Apr. 14th, 2008

[info]ethan_thomas

[REVIEW] The Deaths of Ian Stone

The Deaths of Ian Stone [2007]
Director: Dario Piana
Studio: SWFX
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

Having read the jacket for this movie, I thought it would be the horror genre's version of Groundhog Day. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be more than that.

Welcome to Ian Stone's horrible, no good, very bad day. From early on in the film, he is on the run from a variety of nasty people, people that may in fact not be human at all. When they catch him--and they do, repeatedly--they don't simply kill him. They brutally and creatively murder him over and over again. Every day at the same time, he finds himself in a new life, the only constants a girl named Jenny and a mysterious drifter, and every day he dies in increasingly terrible ways.

As a movie, this one was entertaining. There may have been some holes, like whether or not hockey is even played in Britain, but they can easily be overlooked. The creature effects were not stunning, but their design was fresh enough to arouse and maintain interest. Their flowing silkiness was a nice touch. The story moved at a quick pace, ending on a note that my partner thought cheesy but I thought appropriate.

This one is a solid time waster, more than that worth the watch. Four out of five stars.