Faust: Love of the Damned

Say what you will about Bryan Yuzna, the man has found a very distinctive niche in the subterranean levels of the body-horror-comedy market. Although it is superfluous to attempt a summary of this hokum, it is the sheer exuberance and vitality of its execution that you will remember. There are demonic skeletons, grotesque bodily transformations, satanic rituals, eye-popping gore and more blood-drenched T&A than you can shake a stick at. Beelzebub himself even makes an appearance in full latex glory during the deranged climax. The result is like Dario Argento swallowed an entire sheet of acid before whopping 5 grams of cheap cocaine up his shnoz bucket. Sure, it's ludicrous tripe but I can't understand how this hasn't found a larger cult audience. If it's a late night gore fest with added laughs you're after, this will hit the spot.

I have to say I enjoyed this. Yes the dialogues (and much of the acting) are bad and I know nothing about Geothe's hero, Faust. All I know is that this movie got some pretty nasty FX - after all Brian Yuzna directed it! - and a heavy dose of an erotic / pervert element which I enjoyed. Still I find all this satanic stuff too silly for my tastes. And yes this costume sucked!!! As a conclusion, I liked it, nevertheless, I did't take it seriously.

I loved Frost's role as poor, deluded, misguided Jon Jaspers. I liked Dr. Jade. I think that *Bruce Payne* would have made about a 1,000% better "M". That bint who played Claire was very good, but the part near the end was confusing when M took the albino boa out of her gut, then put it back in (her or was it a guy by then?) mouth. Also, the part where M made Claire blow up like the world's biggest bbw bint was totally unnecessary, and looked so fake it was a laugh.

But there was definitely cause for some "sympathy for the demon, Faust". I don't think he knew what he was doing, and he was willing to protect Jade with his life or whatever was left of him.

I would have loved to have seen those dirtbags who did poor Blue get a lot worse than they did. They deserved to be chopped up in little tiny dog food pieces and fed to sharks.

Any way, I'm now a confirmed Frost fan.

Faust is a classic German legend focusing on the classic idea of a man selling his soul to the devil. Faust: Love of the Damned takes that basic plot and adds in a heavy metal soundtrack, a bunch of gore and a comic book central character and the result is...well, not even as good as you might think it will be. The inspiration for this film was a comic book by Tim Vigil and David Quinn which, like every other comic book ever made, I haven't read. However, it would seem obvious that director Brian Yuzna took most of his inspiration from this film from the comic book revenge flick 'The Crow', and somehow this film doesn't come off as well. The film focuses on John Jaspers; an artist who witnesses his girlfriend being killed by a bunch of thugs. Some other things happen, and Jaspers end up in contact with the mysterious 'M', who offers him the chance to get revenge on the thugs who ruined his life, for the small price of his soul. Naturally, Jaspers jumps at the chance to sell his soul for revenge, but he later regrets it when he turns into a horned demon...

I'm actually quite a big fan of Brian Yuzna - I wouldn't hesitate to call the likes of Society and Return of the Living Dead 3 modern horror masterpieces; but Faust: Love of the Damned is undoubtedly his worst film. Typically for Yuzna, there's no shortage of gore and gruesome special effects, which is nice and there's plenty of interesting scenes and imagery; but the plot is all over the place, really quite boring and the film doesn't seem to know what it wants to do once the horned demon superhero pops up; it goes from being a demonic horror movie to some sort of comic book comedy! The one liners that Faust utters are awful, and the suit looks pretty damned silly too. Yuzna did manage to collect something of an interesting cast - Mark Frost doesn't really impress in the lead role, but the film has supporting turns for the likes of Jeffrey Combs, who is good in the sort of role you don't often see him in, and Andrew Divoff, who is clearly ripping off his own role in the crappy Wishmaster, but at least it's amusing to see. Overall, Faust: Love of the Damned is really too silly to be taken seriously, and I don't mean that in a good way! Avoid.

Brian Yuzna, the happily disturbed director of such films like `Society' and the `Re-Animator' sequels, returns here with an ultra-violent movie that goes straight for attacking the viewer's last bit of good taste. John Jaspers makes a pact with the devil…In return for his eternal soul; he's offered the change to avenge the death of his girlfriend. John is satisfied after this, but the devil (referred to as `M') wants John to go on with his killing spree. He refuses and gets buried, only to resurrect as Faust! A typical comic book and cloaked superhero, but slightly more bloodthirsty than the average Bat-, Spider- or Superman. Is `Faust – Love of the Damned' a good movie? No…not at all, in fact, but it could have been worse. The basic Faust plot outline (selling your soul to the devil) is as old as cinema itself. The eminent director F.W Murnau (Nosferatu) already made a film with this theme back in 1926. Try and compete with that, Brian Yuzna! The screenplay contains a few slightly ingenious aspects, like the character of the insatiable, sex-addicted sidekick of M, played by the ravishing Monica Van Campen. But the biggest goal of Faust is showing as much gore as humanly possible. Make-up artist Screaming Mad George gets to be his old, filthy self again and inserts grotesque gore such as eye poking and decapitations. There even is a melting-sequence, entirely in the tradition of `Society'. Regretfully, the acting performances are a giant letdown… Mark Frost overacts terribly and Andrew Divoff (who already annoyed the hell out of me in `Wishmaster') is the most undeserved horror lead ever. Jeffrey Combs still is the man, although it hurts to see him being downgraded straight to the supportive cast. Furthermore, there's not the least bit of tension, depth or atmosphere so I wouldn't exactly call this a successful new horror film. Lots of fun guaranteed if you're a gorehound, though