Intensity: 🩸🩸🩸 out of 🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸
Written and Directed by Larry Fessenden
Blackout is a fair-to-middling werewolf movie. With much respect to horror Godfather Larry Fessenden, this movie struggles to get out of second gear. The werewolf makeup is effective, and there are some gory scares, but weak supporting characters and excessive exposition bogs down this effort.
Blackout extends Larry Fessenden’s reworking of the classic Universal monsters, utilizing his own indie horror sensibilities. It follows Depraved, which re-thought the Frankenstein lore, and he clearly pays his respects to Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man, at least in appearance. Werewolf movies are usually stories of transformations or internal conflicts. The beast within.
Werewolf films often cast the central figure as a sympathetic monster. The Wolf-Man, An American Werewolf in London, and Curse of the Werewolf are three of the greatest representatives of the sub-genre, and they all follow the dramatic trial of transformation of our hero into villainy. Lycanthropy tales also allow the monsters to transform back into normal people by day, and the stories often revolve around the protagonist’s decisions on how to handle their own internal monstrosities.
This film follows that storied path.
Fessenden has re-united with a number of his favorite actors to form up his cast.
The Cast of Blackout:
- Alex Hurt plays Charlie Barrett, the man with the wolf issues. He is a reluctant werewolf, a gloomy activist recently realizing that he is the cause of a rash of murders in a small town in the woods.
- Addison Timlin plays Sharon Hammond, Charlie’s girlfriend, who feels abandoned by Charlie. She is also the daughter of the greedy resort developer in town.
- Motell Gyn Foster plays Earl, Charlie’s best friend, who Charlie trusts to know that he is a werewolf. He also knows how to make silver bullets.
- Joseph Castillo-Midyett plays Luis Sanchez, the beleaguered local sheriff who struggles to solve the rash of mysterious murders.
- Marshall Bell plays Jack Hammond, the local tycoon who is developing a resort and is the most influential man in town.
- Barbara Crampton plays Kate, a lawyer who is looking in to the shady business practices of Jack Hammond for Charlie.
- Ella Rae Peck plays Alice, Sanchez’s plucky and insightful deputy.
- Rigo Garay plays Miguel, a local construction worker who has been falsely blamed by Hammond for the murder spree.
A Brief Synopsis of Blackout
A frisky couple having sex under the full moon, in the woods gets rudely interrupted when a werewolf attacks the lovers mid-act. After establishing the monster with a “having sex in a horror movie will kill you” opener, we meet Charlie. He’s an artist who has been through a rough patch. He has broken up with his girlfriend, Sharon. His father recently passed away, and his career as a commercial painter has disappeared due to conflicts with Jack Hammond.
What’s more, he has been suffering blackouts, which coincide with both full moons and the recent murders inflicted upon the rural Hamlet of Talbot Falls. (An homage to Larry Talbot, the Wolf Man) Charlie harbors suspicions that there is something with himself. He figures the best solution is to leave town. It’s the safest bet, for himself, for the town, and most importantly for Sharon. Unfortunately, he does not leave town soon enough. His lycanthropy manifests even after the full moon begins to wane, and his nocturnal transformations and savage behavior takes more lives.
Wild accusations begin spreading through town, and Charlie realizes that others may suffer for his sins. He now fully believes that he’s a werewolf, so he goes to his friend Earl, who has cast silver bullets for Charlie. His plan is to make a confession, and to have Earl finish him off. Time is running out though, as the local law enforcement and panicking townsfolk are closing in on the truth, and threaten to turn on each other.
Evaluation of Blackout
This is a film that respects the werewolf tropes. It has its heart in the right place. Sadly, it is also manages to get in its own narrative way. Charlie is not a particularly interesting character. Yes, he’s the tragically flawed protagonist. But he’s also a painfully awkward activist.
Fessenden has chosen to make a political statement here, rather forcefully. Long time readers and listeners probably know that I lean leftward, politically. Even I cannot stomach ham-fisted moralizing, even if I am sympathetic to the message. This movie casts Charlie as a hero for the little man, and that Jack Hammond is a vile law-breaking greedy developer. Hammond’s developments are breaking environmental regulations, he has anti-labor hiring policies, he is quick to blame immigrants for the recent violence, and he is a greedy bully. It is about as subtle as a political rally, and it doesn’t help move the plot.
The story gets bogged down in long philosophical musings and lengthy exposition dumps. The werewolf scenes have their moments, with a few snappy action sequences. But, they are too few, too short, and most damningly, not particularly engaging. The supporting cast is very one-note. Even Barbara Crampton seems to be force fed into the movie, as a token gesture.
I do like the look of Charlie as the werewolf. It’s a good makeup job. Sadly, we don’t get a transformation scene. We have been spoiled with movies with great transformation scenes. It’s the showcase for every great werewolf movie. The Howling. The Company of Wolves. The Wolf-Man. Late Phases. And, most impressively, An American Werewolf in London. I know it is an expensive scene, but having a great transformation will elevate a werewolf film from its pack brethren. Fessenden decided to cut away after a few key moments, and then swing the camera back post-transformation.
Conclusion
If you are a werewolf movie completionist, this should be on your watch list. If you are a Larry Fessenden fan, it’s worth a watch. However, for the rest of you, it’s a meh movie. Blackout is not a bad movie. But, it isn’t exactly carving out new ground here.
Tellingly, my favorite moment in the movie was when Charlie talked about his father and the movie showed pictures of Alex Hurt and his father, the late, great William Hurt in photographs of them together. I know that it is good film strategy to use actual pictures of actors as their younger selves, and it really worked here. It was poignant to see both Hurts together, and to have the death of Charlie’s father as a mirror to real life. Again, it says a bit about the film when my favorite moment was not ABOUT the story.
I have a real fondness for what Larry Fessenden represents. I met him at Overlook during a press junket and was able to talk with him about this film briefly. He wanted to do justice to the internal struggles of man and monster inherent to a werewolf movie. The reluctant werewolf, a man who doesn’t want to be the monster. I can see that here, but it didn’t really work. Fortunately I was also able to tell Larry how much I loved his take on Frankenstein, with his 2019 movie, Depraved. My second favorite moment… also not key to the story… was a cameo of Adam, the Frankenstein’s monster from Depraved.
Fessenden is very much like Roger Corman. Nobody helps foster the independent horror movement like he does. He is capable of telling great stories, and he enables so many young directors and actors to find their way through the world of cinema through horror. He is such a generous man. I am a fan of him, but just like Roger, not all of his movies are great.
Where to Find Blackout
Blackout has not been rated by the MPAA. There is a little bit of sex and nudity, and plenty of gory moments that would justify this as an R-rated film. It should be fine for horror savvy teens. It is available for rent streaming on Amazon and Shudder.
Review by Eric Li
