The Deaths of Ian Stone

The Deaths of Ian Stone

Mainstream films often go for the lowest common denominator in order to appeal to as wide an audience as possible and not only recoup the investment but make a profit, or at least try and wrap up any difficult ideas in a safe bubble of celebrity. Whilst independent features often sidestep the need to please as many investors as budgets are much smaller, this reduction in expenditure can also make things a lot harder for the production as it takes a lot of skill to dress up nothing like a million dollars and for every low budget indie success story there are dozens of damp squibs going straight to video or failing to even secure release.
Unfortunately, in The Deaths of Ian Stone we have a case where the ambitions overreach the abilities of the production. The idea is interesting - a man finds himself dying and then returning. living a different life each time but with a few similarities, the same people returning with him but in different roles. He discovers the existence of inter-dimensional shadowy creatures, feeding on fear and resorting to murder to feed their addiction to the sweetest fear of all. The reason for his apparent reincarnation becomes clear as the film plays out, he used to be one of ‘them’ but rebelled for the love of a human.
The film plays out like a TV movie or an extended pilot for a show that never was. Despite the obviously British origin of the production and majority of the cast the photography has the hazy sheen of pre-digital American television whilst Ian Stone himself is played by Mike Vogel, an anonymous handsome jock type seemingly only in the film as a desperate attempt to extend the film’s appeal across the Atlantic. Whilst the effects are largely CGI they also seem to be bland, slightly ‘off the shelf’ creations rather than designs unique to the world of the film as the shadows share a glut of features from the ring wraiths of LOTR, giant insects of Mimic and arm/spear morphing from Terminator 2’s T-1000. Worse, when Ian discovers his true origins he becomes a half wraith/human hybrid, donning a generic Buffy-esque monster mask and Bon Jovi mullet in a spectacular example of design failure.
Aside from the lead the performances are okay and whilst the TV-feel doesn’t necessarily equate to bad quality, without a series run to flesh out characters or plot The Deaths of Ian Stone suffers from all the negatives of not being a show but doesn’t benefit from being a movie.