Theron R
It feels insulting to say that of the 16 combined films (and the 11 I've watched thus far) of Year 1 & 2 of the Afterdark Horrorfest, that so many of them feel similar to each other. I promise it's not an insult, what I mean is that of the 11 total films I've watched in the last year (yes some were rewatched) they all are very clearly straight up horror films. You couldn't watch The Abandoned, Penny Dreadful, Borderland, or Crazy Eights and mistake any of them for horror comedies, suspense thrillers, sci-fi slashers, or any other random genres in your head. That's not a bad thing, it's a horror movie festival, you obviously want to feel at the very minimum, you're getting a healthy dose of what you came to see.
So if for some reason you've been waiting for one of these to do something completely different, than it seems that not only does "The Deaths of Ian Stone" have you covered, but we may already have our best film of Year 2.
The Deaths of Ian Stone tells the story of a young man (Mike Vogel, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Cloverfield) who discovers that he's waking up every day to a new life. A new job, a new girlfriend, with only the slightest recollection of what came before, the only catch being that each day he dies a gruesome death. As Ian begins to piece together what's happening to him, he'll seek to get revenge on the ones ultimately responsible for the endless pain he's been put through.
Mike Vogel (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Cloverfield) stars as Ian Stone, and his knack for playing likeable characters again shines thru here with Stone. Perhaps a little selfish on the ice when in a high stakes hockey game, and maybe a little complacent at the day job, Ian clearly feels that he's destined for something better and greater than what his life is presented with, but he'll shocked at what it'll take to get it. Vogel again is a really likeable actor, he's consistently played roles where no matter the rough gruff exterior, there's a soft heart behind the hard shell. With each new life Ian Stone starts through the film, Vogel has to constantly play the role differently while simultaneously adding in traits from the different incarnations we've seen. While there aren't any huge night and day kind of differences between the various Ians, Vogel still manages to make each one feel different from the last.
Christina Cole (Suits, Jupiter Ascending) and Jamie Murray (Dexter, Fright Night 2: New Blood) join Vogel as his two love interests, as Ian swaps from life to life, these women take on different roles to him. Cole's Jenny remains as this constant positive force for Ian, pushing him towards being a better person with each new life. Murray gets to play both ends of the sword as she mirrors Cole in certain lives, but we soon learn that Medea is hiding something more sinister behind Ian's back.
The three have fantastic chemistry, and while most of the time, we're rooting for Ian and Jenny to make it thru the horror terrorizing their lives, there was definitely a moment or two where Ian ending up with Medea doesn't seem like such a bad thing for him, which speaks to the strength of the performances between the 3.
Ian Stone benefits from some fantastic creature design, our villains, The Harvesters are a great mashup of Harry Potter Dementors and Ghosts from The Frighteners, though this isn't shocking as the late great special FX and makeup guru Stan Winston was a producer of the film. In addition Dario Piana directs a script from Brendan Hood, and the two make for a formidable team, the motivation behind our villains is clear, and gives Ian the perfect reasoning for trying to fight for his life.
I'm sure if you were to check the Deaths of Ian Stone out now, you might find some small similarities with the Happy Death Day franchise. If you haven't seen those films, the Happy Death Day series focuses on a young woman who is forced to relive the same day over and over, being brutally murdered each day. At the very least, while The Deaths of Ian Stone is obviously a similar concept though lacking the humor in the Happy Death Day movies, I found myself wishing we got to see maybe 1 or 2 more of Ian's lives, simply because I knew we would get another bloody death scene out of it.
Ian Stone definitely doesn't skimp on the blood or violence, while his 1st death acts almost as an underhand throw to get everyone ready for what's to come, his 2nd death ramps things up quickly and shows that the more Ian tries to escape his situation, the worst things will end up not only for him but for those around him.
This really helped with the scares of the film, as most of the time, the background characters in the film aren't privy to what Ian and the other leads are experiencing, it created this wonderful feeling of isolation as it was clear that there wasn't much in the way of help coming for our hero. Even with that, Ian Stone falters a bit as with mixing the genres here more than any of the other films featured in the Afterdark Horrorfest, it succeeds on bringing us something different, but this is at the expense of it feeling as scary as some of the other films can be.
Getting a different style of tale was refreshing and has me more excited for the remaining films of Year 2. I know of the 5 I have left (6 if you count Frontiers) that while those tales definitely mirror more of what came before, at least 3 of them are creature features that had a LOT of people divided all those years ago. If any of them can match the quality of The Deaths of Ian Stone, this is going to be hard to pick a winner this year
Current Ranking:
Borderland – 2
Crazy Eight – 2
The Deaths of Ian Stone – 4
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
05/25/23
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Audience Member
Ian's got this groundhog's day death thing going on and people in matrix-like suits that are after him and his girl. After a cyclical wake up, run, die thing - he finally finds a solution to break the pattern of the demons from the other world.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/12/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Ultimately, disappointing. The first 3/4 of the movie is well made, inventive and builds anticipation as to how this story will end. Then, you learn how the story well end, and the motivations behind why the events are occurring throughout the movie, and it absolutely shatters all of the anticipation created. Once again, the forced down our throats movie romance shtick leads to the ruin of a perfectly good movie. Why, why, why???
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/24/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Starting with the premise as something was haunting Ian and killing him over and over again, and he wakes up every time in a different lifestyle, but he was unclear why was this happening.
The movie utilized an intriguing idea which lingers why I was glued to the end.
However, in the last 20 minutes they somehow completed it with cheesy fight scenes as they lost out of ideas maybe nevertheless, this movie had tons of fun and weird moments which I genuinely enjoyed.
The acting was well-done, I wasn't familiar with the casts, but they perform it their all especially Mike Vogel who was amazing throughout the movie.
The cinematography was really intriguing as the look and the feel of this film was very dark, cold and grimy. The unsaturated color toning was naturally evoking the suspense and intended mood which was gripping for a B-movie.
The dialogues are up to scratch nor much endorsement or memorable. However, director Daria Piana carries out an excellent job alongside Brendan Hood (formerly known for writing They 2002) , for a British Sci-fi Horror this movie was very compelling.
Despite the flaws, I enjoyed this movie. It didn't have jump scares or a lot of gore moments but it hooked me up till the end in some way or other shifting its gears from a thriller to Sci-fi to Monster to Drama.
If you like to see the loop kind of horror, this one is for you.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Could be worst but has a good moments.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/16/23
Full Review
Audience Member
So I re-watched it a while ago and I was really happy when I've found this movie again on my stock of dvds. I remember liking this movie SO MUCH 6 years ago(2009), the first time I watched this. However, seeing this movie again, I don't know if because its just that I compare it with the new trends of movie today, but somehow I've noticed that the editing is not really polished and the story has many plot holes or shall I say, there's too much questions left behind. I can't see the world building on the movie. It's a nice concept and story, definitely. However, the story can be even more push to its limits - there's so much things that can happen which I can say the writer/director didn't take a chance on exploring. I am just disappointed a little when I re-watched it again. I really expect it to be really really good on what I've remembered 6 years ago. But still, in the end of the day, I can't help but to admire this movie. The concept is very extraordinary. I would really appreciate if this can be REMAKE again and put more attention on its CHARACTER BUILDING AND WORLD BUILDING. (I hope the director and writer can see this.)
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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