Don’t Skip Your Double Dose of Daniel Falick in “Exorcist Vs Vampires!”

Unorthodox exorcist and hobby writer Richard Vanuk lives a depressing and humble life full of endless booze and filthy altruism. Driven by the need for alcohol and an underline desire to help possessed strangers for a small fee, Vanuk barely maintains his own sustainability. With each challenging case of demonic inhabitance, the poor full time exorcist, and part time writer, expels demons from their misfortunate hosts into his own wretched soul, draining his self-respecting humanity out of him one demon-expulsion job at a time. The deeper Vanuk spirals downward into nihilism and the deeper he goes into severe debt, the choice to withdrawal from the toll of exorcising demons becomes no longer an option, but a fruitlessly fateful venture to just surviving in a world that’s scarce of good people.

My second undertaking into a Daniel Falicki horror film has the “Awaken The Devil” director batting a solid hundred percent on the ever honest critique block, going a strong two-for-two with his latest film, 2016’s “Accidental Exorcist,” that’s drenched with a despair atmosphere that swallows the intentionally pathetic character who is granted only a glimmer of unattainable hope for a good life. The writer-director has a keen eye for developing horror in various comedic, dramatic, and absurdly berserk formatted segments, delicately defining details to capture memorable moments. Falicki also stars as his own character, Richard Vanuk, and Falicki charms the audience by creating a likable anti-protagonist whose cavalier about demonic possessions and begrudged by a “corporate” employer who pays very little for the precision of demon banishment; this same company performs a stigmata on him after every exhausting job, discarding his limp, unconscious body in a different snow covered park afterwards.

Falicki drowns Vanuk in vices and addictions. Aside from the obvious alcohol and constant inebriation, Vanuk needs the pain of performing exorcisms as much as he loathes the process and the people who employs him. The character can’t reform, can’t function properly in normality, as witnessed when his successful brother offers Richard a once-in-a-lifetime position at his mundane company of pigmentation for sports equipment. When the exorcism well runs dry, Vanuk goes into full blown, borderline psychotic detox as he’s cut off from his, one and only, natural born skill and the ceasing of his per diem position sends him into frantically gulping down bottles of cold medicine to get a soothing fix. Falicki punishes the audience beloved, unconventional exorcist by having Vanuk fall to the bottom by not being unlucky or plotted against, but by simply self destruction and having God turn his back on his loyal servant when the promise, or a test, of a favorable outlook reveals itself.

The casting couldn’t be much more perfect with a cast of talented b-movie stars such as Jason Roth (“Awaken The Devil”), Chris Kotcher, and Jeffrey Goodrich to quickly name a few. Falicki owns Richard Vanuk, embodying the character so brilliantly that I would have a hard time relinquishing Richard Vanuk from Daniel Falicki’s face. Falicki pulls out all the stops by putting every once of degradation the director can muster into the downtrodden exorcist with a performance that sells his hapless nature and spew-filled gigs. Every client Vanuk attends to is portrayed honestly and earnestly from Sherryl Despress’s role of a desperate mother turned possessed super sewer to Patrick Hendren’s blind and levitating demonic being who goes on to have a heart-to-heart with Vanuk after an exorcism recovery.

“Accidental Exorcist” is unapologetic and shameless; a real nasty bitch to love unconditionally. The fun soars above the summit and the ingrained heart bursts beyond the restrictive seams of the reel. The film is nothing I’ve ever scene before; yet, still manages to homage legendary films that “Accidental Exorcist” built it’s bones upon. Similarities to, of course, the iconic William Friedkin’s “The Exorcist” are apparent throughout with the almost beautifully grim and isolated atmospheric exterior scenes of foreboding destiny. Falicki’s film contains special effects so convincing by leaps and bounds when compared to other modern independent horror, portraying Vanuk so well within the confines of his dank and dejected existence that it’s as if he’s sharing his grime and his loneliness with us that’ll result with a quick shower when the credits roll.

Fleeing from brilliant explosions cascading down from the sky upon the city, Catherine ducks into a seemingly innocuous vacant building to escape the bombardment.  As the ceiling crumbles down, she’s trapped inside a room amongst the rubble and metallic debris, but she’s not alone.  With her are corpses of military soldiers struck down by the falling cement and rebar.  Also with her, a metallic sarcophagus lies in the center amongst the corpses and the wreckage.  Inside, a creature emerges, one that’s ancient as it is predatory, and comes face-to-face with a disordered Catherine still shaken by the apocalyptic conditions she just escaped, but the creature shows signs of dying by coughing up blood and unable to move with ease.  However, the creature’s thirst for blood is still strong as it debates the philosophy of existence and species history in order to gain favor for the last of his kind as Catherine champions for the human right to live, breath, and love from the soul. 

Before writing, directing, and starring as the drunkard exorcists who can absorb other people’s demons, Michigan born filmmaker Dan Falicki was “The Last Vampyre on Earth” in 2013.  Also known as “Aeon:  The Last Vampyre on Earth,” the feature-length film is one Falicki did not write, penned by Warren Croyle (“From Jennifer”) and Ryan Lieske (“Awaken the Devil”), and was shot in Falicki’s home state of Michigan, Grand Rapids to me more exact.  “The Last Vampyre on Earth” aims to examine themes surrounding the right to exist, a Darwinist approach to predator and prey, truth and lies, good vs evil, otherworldly watchers, and the human soul in what’s not your traditional gothic and enchanting vampire thriller.  Instead, Falicki’s vampire tale is futuristic and conversional with impacting moments of bloody spew, declining decay, and projectile violence.  Falicki’s iron-man approach to filmmaking, taking on multiple hats in most of his productions, is cultivated through his independent production company Rotomation Pictures, partnering up with another Michigan based studio Sector 5 Films, under the sister label of Chemical Burn Entertainment.  Falicki produced the film with Warren Coyle, Anthony E. Griffin (“Devils in the Darkness”), and Frank Stabile.

