From the title, I think I could be forgiven for assuming that Joston Theney's (Axeman At Cutter's Creek, Stained) latest horror film was a supernatural one. It dawned on me rather too slowly watching The Haunted, The Possessed, and The Damned that it is in fact a film simply about a deranged suit wearing killer. After a bizarre start, I thought that this might not be for me, but there was something about this that kept pulling me back in, while not a perfect film by any means, there are moments of excellence to be found within.
Adam Kraul (Tonny Touche) is a somewhat odd claims insurance agent, who underneath his polished and serious exterior hides a deranged mind. With a lack of friends in his life, the man has become obsessed with getting one, mistaking the slightest act of kindness as an invitation for his particular brand of friendship. Often, this leads to devastating results, something that soon gets the attention of the police, and in particular, disgraced detective, Kelsey Andrews (Kristin Wall). With her future career under threat, she becomes determined to catch this psychotic killer.
There is a repeated musical number that comes from an old timey clip shown at the film's start, and which is used to excellent effect. That was the best part of the prologue, having a wonderful integration. I admit the rest of the prologue was more confusing than intriguing, with a young Adam witnessing the murder of his step father by his actual father, who is then in turn gleefully murdered by his mum and her friend, the gleefulness and cruelty are what made this part so bizarre to watch. Fast forward to present day and Adam has grown up to be someone who appears to have modelled himself on Patrick Bateman from American Psycho, though without much of the fake charm that character had. Adam is immediately shown to be a bit of a weirdo, and it isn't long before this is confirmed with his over the top violent actions that culminate with him delivering a gift-wrapped severed head of a man to his new best 'friend'! Like Bateman, Adam tries to give a manufactured persona to the world, something shown early on with a phone call he is making to a client in which he forces himself to put on fake cheer. Over the course of the film, Adam becomes more and more insane, with the performance from Touche relatively constrained until the madcap finale. There is a bit of a split personality to the man, with some techniques used to reflect this that reminded me of the way Gollum's split personality was shown on screen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Of course, as essential as he is, there are plenty of other characters to be found here. Kelsey is a bit of an anti-hero, with her path going to some twisted places along the way. Constantly drinking and doing drugs while on the job, she isn't the most likeable of characters, her intentions as the film progresses appearing to be for personal reasons, rather than actually wanting to help society by stopping a madman. Her colleague, Maury Bovine (John Charles Smith) was one of the highlights, being just as corrupted as her. Elsewhere there are some fun cameos, including horror icons Jessica Cameron (Camp Twilight, All Through the House) and Brinke Stevens (Xenophobia - wraparound segment 'Trona Pinnacles', Mrs. Claus), with their inclusion not feeling out of place.
One of the highlights are the special effects and blood effects during the murder scenes. I always appreciate blood and here there is lots of the stuff, victims really do look like victims. My favourite scene of the movie was to be found here, when a character badly beaten with a crowbar, crawls across the floor to their dead partner, managing to hold their hand before dying, blood seeping out from under the character, lovely stuff! I appreciated how gruesome these scenes were.
The story left a little to be desired in places, especially with how ineffective the police are shown to be, Adam able to easily go to places that should have had a big police presence. Maybe this was down to the characters, but it felt like he should have easily been caught early into the film, but that's just nitpicking. It leads to a thrilling finale, let down slightly by a cheesy one-liner a character spouts.
From a confusing start, I kept thinking throughout the film that it was good but not great, yet there was something about this that constantly kept my attention engaged, and which had it just about scrape a higher score than I expected I would give it. As decent a character as Kelsey was, I did wish she had been more likeable, with some of her actions being quite repellent to me. The side characters also were not that likeable. Adam of course wasn't someone to like, but the performance given made him someone who often stole his scenes. Then there is the icing on the cake, the bloody scenes of violence that the blood fiend in me enjoyed seeing. The Haunted, The Possessed, and The Damned can currently be rented or bought on Vimeo.
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