FAUST: LOVE OF THE DAMNED

My review of Faust comes with a lot of bias. Despite a whole lot of shit to his name, I am a big fan of Brian Yuzna. He's given us films like Re-Animator, From Beyond, Society and even Honey I Shrunk The Kids. In 2001 he relocated to Spain and established a company called Fantastic Factory, a production house to produce low budget horror films for international distribution. They made 9 films in total including Dagon (awesome), Romsanta (awesome), Beneath Still Waters and The Nun. Their first film was Faust: Love Of The Damned. I really dig this movie. It's argued amongst comic book nerds that Todd MacFarlane's Spawn was headily influenced by Faust. It's a macabre story of a man who sells his soul to a mysterious Mr M in exchange for vengeance against the murder of his girlfriend. He transforms into a grotesque demon who becomes impaired by a insatiable bloodlust and is soon pursued by a creature when the gates of Hell are opened. Yuzna (imo) has put together a great little film with a real menace about it. Andrew Divoff does his usual bad-guy thing effectively and Jeffrey Combs is great as the homicide detective following the blood trail. Its ultra (deliciously) violent and soaked with gore, making for a welcome hard-core comic book adaptation which offers Hollywood an invitation to carry it forward... sadly I can't see that happening. Faust is a fantastic comic book character who deserves to be represented on film... kudos to Yuzna for scoring first dibbs!

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