Willem Dafoe in the role of a retiring detective haunted by his most famous case, a serial killer named Uncle Eddie. When a copycat killer seems to emerge, Dafoe's character, Stan Aubray, becomes the main target and obsession for this new murderer.
Basically, this is a crime mystery with some grue, and the added element of esoteric photography. Most of the detective work seems forced, especially Carl discovering mirror images in his metal coffee mug - really? The deserted Playland doesn't seem to warrant much curiosity from PD, and neither is it staked out or called a crime scene, so that one last spooky scene can be performed there. Aubray does not seem very intelligent, merely lucky, and the red herrings are truly all the other characters thrown in to keep you guessing, which is OK, if you don't mind being strung along.
Now, the ending. SPOILER: The killer is Aubray. It's obvious to me he's been hallucinating for the sake of the audience, and only at the end are we allowed to see him morphing into "Michael." Now - if there IS a Michael, and Aubray is NOT the killer, then this ending REALLY sucks. As it is, the ending as I see it is still too transparent because I was guessing it was Aubray the whole time. He feels guilt, which has manifested as self-hatred, and then hatred of all things related. He wasn't being stalked, he was stalking himself. AUBRAY put the painting on the street, then bought it. Aubray knew exactly how these esoteric devices worked because he was expert at it. He was just stuffing down the other self - he really didn't know he was doing this. "But wait," you say, "what about when they showed a picture of Michael?" I think Aubray was imagining these things, but the filmmakers just went a step too far in covering this up and left it to our imaginations. OK, not a bad trick, but not well-played, if you ask me.
The music was overdramatic, reminiscent of Marvel Comics movies, and so it goes for the Green Goblin. The plot was super-thin with no real subplots to dig into. The dialogue tried to be existential, arty and earthy all at the same time but I was mostly bored.
What did I LIKE? That one of the most important jobs in the world is fighting crime, and being a detective, because it exposes and catches evil, and actually does some good, even after the fact, and I think the film tries in the first half of the film to make this point.
Check out this quirky but loose film at your own risk. It's visually appealing and has a bit of philosophy to ponder, but the rest is window dressing.
Basically, this is a crime mystery with some grue, and the added element of esoteric photography. Most of the detective work seems forced, especially Carl discovering mirror images in his metal coffee mug - really? The deserted Playland doesn't seem to warrant much curiosity from PD, and neither is it staked out or called a crime scene, so that one last spooky scene can be performed there. Aubray does not seem very intelligent, merely lucky, and the red herrings are truly all the other characters thrown in to keep you guessing, which is OK, if you don't mind being strung along.
Now, the ending. SPOILER: The killer is Aubray. It's obvious to me he's been hallucinating for the sake of the audience, and only at the end are we allowed to see him morphing into "Michael." Now - if there IS a Michael, and Aubray is NOT the killer, then this ending REALLY sucks. As it is, the ending as I see it is still too transparent because I was guessing it was Aubray the whole time. He feels guilt, which has manifested as self-hatred, and then hatred of all things related. He wasn't being stalked, he was stalking himself. AUBRAY put the painting on the street, then bought it. Aubray knew exactly how these esoteric devices worked because he was expert at it. He was just stuffing down the other self - he really didn't know he was doing this. "But wait," you say, "what about when they showed a picture of Michael?" I think Aubray was imagining these things, but the filmmakers just went a step too far in covering this up and left it to our imaginations. OK, not a bad trick, but not well-played, if you ask me.
The music was overdramatic, reminiscent of Marvel Comics movies, and so it goes for the Green Goblin. The plot was super-thin with no real subplots to dig into. The dialogue tried to be existential, arty and earthy all at the same time but I was mostly bored.
What did I LIKE? That one of the most important jobs in the world is fighting crime, and being a detective, because it exposes and catches evil, and actually does some good, even after the fact, and I think the film tries in the first half of the film to make this point.
Check out this quirky but loose film at your own risk. It's visually appealing and has a bit of philosophy to ponder, but the rest is window dressing.