Wildly original and consistently faithful to its pessimistic weltanschauung, DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT concerns the literal upward mobility of an angel who leaves her job in the Underworld. This is more than a routine genre flick; it's a satirical sketch of perfidious humanity that links the
residents of Hell and Earth in unsettling, often bitterly funny ways.
Rebellious fallen angel Veronica (Angela Featherstone) has recurring visions of a blue-domed world above; she infuriates her professor (Valentin Teodescu) and drives her father (Nicholas Worth) to threats of banishment and worse. Shielded from paternal rage by her mother (Charlotte Stewart),
Veronica gets the hell out of Hell. On Earth, she's transformed into mortal shape, shedding her horns and tail but not her righteous anger. Hospitalized after being hit by a car, she captivates her doctor, Max (Daniel Markel), whom she hypnotizes into accepting her as a roommate.
Veronica ventures forth, accompanied by her dog Hellraiser, and quickly learns that Earth is a breeding ground for eternal damnation. Morally outraged, she takes to slaying rapist-muggers and bigoted cops, then serving their stripped carcasses to her pooch. When she's confronted at a disco by
Lois (Victoria Cocias), a pushy friend of Max's, jealous Veronica menaces her in the ladies room, slaughters a nearby druggie who knifes her, and reveals her satanic powers to Detective Greenberg (Michael C. Mahon), who'd been on her trail. She proceeds with her crusade, scaring the bejeezus out
of venal Mayor Wharton (Milton James) at his mansion. Having cleaned up the town, the injured heroine is taken to the River Styx for healing by a sympathetic angel. An Earthbound, rule-bound police force is glad to be rid of the supernatural vigilante, but she's back in Max's bed at the film's
finale.
Part gore film, part urban avenger flick, DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT services a provocative screenplay with skilled direction and dazzling production design. If most cinematic visions of Hell seem run-of-DeMille, DARK ANGEL sets the record straight, offering an underworld that fairly writhes with
sadistic torment. Its image of Earth is scarcely less repulsive, and what really fortifies this conceptual horror film's impact is the way it manipulates viewers' complicity with the heroine's Bronsonesque activism. We may cheer when she smites the malefactors, but we literally cringe when she
fillets them and serves them up like steak tartare. DARK ANGEL is also an imaginative variant on the SPLASH formula, in which a creature from another world falls for a mortal; the querulous angel's take on earthly romance and human misconduct is both funny and illuminating. Relatively flab-free,
the screenplay scores points about crime and punishment as well as responsibility and redemption. If only the sumptuous-looking Featherstone and some minor players exhibited a fuller range of emotion, this clever, visually arresting film might have been an offbeat horror classic. (Extreme
profanity, graphic violence, extensive nudity.) leave a comment