Selling Your Soul Short

FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED

Director: Brian Yuzna

Writer: David Quinn

Starring: Mark Frost, Isabel Brook, Jeffrey Combs

2000 | Spain | R | 98 mins

★★

The Faust graphic novel series started in 1988 and are sometimes regarded as an inspiration for Spawn, detailing an anti-superhero straight from Hell. David Quinn, one of the original creators, wrote and pitched a script for a feature-length movie version in 1996 but it took serval years before it finally was made. Under the helm of director Brian Yuzna, Faust jumped to the silver screen... but is it worth your soul?

John Jaspers (Mark Frost) sells his soul to M (Andrew Divoff) for the chance to get revenge for the death of his girlfriend. Spouting metallic razor claws John becomes Faust, an evil entity consumed by blood. But after getting his revenge and his hands bloodied, John wants nothing more to do with the pact. But M controls his soul and has plans to open the gates of Hell. With the help of a beautiful psychiatrist (Isabel Brook) John will try to control his urges and stop M before it's too late.

According to fans of the original graphic novel series, Faust fails miserably as an adaptation. As a film it's convoluted and messy, filled with fast cutting that leaves the viewer unable to understand what is happening and terrible overacting from the majority of the cast, most notably bad is Mark Frost. Quite a bit of blood is spilled and the special effects are fairly good for the low budget, apparently it won an award at Stiges for the effects, but the actual look of Faust is extremely laughable. Faust, when fully transformed, looks like a cross between Batman, Wolverine, and the Devil, but not in a good way. It looks like an actor in a giant rubber suit and the razor blades just wobble all over the place. David Quinn's script is extremely weak considering he's very familiar with the source material.

While there are a few cool gore gags, including a right-hand woman to M who gets reduced to nothing but a slimy pair of tits and ass, Faust ends up being unfathomably boring and inconsistent to keep anyone's attention for more than a minute. Arguably Brian Yuzna's worst directorial effort, those looking for a cross between the superhero genre and the horror genre should avoid this one at all costs. So to answer the above question, is it worth your soul? Absolutely not at all.

All contents copyright 2010 Tyler Baptist