FILMS IN REVIEW
By Roy Frumkes
www.filmsinreview.com/Features/tricks&treatshalloweendvds.htm.
Personal Demons, Written by Gregory Lamberson. Published by Broken Umbrella Press. Signed and limited hardcover edition: $45. Paperback due in Feb '05 at $17.
And finally, a book to read when you're not in a DVD mood, by a genre filmmaker-turned- novelist. I'm overly fond of 'noir' films, and their literary counterparts. Gregory Lamberson, who wrote/produced/directed SLIME CITY and NAKED FEAR, and who functioned as First AD on BRAIN DAMAGE, Frank Hennenlotter's best film, has meshed the 'noir' sensibility with a fascinating sci-fi-occult theme, and a lot of it feels new...and begging to be filmed.
A serial killer nicknamed 'The Cipher' is cutting victims' throats. A reclusive billionaire funding advanced genetic research lurks in his sky-scraper, 'The Tower'. The main character, a dissolute NYPD homicide detective hunting the serial killer, is hired as Chief of Security by the billionaire. It all begins to fit into an expansive, phantasmagorical, and very creepy jigsaw puzzle, which I won't spoil, but I will urge you to read. There are some gripping scenes of deep and terrible loss befitting our protagonist's fate, and a reveal or two worthy of 'Crime and Punishment'. And, in true 'noir' tradition, there is a femme fatale, of the unstoppable, larger-than-life kind a la Lena Olin in ROMEO IS BLEEDING. Had Barbara Steele been in her prime, this would have been a terrific role for her. Picture her when you read it.