FALLEN
USA. 1998. Director - Gregory Hoblit, Screenplay - Nicholas Kazan, Producers - Charles Roven & Dawn Steel, Photography - Newton Thomas Sigel, Music - Tan Dun, Visual Effects - Peerless Camera Co (Supervisor - Kent Houston), Special Effects Supervisor - James Fredburg, Production Design - Terence Marsh. Production Company - Atlas Entertainment. Denzel Washington (Detective John Hobbes), John Goodman (Jonesy), Embeth Davidtz (Greta Milano), Donald Sutherland (Lieutenant Stanton), Elias Koteas (Edgar Reese), Michael J. Pagan (Sam Hobbes), Gabriel Casseus (Art Hobbes), James Gandolfini (Lou), Robert Joy (Charles Olham)
Plot: Detective John Hobbes sees serial killer Edgar Reese to the gas chamber but not long after confronts a baffling series of murders which appear to also be being conducted by Reese. As Hobbes investigates it appears he is not dealing with a mere mortal but in fact a demon that is capable of passing between and possessing bodies simply by touch and that the demon has returned to taunt him and destroy his life.
Going in to see `Fallen', one doesn't really expect it to be much at all. The plot seems merely a warmed-over version of the mini-vogue of executed serial killers come back from the electric chair films that were briefly the in-thing around about 1988-9 - the likes of `Shocker', `The Horror Show' aka `House III', `The First Power', `Prison' and `Berserker' - only revamped with an A-budget. But in virtually no time at all `Fallen' proves that simply through good writing an old familiar plot can be made to work wonders once again. And the result is a surprisingly good film.
The film is made by Gregory Hoblit, previously a tv director who won Emmy Awards for his work on shows like `Hill St Blues' and `LA Law' and made the jump to feature films with the impressive 1996 courtroom drama `Primal Fear'. There is a surprising similarity of themes between `Primal Fear' and `Fallen' - `Primal Fear' you could say is a film about a killer who has one body but several personalities; `Fallen' on the other hand you could say is about a killer who has one personality but several bodies. Hoblit does a rather good job. The script is rather handicapped in that its central idea - that of a demon that can pass between bodies by touch - has been given away by the publicity machine. Nevertheless in spite of the fact that owing to this one knows what is going on for a good half-hour before the detective hero clicks on, both Hoblit and the script unfold these revelations with a high degree of tension and suspense. Hoblit generates some marvellous scenes with the demon passing from body to body amongst people at the police station and in the street, all the while taunting the hero. And there is beautifully written twist ending - the first one has ever seen which manages to so twist first-person voiceover completely on its head.
The film kept reminding of `Se7en' which seems to have been a strong influence. Both employ the same densely textural washed-out lighting scheme. And both are very similar films - about detectives who are confronting a Biblical menace (`Fallen' an actual demon, `Se7en' a serial killer using the motif of the Seven Deadly Sins) wherein the Biblically Apocalyptic is raised into a looming millenarian metaphor for moral social decay. Although where `Se7en''s moral metaphors were dazzlingly literary, `Fallen''s seem stuck down in the idiom of B horror movies. Both films also contain one really grisly scene where the film seems to hang still for a moment and toy with the audience as to whether it is really going to do the unthinkable and kill off one of the detective hero's loved one's. Neveretheless for its ability to move with tense and exciting grace and juggle a plot that keeps catching one perpetually unawares, `Fallen' is a film that is well above average and recommended.
Reviewed by Richard Scheib
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