Killing Ariel
2008
Farmhouse Films
Inc
MTI Home Video
R1 DVD
Reviewer: Bob Estreich
When he was a little boy Rick saw his
mother having sex with a strange man who was in fact an incubus. Rick’s father
couldn’t do anything about it as he was crippled by polio. The strange man
killed Ricky’s father and mother and he was raised by his grandparents.
Twenty five years later Rick is married
with a son and daughter and making something of his life. His life is going
well until one night the demon returns to him while he is asleep.
“I could feel myself changing. I was
dreaming twisted thoughts I never would have had.”
While jogging in the mornings, he notices
a girl named Ariel jogging along a similar path to his. This marks the start of
some sort of midlife crisis. He buys a sports car and starts colouring his
hair. One night he picks up the quite willing Ariel and takes her to his old
family home for a weekend of illicit sex. She immediately seems to understand
what happened in the house on the night his mother and father were killed. Odd things happen to Rick that night
– missing moments of his life come back to him, flashes of his wife in the
house taking the place of Ariel. It culminates in what appears to be a mild
heart attack. The next night the demon reappears. He shoots it and finds to his
horror that he has just shot Ariel.
In his distressed state he hallucinates
that she is still alive, angry with him for shooting her. He is starting to
realise that there is something seriously wrong, in spite of Ariel’s glib
explanations. He kills her again. And again. And again.
Ariel is the demon in human form and
simply cannot be killed. She torments Rick just as her male form tormented his
father and mother. Rick’s life is starting to descend into madness, but he
can’t stop trying to find ways to kill her.
Michael Brainard plays the tormented Rick
perfectly (and it’s his first film) as the tension builds and Rick is tipped
over the edge into madness. Axelle Cummings (Axelle Grelet) plays Ariel with
just the right light-hearted touch until her real nature comes out, then she
plays it as a nasty, spoilt little girl disappointed – a perfect touch for a
demon who can’t die.
Fred Calvert and David J Negron have
produced a fine piece of suspense here, with twists in the plot right up to the
end. MTI Home Video is to be congratulated for selecting this independent film
for distribution.
The DVD includes the usual “Making Of ...”
and trailers.
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This
review will appear in Volume 2 No.5
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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