Movie Review - Fallen (1998), Part 1

An entertaining genre mixer that combines all the best elements of crime solvers with super natural religious horror movies.

The opening sequence could have been taken directly from "The Silence of the Lambs (1991)". Then the film slips into "Jacob's Ladder (1990)" territory of super-natural horror and ends it with an ending worthy of "Omen (1976)".

Despite the bizarre opening sequence, the films delve into the first act as a regular police riding film with the regular characters - handsome protagonist Det. John hobbes [Denzel Washington]; his avuncular sidekick Det. Jonesy [John Goodman]; and the cynical shin-kicker Det. Lou [James Gandolfini]; the head of the hard quarter, Lieutenant Stanton [Donald Sutherland].

When the insane killer Edgar Reese (played anew by a creepy Elias Koteas) is put to death in a gas chamber, Det. Hobbes thinks the worst is over, not realizing that his problems are just beginning.

Here, let's put our hands together and applaud Newton Thomas Sigel's great cinematography since the way he came up with a visual representation of the evil spirit in Azazel's point of view is nothing short of genius. It's done so well that at a glance we know which character the camera plays in certain scenes. Without such effective visual differentiation from the point of view of the main antagonist, this movie would never have performed so well, or maybe not at all.

Hobbes is a cop and a rational man. He believes in what he can see, feel and measure. He believes in evidence, not hearsay or myth. But clue after clue tells him that this time, as strange bodies keep appearing all over the unnamed town [although shot in Philly], he is faced with something "different".

Azazel's ancient biblical perverted spirit is alive and well, and he changes his body through simple physical contact. That is why it is almost impossible to nail it down and destroy it. It is the most contagious disease the world has ever known. Writer Nicholas Kazan also deserves our kudos not only for coming up with such a clever concept, but also for creating a fairly well-written script.

(To conclude in part 2.)