Dark Angel

[Duane Thomas]

When I say Dark Angel, I'm not talking about the James Cameron TV show, but a movie produced in 1994 by Full Moon Entertainment, a low budget horror house. I love this movie. Full Moon does a fair amount of crap, but sometimes - like this one - the lack of a serious budget forces the filmmakers to be really ingenious in compensation, and they turn out some surprisingly affecting work.

Dark Angel, subtitled The Ascent stars Angela Featherstone. In case you're not familiar with the name, you might have seen her as Jess, Ben Stiller's girlfriend in The Zero Effect or Nikki, the punked-out lesbian all over Eliza Dushku (and who can blame her?) in Soul Survivors. Probably best know as Chloe the "Xerox girl" who got between Ross and Rachel on Friends.

In Dark Angel, Angela plays Veronica, a teenaged demon from Hell who's always wondered about the world above. Her father is one of Hell's most fearsome torturers, and so impatient with her curiosity - which has been forbidden by Heaven - that in a fit of rage he tries to kill her. She flees to the world above, and finds herself on the streets of a modern American city.

There are so many things to like about this movie. The view of Hell, and the demons' relationship to God and Heaven, is fascinating. The demons don't see themselves as being in opposition to Heaven, they have crosses in their rooms and worship God. Angels from Heaven visit Hell to give them orders. They have their place in God's plan, and their mission is to punish sinners.

And that's what Veronica, like any good demon, does in the world above. In one incredible scene she comes upon two police officers doing a Rodney King style beating on a black man. (Only, unlike Rodney King, this guy didn't have it coming, he was just some innocent guy out walking around.) The conversation between Veronica and one of the officers goes something like this:

"There's nothing to see here, miss. Just move along."

"And allow you to continue to abuse this man?"

"How would you like to spend the night in jail on a prostitution charge?"

"How would you like to die in a state of mortal sin?"

Veronica kills them both. She's a serial killer, her victims the sinners of the city, offed in various gory fashions. The sort of stuff that makes front page news. This, of course, attracts the attentions of the police. Two good cops, interviewing local residents in the course of their investigation, question Angela. It goes something like this:

"We're just questioning everyone in the neighborhood. There were a couple of murders that occurred last night..."

"Good."

"What do you mean, 'good?' We're talking about men being murdered."

"How do you know they were not sinners?"

"These men were ripped apart. No one deserves to die like that."

"You have no idea how ugly sin is in the eyes of God."

What makes this scene simultaneously hilarious and creepy as hell (pun intended) is the reaction of the cops and the total calm certainty in Veronica's voice. Because while she sounds like the Son of Sam killer and the cops are looking at each other, thinking dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo-dee-doo, we knows she's speaking the absolute literal truth. When Vernoica says these men died because sin is ugly in the eyes of God, she knows.

And yet, for all this, Dark Angel is, at its core, a really sweet love story. I kid you not. There are moments in this film that are just beautiful, both visually and emotionally.

Angela Featherstone in the role of Veronica is the linchpin of the movie, and she carries it off wonderfully. Her normally blond hair is died red for this role. Combined with her pale skin and blue eyes, she's amazingly striking. Her eyes are so blue - and I have no idea if this was accomplished with contact lenses or it's her natural eye color - they really play that up in the movie. When Veronica is feeling angry or amorous, with absolutely no special effects other than expert lighting, her blue eyes seem to glow.

I give this movie my highest recommendation. If you have any liking at all for the genre, you will love it.