You ever watch a movie just one time and, for some reason, you never really forget it? I mean, for me, when I love a movie I tend to watch and rewatch them, but there are sometimes examples of movies I saw just once, never sought them out again, but they have stuck in my brain for decades. One of those is weird little movie that came out in 1980 called Fade to Black.
Have you heard of this one? Seen it? Well, let's dive into this forgotten movie from the very early 80s.
The Plot of Fade to Black
The plot is a revenge tale. Eric Binford (Dennis Christopher) is a young man totally obsessed with the movies. He knows them inside and out, especially the older ones, but everyone around him tells him he needs to get out of his head, stop obsessing about movies, and become a man. He his tormented and picked on by his own aunt, as well as people all around him (including a young Mickey Rourke in one of his earliest roles).
One day he meets a woman who looks so much like his obsession, Marilyn Monroe, that he falls head over heels. However, when "Marilyn" stands him up for a date that proves to be the final straw that pushes Eric into madness. Now, dressing up like characters from the movies that have always been his best friends, he goes on a killing spree to get back at all of those who have wronged him.
A Strange Movie
The movie is definitely weird. Even when I saw it, when I was very young, I thought it a bit odd. It came out during the time when every week there was another slasher movie, and this one kind of got lumped in there. I remember the TV spots showing Eric in his Dracula-style make-up slowly crushing a box of popcorn with one hand and a soda with the other.
Dennis Christopher, who plays the lead, was fresh off of his amazing movie Breaking Away. He was a hero in that one, a bicycle racing obsessed teen, who brings some kind of victory to his working class town with a bike relay race. It is a triumphant and very funny movie. I guess he decided it was worth a try to do a horror film.
The various kills throughout the movie are pretty cool. Eric dresses like Dracula, a gangster, a mummy, and other movie characters to exact his revenge. Some of it is a bit ridiculous, like his gangster character having a 1930s car and working Tommy gun, but somehow it all sort of works?
Is Fade to Black a Good Movie?
Here's the weird thing, the director of the movie (Vernon Zimmerman) spent a lot of time saying this was NOT a horror movie. I also see it sometimes listed as a horror/comedy. I don't remember laughing too much when I saw this one, but maybe I finally need to head back and review it again with my more adult sensibilities.
The premise is good, the acting is pretty good. The story is standard horror trope fare. The killings are quality. Overall, this is one of those slightly hidden and forgotten gems of the 80s, but it's hard for me to make it equal to something like Phantasm or other lesser known horror films of the time.
Finding Fade to Black
I think, if you can find it, it's worth seeking out Fade to Black. I doubt it will shatter your thoughts and ideas about the horror genre, but it's worth seeing a movie at least attempting to do something a bit different. This can be one you put on when you have a group of friends who want to watch a horror movie (sorry Vernon, but it's a horror movie) that no one has heard of.
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