“Fallen Angels” is the most recent film from Monroe resident Jeff Thomas. It was released with Warner Brothers.
Since I’ll be meeting with Jeff this week, I figured the LEAST I could do is watch this movie (I saw his first film “13 Seconds“… NOT a fan of that film).
The first thing to notice about this movie is it’s cast! There are toms of horror movie icons. It was a varitable easter egg hunt, noticing all these b-list stars in everything from lead roles to small cameos.
Then there’s the story. I’m honestly on the fence on if I liked it or not. On the one hand, it was a fairly original story of demons and their killings, and I was interested in the fact that the primary character had seen something similar once before that helped to shape who he is in the film… but there were still flaws… the fact that CSI team is SO interested in the skeletons of murders from hundreds of years ago didn’t sit right with me. Sure, they ended up finding out about the recent murders thanks to the old ones… but this connection (while vital to the story) seemed like it had a forced beginning. I mean, who’s going to make the almost instant connection between skeletons found in a sub-basement from several hundred years ago, and a couple of teens who got murdered last night? Also, the VERY end of the movie felt a little too corny to me.
The photography of the film is beautiful, and the demons all looked great (especially TNA wrestler and former playboy model Kristy Hemme….*drools*). I wasn’t a fan of the editing, though. The hyper-speed flashes of red with the current image was not only distracting but I felt it was a useless tool entirely (yes, I get it that it was cut like that to increse the intensity… but it failed to do so).
I really am not sure if I liked this movie or not. Obviously, I should say I loved it since I’ll be having a sit-down with it’s creator… but I’d only be lying. It wasn’t great… but it wasn’t horrible either. And it was WAY better than his first feature “13 Seconds”.