Fade to Black Movie Review

 

Fade to Black is a 1980 horror movie directed by Vernon Zimmerman and starring Dennis Christoper,Tim Thomerson, Gwynne Gilford and Linda Kerridge.

The tale begins with a young man called Eric Binford(Christopher). He lives with his aunt and he has an obsession with old movies. He works at a film distributors and he is often in trouble at work.  His aunt is called Stella and she tells him that he needs to change his lifestyle. She thinks that he is a loser. A psychologist called Moriarty(Thomerson) is moving into the local police station. He is setting up a programme to help young offenders. Eric makes a bet with a guy at work called Richie(Mickey Rourke). Richie is a bad guy and he always makes fun of Eric. Eric sees a young woman called Marilyn(Kerridge). She looks exactly like Marilyn Monroe and he is fascinated with her. He makes a date with her, but she isn't really that interested in him. She goes out with another guy and she forgets their date. Eric isn't happy.

Aunt Stella gives him grief when he goes home and he ends up pushing her down the stairs in her wheelchair and killing her. He starts to go crazy. He starts to dress up like characters from the movies that he loves. He dresses up as Dracula and he goes into Marilyn's apartment. He sees her in the shower, but he doesn't kill her. He finds a prostitute who had laughed at him previously and he chases her. She falls over and gets impaled on a fence. He bites her neck and sucks the blood from it. Next, he dresses up as Hopalong Cassidy and meets the nasty Richie. He shoots him and kills him. Meanwhile, Moriarty is investigating the murders. Eric meets a filmmaker and he talks to him about his ideas for a movie. The guy tells him that he should call him for a chat about it. Eric is elated. He gets fired from his job.

He heads over to his workplace dressed as The Mummy. He frightens his boss, who has a heart condition. He causes him to have a heart attack and die. Next, he finds out that the filmmaker stole his idea. He goes to get him dressed like gangster Cody Jarrett and he opens fire on him. Moriarty is getting closer to him, along with his helper, policewoman Anne Oshenbull(Gilford). They find out that Stella was not Eric's aunt, but his mother. Eric is dressed up as a prince from the movie The Prince and the Showgirl. He lures Marilyn to meet him by pretending to be a photographer. When she arrives, everything is set up. Moriarty is on the way to find him  before he can do anything to Marilyn.

Eric shoots him in the leg and he grabs Marilyn and runs. They find him at Mann's Chinese Theatre and he takes her up to the roof. He lets her go as he gets ready for his final scene. The police have surrounded the building and he starts to reenact Cody Jarrett's final scene from the movie White Heat.
The cops shoot him and he dies after falling from the roof. This film was pretty good. I am not sure about Christopher's performance, though. I didn't think that it was that great. I liked the premise and the movie references were good. This could have been a lot better, I felt. I did like the nods to other horror movies such as Night of the Living Dead and there were posters from Halloween and Tourist Trap on display which I also liked. All in all, this was an odd film for me. I didn't know if it wanted to be a serious horror movie or a comedy horror movie. I just didn't get it. Anyway, there is enough in this one to keep you entertained and I recommend it overall. I will give it a 5/10.