Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)

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General		Extras
Category	Horror	Featurette-Making Of
Rating
Year Of Production	1994
Running Time	84:00 (Case: 81)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Linda Hassani
Studio Distributor	Full Moon Pictures Beyond Home Entertainment	Starring	Constantin Draganescu Angela Featherstone Cristina Stoica Valentin Teodesiu Nicholas Worth Marius Stanescu Constantin Cotimanis Charlotte Stewart Heros Daniel Markel Mihai Bisericanu
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	$19.95	Music	Fuzzbee Morse

     Angela Featherstone is Veronica Iscariot, a demon from Hell who dreams of a "roof of blue" and wishes to experience the pleasures of Earth by ascending into the mortal world. No one is permitted to leave Hell however, and Veronica has a violent fight with her Frank Thring look-a-like father (Nicholas Worth) when he tries to stop her. She nevertheless rises to the surface via a portal, and with horns, tail, wings and clothes removed (yum!), ends up in a nondescript city accompanied by her dog "hellraker". Oddly enough the city and inhabitants are all very eastern European but the accents are American, and the naive Veronica soon finds that life outside of Hell is not as appealing as she thought. In this version of Hell the demons actually work for God, say grace before chowing down on human joints, and fulfil their God given job of punishing sinners. Veronica brings this work ethic with her to Earth, and after encountering the doctor Max Barris (Daniel Markel) following a car accident, administers some demonic justice in her own inimitable way to evil doers - including the city Mayor (Richard Barnes). Veronica and the kind hearted Max fall in love and she gains an insight into the innocent and beautiful side of being mortal. Veronica’s vigilante actions on Earth however mean that she too is now doomed to suffer with the damned in Hell unless the angel (Kehli O'Byrne) can save her soul.

     Full Moon Entertainment produced many low budget straight to video horror flicks back in the 1990s, and Dark Angel is fairly typical of that genre. Shot in Full Moon’s favourite country Romania (apparently it’s cheap there) on a shoestring budget, we have the usual unconvincing special effects, dodgy make-up, and hammy acting. Fortunately however in Featherstone we have a truly appealing leading “lady”, whose viciousness is magnificently offset by her charming naivety and amazing good looks. Cinematographer Vivi Dragan Vasile always makes sure that Featherstone’s arctic blue (possibly colour enhanced) eyes are always well lit in quieter moments, whereas they turn a moody dark brown or red when she is angry. Hell would be (almost) a nice place to be if all demons looked like her. She can also act – alternating between compassion, steely menace, and a violent indifference to carnage in truly convincing style. Markel is also quite assured in the acting stakes as are the two investigating cops Harper (Mike Genovese) and Greenberg (Michael C. Mahon), however the rest of the supporting cast are strictly B grade. The Romanian streetscapes and sets are beautifully filmed and overcome the obvious low production values. There is lots of humour included – unintentionally or not, including parts where we probably shouldn’t be laughing, such as in the Hell torture scenes. One early part reminded me of the classic Rowan Atkinson “Welcome to Hell” joke, but the delivery from the demon “teacher” was really bad. The make-up department could also have covered over Veronica’s smallpox vaccination scar I suppose, and where did the hundreds of lit candles come from during Veronica and Max’s sexy time?

     Quibbles aside, and despite the usual low budget foibles, this is probably the most engaging Full Moon film I’ve seen. With suitable amounts of gore, gratuitous nudity, and the sexiest demon ever committed to video tape - what’s not to like?

Video

     This DVD is presented in the original aspect of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced. If you’ve seen other Full Moon DVDs then this example is pretty typical. The opening frames show lots of telecine wobble and white artefacts appearing against the black background. Fortunately the black and white artefacts aren’t as obvious further into the film although they are still there if you look. There is also a thin black vertical line through some scenes at around 41:10. Colours are rather nice with the flames of Hell really blazing on the screen with rich reds and golds. Skin tones are accurate if a little pale at times – with Featherstone’s blue eyes really jumping out of the screen. Blacks are quite good with detail in the night scenes well defined. The overall image is soft with a real VHS look about it which is typical for a Full Moon movie. Given the age and quality of the source I doubt whether a better version will be forthcoming.

     There are no subtitles.

     This is a single layer disc.

Video Ratings Summary

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Audio

     The single Dolby Digital 2.0 track is encoded at 192Kb/s. As usual for Full Moon productions this audio track is uninspiring. Voices are clear enough and mostly in synch however the dubbing of American voices on the Romanian actors was not always convincing. With surround encoding activated there was some effective ambience and surround effects added, however the subwoofer remained relatively silent. The music score by Fuzzbee Morse (parents were obviously jokers) is pretty good, and suitably enhances the on screen action.

     This audio track is hardly reference quality and is included here at a low bit rate, however it is reasonably good for this sort of production. There were no particular faults noticed.

Audio Ratings Summary

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Menu

     The menu is static with no audio.

Featurette – Behind the Scenes. (6:14)

     1.33:1 aspect ratio with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio recorded at 192Kb/s. Director Linda Hassani and others on the set of Dark Angel describing some aspects of the filming including the building of Hell in a genuine castle and creation of special effects. Very VHS “quality” video as is the audio - but serviceable enough. Quite short and interesting enough for a look.

    This version seems to be the only one available at time of writing although the movie itself is included in compilation DVD box sets.

     Dark Angel - The Ascent is a guilty pleasure. There are plenty of problems with it including low production values, mostly hammy acting and inherent silliness, however the radiant Featherstone somehow manages to pull it off. It's not particularly gory, and not scary at all, but somehow the eighty four minutes seem to fly. The ending was a bit abrupt, and I certainly would have liked a more satisfying conclusion as it seemed the director tried to close it all off a bit hastily. Nevertheless I thought it highly entertaining and certainly one of Full Moon Entertainment's better efforts. Highly recommended for B horror movie fans.

     The video quality is acceptable. The audio quality is acceptable. Extras are meagre but interesting.

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Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall