge. Once he's strapped in the gas chamber, he sings The Rolling Stones 'Time is on My Side' and is declared deceased. We then cut to Hobbes with his sidekick partner, Jonesy, as they celebrate in a bar with another officer. Both men are investigating copycat murders that lead to Gretta Milano, a theology professor whose father was a former cop that committed suicide 30yrs prior after being blamed for similar-themed killings. After finding books about demonic possession and the name "Azazel" scrawled on the basement wall in the Milano cabin home, Gretta tries to warn Hobbes off the case but after a scary encounter with a stranger on the street, she tells him that the real culprit responsible for the slayings is the same Azazel, a fallen angel whom through simple touch can body jump into anyone and possess their souls, with his passing spirit using the unfortunate hosts as new vessels to continue his killing spree (hmm... similar shades of SHOCKER, anyone? Or THE HIDDEN? All be it each in different fashion?) Like a domino effect, each person passes on to a completely new stranger. Hobbes becomes more aware of the supernatural activity and because he was touched by a possessed Reese but was unable to be affected, he now faces Azazel stalking him in trying to ruin the detective's life for nothing other than being a mischievous & malicious game. Azazel shows up at Hobbes' precinct and tauntingly body jumps into several officers while singing The Stones tune.

The demon then attacks Hobbes' family, first through his nephew, Sam, and then mentally challenged brother, Art. When chased into the street, Azazel inhabits a teacher and pulls a gun on Hobbes resulting in the detective shooting the innocent host infront of a shocked group of onlookers. The demon then tells him that even if the person he possesses is killed, he can still body jump into a new host in the immediate vicinity without the need for touch. Hobbes is then thrown for a loop when Lieutenant Stanton tells him that because his fingerprints were found at a copycat murder scene, and because of the suspicious teacher shooting, he is now the prime suspect for all the killings. Lt. Stanton believes the copycat murder has been a cop all along. Azazel then enters a bunch of witnesses to give false testimony of the teacher shooting being unprovoked, to further set up the detective and make him appear guilty. The demon returns to Hobbes' home where he kills Art and physically scars Sam. When Sam is brought to Gretta for safety (her apartment is filled with angel imagery), she tells the detective that if Azazel is brought out of a host body, he can only remain a spirit for the length of one breath and if unable to possess another body in that time, he will die completely. Now on the run, the implicated Hobbes returns to the Milano cabin (deep in the snowy wilderness of nightfall) and calls Jonesy whom arrives with Lt. Stanton to arrest him. Jonesy however has been possessed by Azazel, and after the demon kills Stanton, he prepares to shoot himself in order to body jump into Hobbes, thus taking him over at last. But Hobbes attacks Jonesy and in the skirmish, shoots his partner who dies, forcing Azazel out. He has also tricked the demon by having drank poison as a brave decision in a self-sacrificing move to trap & eliminate the evil once and for all, with Hobbes knowing a final attempt will be made to control him.

Azazel tries to reside in the detective but without firm grip, attempts to scamper out of his body only to fatally perish from the poison. Having reached our end, we are brought back to the voiceover of Hobbes only to discover that in the attack, Hobbes was properly possessed. The movie's entire POV in this wraparound has shifted to reveal it is Azazel who has been speaking all along, describing himself that almost died. Hobbes like every other victim before him has been lethally consumed. In closing, a tabby cat surfaces from beneath the cabin and makes its way back to the big city, to the close of The Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil'. In the 90's, Denzel was no stranger to a few roles in the horror realm, or having dealt with nightmarish killers such as those in RICOCHET, VIRTUOSITY, and THE BONE COLLECTOR. In FALLEN as the morally upright Hobbes, he conveys charm, credibility, sympathy and grapples with paranoia as his honed sense of experienced judgment is thrown into disarray that mentally messes with his intuition; like his confusion after recognizing a murder victim found in a bathtub (while the killer calmly ate breakfast cereal) who had walked past him the night before, and his initial scoffing that turns into stunned belief. With it's slight mixture of NYPD Blue police procedural meeting The X-Files [which incidentally also used Azazel in a season 2 episode entitled 'Die Hand Die Verletzt'] delving into Satanic manifestation, the movie's grim plot of good vs. evil juggles a little biblical prophecy (seeing as the end of the millennium was nearing), and some spirituality with Hobbes in fighting for his life, having to invest in faith to carry out a decisive mission of hope. For edgy and suspenseful dark fare in the depressing vein of SEVEN, the more unusual presentation in this picture plays on dreary and creepy, opting to swap out normally expected terrifying violence which is kept considerably in check.

Every possessed and smirking host with their out-of-place penchant for singing The Stones (meant as our intruder alert) serves to heighten a stressed situation of tension, and claustrophobic cave-in seething with crowded aggression; for seemingly anyone at any given moment can be the sudden, sinister, wicked presence to emerge without warning. But this danger of crossing paths does have a tendency to veer into territory of gimmicky mockery about how the ordinary can instantly morph into far-fetched perversity. FALLEN does suffer from slowness, a bit of tangled logic, and a few weakly written characters, but the increasing threatening nature of Azazel's cat & mouse hostility, and the detective's bewildered drive to understand the unsettling bizarreness, and to stop him, are energetic injections that get past the flaws and help pick up the pace (in other words, a testament to Denzel's fine acting). While Hobbes may appear too subdued and not vulnerable enough at times for the heaviness taking place, in the absence of whatever deemed sense of urgency however, there's still also an effective measuredness about him being confident, and not prone to panicking -- even as he eerily echoes Gretta's father and must avoid a same tragic outcome. And then there's the conclusion: an unexpected twist that is sly and Machiavellian. Overall, a good movie with an intriguing concept that could've been a lot better, and I can see where audience frustrations may lie: horror fans who find it too tame, and mainstream watchers who find it too dull. Maybe the best both sides can compromise on is to view this one a 50/50 scale, and I'm curious at how FALLEN would've played out had there been plenty more of Reese, and what we would've gotten had Hobbes been played by the originally approached Arnold Schwarzenegger (hmm, 1999's END OF DAYS perhaps?)