Starring: Dean Winters, Ashley Laurence, Doug Bradley, Rachel Hayward, Sarah-Jane Redmond, Jody Thompson, Kaaren de Zilva.
Director: Rick Bota.
A very talented cinematographer and director of photography, Rick Bota steps into the director's seat for this wholly unnecessary but good looking continuation to a series that, well, probably never needed to actually be a series at all. It's the film that a good friend of mine called "Much better than it has any right to be," a phrase I have co-opted for myself for use anytime a movie that has no business being anything other than a massive pile of crap somehow manages to create some sort of quality from the whole affair. It started here.
Having watched all of 30 Rock a lot(and I mean A LOT), it's difficult to see Dean Winters as anything but Denis Duffy. I keep wanting to say "Hey, dummy" every time he's on screen. Now that I got that out of my system, I can move on with the write-up.
There's a real, palpable desperation coming off of Hellseeker. It absolutely wants to pull something substantial and entertaining out of everything, and that desire actually comes across as endearing. There's an enthusiasm to it, and it deliberately starts itself off with a strange and twisty sequence of events that puts the audience off guard. One minute we're in a car that goes off a cliff, then the hospital where a Doctor who seems overly familiar with our lead speaks to him, and then he's in brain surgery and back again...it's a spirited starting point.
Dean Winters offers this emotionally stunted performance as Trevor, a man married to Kirsty Cotton from the original, who went off the road while she in the car. Now she's missing, he's confused and disoriented. It really shouldn't work-acting is mostly about portraying feeling, after all-but somehow it sells the mysterious nature of the proceedings despite being somewhat baffling. He plays the whole thing as if in a trance. It's an unusual performance. Winters cuts an interesting figure, though, especially as everything gets weirder and more mysterious...it feels like more noir stuff: he seems to remember some stuff but at the same time has a sense of amnesia. He's once again discovering himself...and the movie lays in small hints about just who he might be. It's an unusual approach, one that isn't entirely successful, but does stimulate the senses.
On a personal note: a domineering, sexy boss in a power suit who wants office nookie might be just the best fantasy ever. Just saying. How does that happen? If you're that kind of Woman...offer me a job.
Bota knows his way around a camera, creating some rather interesting shot compilations and set design. The actual moments of horror are mostly ho-hum, but Bota can film two actors in a room and make it all look very interesting and meaningful. There's a dreamlike surreality to most of the sequences, even when nothing happens: When each of these random Women come on to Trevor, expecting him to respond in a manner that he always has before, and he responds with a confused, befuddled look...it's just very weird. It works.
The death scene for Gwen works solely for it's simplicity and because Winters gives such an honest response to it: She comes to his apartment, tries to get him going, he turns her down and she leaves. Then, the camera she set-up to record their tryst shows them still having sex...and she being killed. He plays with the camera, seeing it record in real time, at first in disbelief and then in desperation. It's a nice enough scene.
The wrap-around story of Trevor being asked a lot of questions about Kirsty's murder/disappearance doesn't work nearly as well as the strange interactions and surreal set pieces. In fact, it just keeps grounding a movie that doesn't want to be grounded. The more the story plays with Trevor's(and the audiences) perceptions, the better things work. Strange hallucinations, false memories, nightmares...these things work well here. Murder investigations, well...that provides the kind of foundation a movie like this doesn't need. I know that it sets up the film's ending, and I appreciate that...I mean, what's a reveal without a mystery...but it just creates a tonal shift that hurts the film as a whole. It also doesn't help that most of the clues basically just telegraph the whole answer.
I love every single time Winters just admits he has no idea what's going on, but not as much as he just just yells "I'm tired of this shit!" while in the hospital and just takes off. The more he comes apart, the better things come off.
I probably should have talked more about Rick Bota's directorial style, but by now the movie is almost through and I don't have much more to say about it. The trouble with a lot of these direct-to-videos is that the endings all kind of end up the same. I will say that the ultimate reveal, while kind of being a tease about a sequel we never got, is kind of nice. Kirsty is nice to see again, and her deal is a nice concept. I kinda wish I could have gotten an actual story about Kirsty instead, but it kind of still works.
Final Thoughts: I have talked about the otherworldly stuff, and the surreality, which really shouldn't have worked but did somehow, mostly because Bota knows his way around composition, when to use harsh light and soft light, and can frame and design a strong scene. Winters gives a strange performance that, while it probably isn't actually a good performance, it's at least very interesting and adds to the feeling of mystery throughout the film. The effects work is sub-par, but it's hard to blame them on the little cash they likely had to make it. The story, once it explains itself, is also very cliche and unconvincing, trying to end up in a place as poignant as it kind of promised it would, and ultimately fails to deliver. It's well executed, and means well, but it's still a poor outing.
Final Rating: Two and a Half Stars. Better than it has any right to be.
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