Movie Review – Fallen (1998), Part 1

An entertaining mix of genres that combines all the best elements of police crime solvers with supernatural religious horror movies.

The opening sequence could have been straight from “The Silence of the Lambs (1991)”. The film then slides into the supernatural horror territory of “Jacob’s Ladder (1990)” and ends with an ending worthy of “Omen (1976).”

Despite the creepy opening sequence, the film dives into the first act like a regular police station movie complete with the usual characters: the lead, the handsome Det. john hobbes [Denzel Washington]; his fatherly partner Det. Jonesy [John Goodman]; and the cynical shin-kicker Det. lou [James Gandolfini]; the tough head of the police station, Lieutenant Stanton [Donald Sutherland].

When demented murderer Edgar Reese (played to the core by a terrifying Elias Koteas) is executed in a gas chamber, Det. Hobbes thinks the worst is over, not realizing that his troubles are just beginning.

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

Hobbes is a policeman and a rational man. He believes in what he can see, feel and measure. He believes in evidence, not rumors and myths. But he clue after clue he tells her this time, as strange bodies keep turning up all over the nameless city. [although shot in Philly]he is facing something “different”.

The ancient Biblical evil spirit of Azazel is alive and well and changes bodies with just a common physical touch. That is why it is almost impossible to nail it down and destroy it. It is the most contagious disease the world has ever seen. Screenwriter Nicholas Kazan also deserves our congratulations for not only coming up with such a clever concept but also for coming up with a pretty well written script.

(To conclude in part 2.)