Like “Accidental Exorcist,” Falicki’s if-you-want-to-do-it-right, you-do-it-yourself approach to filmmaking has certainly served him well in both features, though I’m sure a better reason for Falicki to take on principal roles is to keep costs low.  However, the roles involved, especially in “The Last Vampyre on Earth,” are extremely physical and taxing.  Playing Aeon, or The Last as credited on IMDB.com, Falicki is constantly feigning vomiting fake blood and other bodily fluid, hacking up a lung in constant coughing fits, moving in spasm and in spurts, and all doing it while under multiple grades of degrading derma layers progressing through the story.  There’s no holding Falicki back being everything ounce a vampire on death’s door while still clawing to get that little ounce of blood before all hell breaks loose from above.  Aeon’s counterpart is human, a woman named Catherine, who has a background in philosophy and when you put a woman with a philosophy degree in with a creature with long history, questionings and experiences formulated from views and fact begin to intertwine as long as Aeon has no strength in his body.  April Basile as Catherine holds her own enough against Falicki’s physical performance but does fail to compare as an equal, often reserved in performance to convince audiences Catherine is strong from the moment she steps into that building for cover.  Definitely stale with her character’s arc, Basile shifts gears without ever touching the shifter, keeping in the same gear as from which she started and that can be a bit grinding on the sympathetic system that allows us to feel for the protagonist and antagonist.  The cast rounds out with peripheral, non-dialogued bodies of death and delusion with Chris Eddy, Sara Jean Anderson and Joseph McIntosh going fully need for the cause and Ryan Lieske and Jason Roth as dead soldiers. 

“The Last Vampyre on Earth” knows its limitations as an independent film.  With a supposed investment of around one million dollars, the feature puts majority favor on the special practical effects and the maybe even it’s actors to solidify at least a visual story that’s hefty on the dialogue, literally and figuratively.  Popcorn moviegoers will struggle to see past the verbose debating and write off the film within the first 20 minutes that shows no promise of action or bloody horror but if you’re in the minority that can see past the diatribes and debates, Falicki and team are master of contrasts, gels, shadows, editing, and performance art as Falicki has an eye for engrossing visuals, much the same with “Accidental Exorcist” and “Awaken the Devil” that have been implied with a comic book like noir to both films and “The Last Vampyre on Earth” very much hints toward that succeeding aesthetic.  I do wish the Croyle and Lieske dialogue between Aeon and Catherine was a little less redundant and had a little more animated bite as the topics become circular and the characters never really moved from their stationary mark.  This results in scenes to stagnate as eyelids start to close and the issues at hand fade into nothing more than a yawn but there was always the cliffhanger of ambiguous bombardment of Earth outside and, interestingly enough, Aeon’s species is never mentioned, only flirted around as if saying vampire was too taboo in another subtle theme of metaphorical prejudice against those that are different but well equipped to survive, imprisoned to study for the best parts to be integrated into the captor’s race. 

The Daniel Falicki double feature “Accidental Exorcist” and “The Last Vampyre on Earth” arrive on a 2-disc, Chemical Burn distributed, DVD set, both are MPEG2 encoded DVD5s with 720p standard resolution.  This reissue set doesn’t up the picture quality game of the original releases that are often eclectic because of the cinematography and technical style by Falicki and cinematographer Scott Baisden (“Accidental Exorcist”) and Anthony E. Griffin (“The Last Vampyre on Earth”) who roughly have the same layout with odd angles, tint work, and key lighting with much of their differences lying in contrast saturation between overexposure and dark shadows.  Distinct details are not greatly evident, but the overall detail is middle of the road with texture smoothed over by the format and an unnatural palette workup.  “Accidental Exorcist” is presented in a 2.40:1 that offers tighter closeups and a broader stretch of his apartment during drama mid-shots while “The Last Vampyre on Earth” includes a 1.78:1 presentation.  Both features are noted to have a LPCM 5.1 surround sound mix, uncompressed and in the English language.  “Accident Exorcist” has the better of the two tracks with a clear dialogue and action sound design with some overlapping between the dialogue and the soundtrack that tries to muck up the dialogue.  We see this muck up more with “The Last Vampyre on Earth” as Falicki’s growling and gurgling, cough-riddled rants, raves, and diatribes are victims of being unintelligible at times during more low-tone dramatic soundtrack pieces in what’s mostly a low mechanical hum piece in between the crumbling building and character skirmish scenes.  Action Foley and soundbites are crisp without sound distant and isolated, integrated nicely into progressive mise-en-scenes.  There are no subtitle options for either disc.  What’s also lacking are special features that has this set pegged as a film-only release.  The re-issue DVD is a welcome mondo-inspired collector’s set with uncredited detailed illustrated artwork that meshes vampires and the possessed in a hellish collage.  The sleeve art is single-sided.  My only gripe with the set is the titles are not listed anywhere on the front or back so potential buyers will find themselves in a blind bag purchase.  The DVD Amaray holds no other tangible product inside.  The unrated features have a total runtime of 200 minutes and have region free capabilities. 

Last Rites: Don’t lose sight of deep independent films. Often times indie productions can be a challenge to sit through but Daniel Falicki’s “Accidental Exorcist” and “The Last Vampyre on Earth” are the exception, better than most, with interesting stories, complex characters, a crisis of existence, and a show of surreal aesthetic and vehemence to sweeten the pot for these two films under the obscuring larger production veil.

Don’t Skip Your Double Dose of Daniel Falick in “Exorcist Vs Vampires!”