Dark Angel: The Ascent (1994)

Rebellious demoness Veronica (Angela Featherstone) journeys from a charmingly low-budget Hell to Earth, where she finds cruelty, corruption, and possibly love?

Surprising and unpredictable in a number of ways, this was a lot of fun. Possibly the biggest surprise is this is a Full Moon production where I wish there were MORE scenes of characters just sitting around talking?! Usually, you are waiting for the killer puppet/killer freak/killer alien or whatever to do their thing, but I actually enjoyed watching Veronica interact with people even when she wasn't naked or ripping spines.

That is another surprise, this movie is nowhere near as exploitative as you would assume. When Veronica arrives on Earth, she is nude, and we briefly get a look at her ridiculous body (no surprise Featherstone started as a model). But most of the scene is centered on her face as she (almost Spike Lee floats) through the crowd, and their faces reacting to her. And even those reactions are weirdly muted. That helps contribute to a dreamy, spacey atmosphere. The movie's world and characters feel off-kilter and unrealistic, but in an intentional way. Things are heightened but the vibe is low-key, going from rending random rapists asunder to a nice romantic dinner doesn't feel out of place (and the, ahem... connective tissue between those two scenes is twisted and funny). It also helps that they found two preternaturally pretty performers for the leads. Love interest Dr. Max (Daniel Markel) has the same piercing blue eyes as Veronica (selling their immediate wordless connection well), and he has poutier lips than she does!

The cover/poster here depicts Veronica looking like a 90s bad girl comic, but she never wears anything like that impossible non-outfit. Whether she is chilling at home or out killing evil men, she mostly rocks comfortable casual wear. The one time she DOES get sexed up in a tiny vinyl outfit, it's to take the male lead out because SHE wants to get laid (and there is a genuinely great joke attached to that I won't spoil).

My biggest problem with this was that I wanted more of it. It seems like once the script hit feature length, they wrapped it up quick knowing that they wouldn't have time/money to do anything else. They never really establish rules for Veronica's body/abilities, so it isn't a complete cheat that all of a sudden one injury affects her more than previous ones, but it still felt perfunctory. I would have appreciated more of the weird relationship developing between the leads, or more mayhem, or even just more of other people having awkward interactions with Veronica. But this is the rare (especially for Full Moon!) movie that left me wanting more of what it gave me, instead of wanting more of something it was lacking.

Writer Matthew Bright was also responsible for Freeway (the best Reese Witherspoon movie), another movie that has more interest in and empathy for its female lead than one would assume from its exploitation movie surface. Bright's subversive tendencies pop up here, with the idea that demons actually devoutly serve God, and our heroine's killing racist cops and corrupt politicians seemingly getting His stamp of approval. He directed Freeway, and along with its purposefully unpleasant sequel those are much nastier, more visceral pictures than this one. Dark Angel sees his script directed by a woman, Linda Hassani, who may have tempered some of those extremes. Although it looks like her work before this was some softcore porn and episodes of Silk Stalkings (a 90s syndicated sexy cop show), so it's surprising how NOT soft porn-y the nudity-free sex scene here is (other than the requisite absurd number of candles). Sadly, after her promising work here it seems Hassani only did 3 episodes of some show called The Pointman and co-directed a Men in Black short for an amusement park attraction. Looking at imdb, I thought she had some more horror work in the 00s, but those "movies" just seem to be compilations of clips from old Full Moon productions (Charles Band out here rubbing pennies together until they turn into dust).

Oh, can't end this without mentioning Veronica's loyal companion, Hellraiser! When he first appeared, I half-jokingly wondered to my wife whether he was a bad dog condemned to Hell, or just a hellhound. Turns out he is a hellhound, and he is a very good boy! As long as you are not evil, that seems to make your organs extra tasty.

My wife liked this even more than I did, but afterwards she said, "So it was weird that if you are hot enough a guy will just accept you seeming crazy or being a murderer, right?" I argued that was one of the more realistic aspects of the movie.