Fallen

The Basic Plot in the Form of A Haiku:

My Basic Ramblings: This movie is relatively recent - it's from 1998, anyway. It's about - you guessed it - the "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" lady.

As evil as she may be, the movie isn't about her. It's about Azazel, an evil spirit who travels from person to person by touch, or, in extreme cases, can jump from one body to another. The screenwriter (courtesy of the running commentary track) said it was a metaphor for how evil is contagious, but I think it's more of a metaphor for how easy it is for the common cold to pass from one person to another.  I wonder if that hand sanitizer stuff would prevent Azazel from entering you...

When Azazel enters you, a few things happen.  You become left handed and you start singing Rolling Stones songs.  If he's in you long enough, you start eating corn flakes and killing people. (I'm left-handed, I occasionally sing Stones songs, I eat corn flakes....three outta four ain't bad...)

What did Azazel sing before the 1960's to creep out people?  Did he try out other Stones songs before deciding on "Time Is On My Side"? Maybe he tormented his prey with a few verses of "She's A Rainbow" or "I Can't Get No Satisfaction".

Picture this:   You're an evil spirit, a fallen angel, whose goal it is to bring around the end of the world.  You want the world to fall into chaos and despair. You can go anywhere you want by transferring bodies with the slightest touch. Do you:

  1. Make your way, person to person, to Washington, D.C., inhabit the President of the United States and turn him into a mass murderer, therefore plunging the US into a quandry that would eventually bring down the entire world, like a set of evil dominoes.
  2. Decide to torment one random detective in a town that may or may not be Philadelphia..

Actually, maybe Clinton could explain the whole Lewinsky thing using the "Azazel Defense". "It wasn't me," he'd say to Ken Starr.  "It was that evil Azazel spirit that made me do all those things. I passed it on to Newt Gingrich. Go check him out."

The narration was annoying. Narration is usually annoying. It's a staple in film noir, but that doesn't mean it isn't annoying.  Half the time you don't need a person speaking as if the voice of God telling you what's going on, you can either figure it out yourself or just watch what's happening on the screen.

I shan't give away the ending (though I could, 'cause a good percentage of the world thinks I'm a cruel heartless bitch), other than to say it works, for me. The tiniest little bitlets from earlier in the movie come back, making you say "Oh........that's why they did that before...." The narration also makes sense.  Everything makes sense.  It's all one big happy sense-making deal.