Fade to Black
Hollywood, the glittering town where dreams are trampled, where fame is as thin as a strip of celluloid, where everyone is looking upwards to see how far they can get, not down at those who have already failed and faded, Eric Binford a man who was raised on movies by his Aunt Stella, cutting trailers by day and retreating into the comfort of his fantasies by night.
A life of masks, betrayals and lies, they start at home, Stella a former dancer now confined to a wheelchair who blames Eric for the accident even though he was only four years old at the time, his nostalgia leading to him finding his only comfort in movies and film memorabilia, becoming entranced when he meets a model who performs as a Marilyn Monroe lookalike.
A strange film of repression, desire and damaged people destroyed by the system they offer themselves to as fodder, Dennis Christopher is seeking the final reel moment where he will Fade to Black, living in movies and becoming different characters who embody the things he feels he cannot express, Dracula attacking a woman, the Mummy taking revenge on his belittling boss, Hopalong Cassidy turning rogue and taking down his tormentors.
Written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, it is an uneven film, any insight into the motives and connections between the victims given Police Officer Anne Oshenbull (Gwynne Gilford) by psychologist Doctor Jerry Moriarty (Tim Thomerson) overruled by her superior Captain Gallagher (James Luisi), the parallel momentum between the murders and the investigation broken any time it begins to form and a crucial reveal thrown away rather than impacting the relationship of the characters whom it concerns.
With Eve Brent Ashe as Aunt Stella, Linda Kerridge as Marilyn O’Connor and an early role for Mickey Rourke as Richie, Eric’s workplace bully, it is Christopher’s film, a chameleon who works on the periphery of the competitive and thankless industry he loves but which has left him miserable, his difficulty with others implied to be undiagnosed autism but the increasing confidence of his serial killer spree bringing him no happiness.
Released two years before Carl Reiner and Steve Martin collaborated on Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, Fade to Black similarly splices vintage footage into the narrative, among the films Kiss of Death, White Heat, Creature from the Black Lagoon and Night of the Living Dead, a chunk of the slim budget presumably having been used to secure the rights along with access the iconic Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, site of the appropriately grand finale and showdown.
Fade to Black is streaming on Shudder now
