Customer Rating:  
Summary: slick production values, but still a mess
Comment: FALLEN ANGELS boasts all the usual modern horror film visuals (i.e. clichés). Quick MTV edits, grim desaturated colors, gore, etc. Even so, the film is a boring mess.
Confused story. I don't think I would have known what was going on, except I'd read the DVD box before hand, and the characters kept filling me in on stuff they'd learned. (And I'd wonder: how did they figure that out? -- it's not in the film.)
Films opens with stereotypical drunken, horny teens. One's killed, another's kidnapped. Then we're at this prison about to be torn down. We find skeletons in the basement. The FBI comes in to investigate. Turns out many skeletons are over 100 years old.
People die. Some from demons, some from a killer. We find more skeletons. Killed by different people.
More people die, seemingly at random. In the end we learn it has something to do with 7 demons in charge of the 7 deadly sins. Yet I can't really figure out which thinly sketched character was supposed to be guilty of which sin.
Also, a mother is seeking her kidnapped daughter. And an FBI agent discusses his early years as a pastor in Mexico. Where some demon-possessed boy was killed by vigilante villagers.
The FBI agent/pastor also converses with a demon. This demon has really cheap makeup, like in a sitcom. He sounds like some whiny character from a Jerry Seinfeld episode.
I won't give a spoiler, but know that the ending is really unexpected, in a weird way. Not entertaining. Not gripping or anything horrific. Just out of the ballpark.
The production values are slick. But the acting is flat, and the writing is awful.
The best 7 deadly sins film is THE DEVIL WALKS AT MIDNIGHT, aka THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE. An early 1970s Euro-horror film.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Movie Review
Comment: This movie went from discovering skeletons in an underground "dungeon" to searching for a missing person.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Excuse For A Film
Comment: At the beginning, Fallen Angels seemed almost like a dream. Everything that was happening was very dreamy and very confusing. Although it was confusing, when the first few deaths came around, the first thing that popped into my head was, "Wow! This movie is going to be great!" But, after the death when the demon split the detective's mouth open, and then ripped out his teeth, the movie deteriorated.
It began just a blur of confusion and deaths that were far from original. There was only one death preceding this point that actually made me say "Wow!", and that was when another detective got his eyes popped by one of the demons.
Overall, I was disappointed with Fallen Angels, mainly because it had so much promise in the beginning, and then just went cheesy afterwards, and it was very upsetting as a viewer. Rent first before buying this movie.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie With Something Amazing About It
Comment: I would have to say that I was rather shocked by this movie. I would have expected the usual indie sort of thing, monsters running about (check), frantic people in search of answers while going into the places you really shouldn't go (check), theological meaning and an almost Christian ending (whoooahh?....) Yes, this had what I would have to say a very spiritual, rather almost Christian, ending. While there were many wonderful, sort of I would guess, scenes of violence and monsters attacking (which turned out to be a fog of a situation as you find out in the ending), the culmination and the declaration of the ending of the movie was...what I would have to call...a very Christian point of view toward spiritual warfare and spiritual (very close to Christian) sense of revelation and hope and meaning. Fantastic! I would have to say. This was a great movie because, while I wouldn't call it Christian on the same level as the Left Behind movies (which sort of thrust religion and Scriptures down the viewers throats at times), the conclusion was indeed a monumental one. This might be something of a problem for some people, but again, listen carefully and watch carefully. Yes it was Christian, but it wasn't preachy. A great movie. Watch it!
Customer Rating:
Summary: OK...but a letdown
Comment: I've been looking forward to Fallen Angels for a long time, as I loved Jeff Thomas's other movie, 13 Seconds. While 13 Seconds had it's flaws, mostly in the acting and dialogue, I thought it was a brilliant movie. It was a good story, a great twist ending, and some seriously creepy filming.
Scenes like the reflection in the doorknob and the upside down creature in the airvent were brilliance in their simplicity. I put 13 Seconds near the very top of my list of favorite Horror movies.
So I was really looking forward to his follow-up film, especially since it seemed he had more money to put into it, and had a slew of Horror Cult legends in the cast.
And while Fallen Angels wasn't a bad movie by any means, I was pretty disappointed. It looked like there was more focus toward making scenes just for the sake of putting familiar actors in the movie then there was in telling a good story. Many of the characters aren't even around long enough to make any kind of real impact or let the viewer make an emotional investment in them.
The great Reggie Bannister was here, then gone. Michael Berryman had a quick scene. Christy Hemme, who looked great, was in the film for all of 7 seconds, with no dialogue. It seems like the addition of so many 'names' took away from the overall quality of the film.
Also, much of the film was too dark. It was difficult to see what was going on in some scene. I know the film was taking place in the sub-basement of an abandoned prison, and it's supposed to be dark, but the lighting could've been better.
I did enjoy the movie though, although it's probably not one I'd watch again and again like 13 Seconds. The scene with the Medium was very well done, probably my favorite in the movie. The ending 'revelation' was pretty cool, although it's execution came off a little bit hokey, and some of the kill scenes with the teeth pulling were pretty intense.
I will say it was a much better horror film then the garbage the big budget movie studio's have been pushing out for the last several years. Mainstream horror has really lost it's way over the years, unless another mindless, by the numbers, Saw sequel is your thing. I'll take a good indy flick from the likes of Jeff Thomas or Dante Tomaselli over that nonsense any day of the week.
Jeff Thomas is a very talented film maker. All you have to do is watch Fallen Angels and especially 13 Seconds to see that. And I have a ton of confidence that by the time he's finished, he's gonna have a long line of great horror films under his belt.
But for his future work, he needs to focus on making a great movie and telling a good story more then making a film that tries to jam as many Kane Hodders and Reggie Bannisters into a 90 minute film as he can.
Oh...and Peter Brady? C'mon Jeff.
That being said, I'll be eagerly awaiting Jeff Thomas's next film, whenever and whatever that may be.
Support Indy Horror.
Kenny
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