It’s worth checking out on a rental but I can’t imagine anyone wanting to sit through repeat viewings of it.
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"The Deaths of Ian Stone" is a recipe of familiarity. It shamelessly takes the best parts of "Jacob´s Ladder, " "The Machinist" and "Groundhog´s Day," throws them into the garbage can and then uses the leftovers to create an underwhelming cinematic meal. It´s an ambiguous film that never gives its viewers a chance to latch onto any characters. Making every one of the many, many deaths that Ian Stone "lives" through utterly pointless for the audience. Who cares if he's going to die? You already know he's going to be reborn again into another boring life.
Late one night Ian (Mike Vogel) Stone is headed home on the subway, he encounters a strange entity that forces him onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train. Rather than awaking in the hereafter he opens his eyes in the here and now. He has been seemingly reborn into a new life not too dissimilar from his own. After he dies again at the hands of this strange creature he realizes that he is being hunted through these lives, forced to die every day only to start all over again in a different body. Can Ian escape his shadowy murderers and just what is his connection to them?
"The Deaths of Ian Stone" starts off with a really creepy atmosphere, continues building up steam with an intriguing set up but ultimately fails in its execution. Once the reasoning behind his "deaths" and "rebirths" are reveled it simply ruins the movie. And even if the explanation and origin for Ian didn´t taint the flick his eventual transformation in to the Fabio of ghosts would. But if that wasn´t enough the fact that "The Power of Love" is the prevailing force Ian has to harness to save himself and the woman he has pledged his heart to is the final straw that will have you reaching for the remote control.
The acting, cinematography and directing in "The Deaths of Ian Stone" are all above par for a film included in the second annual After Dark Horrorfest. Even the digital effects used to create the Harvester ghost/demon things were decent. It´s just unfortunate that Brendan Hood´s script never fleshes out the characters or gives the audience any reason to care about them. Plus the ending is horriblely cheesy in the worst way imaginable. Remember how the power of love (and some purple goo) brought the Statue of Liberty to life at the end of "Ghostbusters 2?" It´s that kind of cheesy, the type that clears out a room as if it were a brick of Limburger.
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