My, how the mighty have fallen.
Remember when Tom Sizemore was belting out memorable roles in films like Saving Private Ryan, Natural Born Killers, The Relic, and the oft overlooked masterpiece Bringing Out the Dead? Now Tom is averaging ten or so films per year, none of which, sadly, anyone will remember a day or two after watching.
Such is the story of Impuratus, a film that meanders along for well over two hours, with a plot that is somehow both simplistic and incoherent at the same time. But let me touch on what it’s about first.
Synopsis from IMDB: 1930s Pennsylvania, a weary detective (Tom Sizemore) on the verge of losing faith in humanity confronts a malevolent force within an asylum when an aged war veteran insists on confessing dark secrets that threaten his family.
So what about the film works?
The cinematography is well done, impressive even. The pictures are dark and foreboding, yet artistic, with the occasional vibrant accents that work really well in spooky horror flicks. The old asylum setting, which is not at all believable as an actual hospital open and running, provides an interesting backdrop in a similar fashion as the asylum in Session 9.
Tom Sizemore has moments where we see the actor he used to be, but he also has moments that are downright terrible. This, in part, is due to bad dialogue and scripting. He goes all unhinged in moments where it makes no sense to do so, then quickly calms down as if his outburst never happened. If this was meant to make the character seem unstable, it only succeeded in making the writer/director, Mike Yurinko, seem untalented at his craft.
The movie is just waaaay too long for what it is, a story of a long-possessed Civil War veteran whose inner demon wants to carry its evil into another individual. It shouldn’t take 135 minutes to tell this tale. Yet, the viewer is hit with tedious, frequently pointless monologues and cuts from past to present at the most awkward times, making the story confusing and hard to follow.
The sound is also poorly executed, with moments where background music drowns out dialogue. And hilariously, as my wife pointed out, the actor who plays the Civil War vet, Jody Quigley, has a voice almost identical to Zach Galifianakis. That’s not his fault, but once this was brought to my attention, I could’t help but chuckle every time he spoke. Not ideal for a horror movie.
PC3’s Horror and Exploitation Movie Scale of Awesomeness!
Gore - 2
Special Effects - 3
Nudity/Sexuality - 0
Wow Factor - 2
Acting - 5
Fear Factor - 4
Story/Plot/Originality - 3
Cinematography/Atmosphere - 8
Sound/Music - 3
Fun Factor - 1
Ouch, a 31 on the ol’ PHEMSA. Impuratus has a bad script and very few redeeming qualities. If they’d pushed for an R rating, bringing in some gore and nudity, it would have benefited not only those two categories, but also the Wow and Fun Factors. As is, it’s a boring film that I struggled to get to the end of.
As for something you’ll have no trouble getting to the end of, check out my new book Bringers of Hell, written with Chris Miller, Mike Ennenbach, and Eric Butler!
Synopsis: The New Testament tells of the Four Horsemen bringing four terrors upon humanity. In BRINGERS OF HELL, four masters of horror tell stand-alone tales inspired by Pestilence, War, Famine, and Death.
In "Ground Zero," Eric Butler weaves a bloody, suspenseful story of how a global pandemic begins. "The Dogs of War" is Chris Miller's action-packed gorefest, pitting a ruthless military tyrant against heavily-armed religious radicals. Patrick C. Harrison III delivers a bleak vision of a world without resources in "The Grass, It Grows." And in "An Inconvenient Death," M Ennenbach tells us just how much destructive fun Death can have.