Fade to Black

Haunting and beautiful. For the Letterboxd misfit need in all of us.

Synopsis: Eric Binford is a bit of a cinephile. In fact, he lives and breathes movies even having a job sort of in the industry. He is verbally abused by his wheelchair-bound, former dancing star Aunt and picked on by people at work. He thinks his life has changed when he meets an Australian dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe but when she accidentally stands him up he spirals out of control and can't discern fact from fiction. He goes on a killing spree dressed up and acting as characters from his favorite films. Cocaine using hip doctor working for the police is studying the effects of violent images on tv and movies so he's sort of hot on Eric's trail.

Review: Fade to Black is clearly made by a movie-obsessed cinephile for movie-obsessed cinephiles. I'm not sure what the message was because I'm pretty sure writer-director Vernon Zimmerman was probably living out a fantasy through his script. what sets this apart from other slashers of the late '70s early '80s is a very strong lead performance. Dennis Christopher delivers a powerhouse character that has a tough time telling what's real and what's a movie and the audience is there for the entire ride. He starts out a bit cooky but by the end, he is completely insane and it was intriguing to watch that journey. This almost has a Taxi Driver feel but with a slasher twist. Maybe if Travis Bickell had used a knife instead of guns and racked up the body count Taxi Driver would have been the best slasher of all time?

Carnage Count…

I liked this film.

I got both slipcovers for it secondhand and I prefer the variant one with the scared girl.

It's a bit long winded but a decent portrayal of a movie nerd's descent into madness

Such a good flick. . . cult classic for sure. The way the story plays out was truly something else.