If you’re a long time reader of the blog you should be more than familiar with my love for genre films and one strange genre in particular comes to mind this time of year, I really love horror films that take place during Christmas; especially slasher films. I know it may sound weird; but they are the only holiday films that don’t leave your teeth hurting with their super sweet human kindness chewy nougat center.  New World films were kind enough to send us a copy of this their newest entry in this under-appreciated genre Fall Down Dead to take a look at. The film is directed by Jon Keeyes who directed several direct to video films that you might have rented from Blockbuster and is written by Roy Sallows, who also wrote several episodes of the old Friday the 13th Tv series, which I use to watch every Saturday night on channel 29. This film stars some of my favorite genre actors and actresses Dominique Swain, Udo Kier and David Carradine in one of his last roles.
The plot of Fall Down Dead is interesting to say the least it’s Christmas Eve and the city has been plagued by blackouts, and a serial killer they are calling the Picasso killer (Udo Kier), due to the rumors that some how the bodies are being used for some insidious art project. The story focuses on Christie who is played by Dominique Swain; a single mother working as a waitress on Christmas Eve to try and save some money; so she can move to the country with her daughter to start her own business and a new life.
After her shift a bum whom she was nice enough to give free coffee to earlier in the night asks for a dollar and decides that he probably wants more than that. After Christie proves that she can defend herself against the bum she then stumbles upon the Picasso killer in the middle of one of his masterpieces. After a realizing what she has just walked in on, she is turning on her heel to run when she runs face to face with the killer seeing his face plain as day. After a brief chase she comes into a building where a security guard played by David Carradine is kind enough to not only let her in but calls the cops as well. After the cops arrive, they are first a little hesitant to believe Christie’s story that is until she lets loose some details not made public about the case. Once the police become believers the power goes out along with the cell the towers due to the outage. When the police try to call in for backup, via the phone the lines are cut. The Picasso killer is not going to let the one woman who saw his true face get away and decides to make short work of anyone else who happens to be in the building.
I have noticed this conundrum in a lot films with the advent and proliferation of the cell phone, and our connected society we live in today. I have to say if one genre suffers the most from this, it would have to be the horror genre. I mean if your being stalked by a serial killer just call for help; don’t you have an iPhone? If no one believes your son was eaten by a chupacabra simply twitpic it, problem solved! So now it is incumbent on the writers to pacify this urge in the audience so their suspension of disbelief is complete and total as it can be in this day and age.
The score in the film was very unobtrusive and was barely noticeable, while I would think this would be a great tool to drive tension in a slasher film it just was too absent to really leave a lasting impression on me. The Cinematography on the other hand I believe worked to the advantage of the actors and the budget and delivering some interesting shots and scenes that really played to the strengths of the production. I mean of course there are the shots of Udo Kier’s iconic eyes; I mean that goes without saying. But I think the cinematographer worked well with what they had to work with on this production
Now for some of the performances, I am a huge fan of Dominique Swain and I think what makes her such a resource in lower budget films, is her ability to bring credibility to almost any role she does. I have seen her in some bad films, and she never phones a performance in, she always tries to give the film all she’s got. This is a good thing in this film because her two main co-stars really didn’t really bring their A-game. The two cops she plays opposites one a prominent Turkish actor who just doesn’t seem too believable and along with his partner are stuck playing the bad clichés of cops from a bad slasher film. They are flanked by David Carradine whom while not on Udo or Dominique’s level in this picture puts in a satisfactory performance. David’s portrayal could be much better but it’s very uneven, even for an actor of his caliber.  But I think the real loss here is the under use of Udo Kier. I am a huge fan of Udo and he is such a great actor. He is also a true match for Dominique; both do a lot of lower budget films and try to take every role seriously and really succeed giving a real sense of believability to every character they play . I really would have liked it if they fleshed his character out a bit more.(no pun intended)
I think Fall Down Dead left a bit to be desired for me personally, I saw quite a few missed opportunities for the cast they had at their disposal. I mean they had 3 of the greatest genre actors all in the same movie, and I really couldn’t help but feeling a little disappointed that they weren’t used more. The story was seemed a bit muddy at times and really could have benefited from some solid exposition on all fronts; character. plot and story. What can I say other than I really wanted more?  I have to say although I didn’t think Fall down Dead was the greatest slasher film ever, I also didn’t think it’s the worst either and is a fitting addition to the holiday slasher genre, right next to Black Christmas and Silent Night Deadly Night. It was a hard decision but I am going to give Fall Down Dead 2.5 out of 5 stars.