udar55 Review of Reflections of Evil

Reflections of Evil (2002)

A masterpiece unlike anything you will ever see!

[10/10 · 26 July 2009]

The plot in a nutshell - Julie (Nicole Vanderhoff) dies of a PCP overdose in the 1970s following a trip to Universal Studios. Her soul then wanders Los Angeles looking for Bob (writer-director Damon Packard), her younger brother who is now a crazy 35-year-old street urchin who is dying from his addiction to sugar. Sounds simple right? Well, that is like telling someone the plot to TETSUO is about a guy who inserts a metal pipe into his leg and gets hit by a car. This is a full blown surreal nightmare and probably the closest anyone has come to translating schizophrenia to film. Packard frames the film as if it is an ABC Movie of the Week and (in the uncut form) works in all of his copy-written obsessions including E.T., Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Ashcroft, one of the new STAR WARS flicks and even THE DEVIL'S RAIN. Packard uses a variety of elements (8mm, 16mm, digital) to convey all this and it works perfectly. The scene set in Universal's E.T. rides is really insane (have I used that enough) and Packard's unauthorized filming apparently got him banned from Universal for life. There are tons of seemingly unscripted confrontations on the street and I'd say Packard's biggest accomplishment is that you can't tell what is real or fake in this film. Featuring an intro by a dubbed Tony Curtis and Sage Stallone as Dan August (!).