Faust: Love of the Damned (2000)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Mark Frost stars as John Jaspers, a young man whose girlfriend "Blue" (Jennifer Rope) is murdered by thugs. Now he's depressed and despondent enough to contemplate suicide - only for an enigmatic stranger, "M" (Andrew Divoff, whose performance outclasses this movie), to turn up and offer him a deal. John WILL get his revenge, but he will have to promise his soul to "M". He agrees with too much haste, and DOES get his revenge, but finds that his work is not done. "M" attempts to dispose of John, only for John to be reborn as a cartoony version of a demon (think a wrestler with a gimmick) and now possessed with incredible powers (including retractable, Wolverine-style blades)."Faust: Love of the Damned" is based on a graphic novel by David Quinn & Tim Vigil, and retains that sort of aesthetic for the film version. As a result, it's highly stylized by director Brian Yuzna ("Society", "Bride of Re-Animator"). Made in Spain around the same time that Yuznas' friend Stuart Gordon made his H.P. Lovecraft adaptation "Dagon", this movie has little to no dramatic impact. What hurts it a lot is the fact that leading actor Frost is so insipid as a hero; he's a bad actor, at least here. To be fair, though, he does seem to be enjoying himself when he's done up in demon garb. Overall, it's an amusing, disposable comic-book style horror-fantasy with a mostly European cast that ranges from passable (Isabel Brook, as the leading lady) to solid (Jeffrey Combs has one of his most normal roles as a dedicated detective) to very hammy (Fermi Reixach, as the police commissioner) to delightfully vampish (Monica Van Campen as M's sexy female cohort). Divoff towers over all with another of his captivating, soft-spoken villainous portrayals. He's quite a sight with his hair done like that, though.Yuzna once again utilizes the services of makeup effects expert "Screaming Mad George", whose work is typically outrageous, goopy, and completely outre. Appropriately Hellish visuals and a persistent heavy metal soundtrack (including Sepultura, one of this viewers' favourite bands) are also part of the mix.A fairly fun movie that kills approximately 101 minutes in well-paced fashion.Six out of 10.

Looking to exact revenge on the gangsters who murdered his girlfriend, artist John Jaspers (Mark Frost) strikes a hasty deal with the mysterious 'M' (Andrew Divoff), exchanging his soul for supernatural abilities and a mean set of arm-mounted blades. But in his eagerness, he forgets that it always pays to read the small print before signing a contract, which in this case states that he must continue to kill for M after settling his score. When Jaspers refuses, M has him buried alive, but somehow (details a bit fuzzy here...) the artist comes back from the dead as a demonic being and once again goes looking for retribution.Anyone looking for a faithful adaptation of the classic German legend is going to be majorly disappointed by Brian Yuzna's Faust, which is less a tragic study of moral abandonment, more a diabolical, blood-soaked, logic-free comic-book-style fever-dream packed with hokey gore, heavy metal, surreal effects and nudity. In telling his demented tale, director Brian Yuzna gives viewers lots of insanely OTT action full of severed body parts and slashed throats, while makeup artist Screaming Mad George provides some suitably weird prosthetics work (including one effect that sees a woman reduced to a giant pair of breasts and a huge ass with a face), and voluptuous actress Mònica Van Campen gets naked and has sex a lot. All of this is accompanied by a thundering soundtrack that includes the likes of Fear Factory, Machine Head and Coal Chamber.Literary scholars will most likely be appalled by what they see; students of 'serious' horror will think it churlish; I thought it was one hell of a fun time!7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Does any one realize that this whole Faust idea that this movie and your beloved comics are based off a long play written by an eighteenth century writer over his entire life. That was based off of folk stories that were created in the late Middle Ages. And published versions of these stories dated back to at least 1592. I haven't seen the movie, as a matter of fact, I've just heard of it just within a half-hour before writing this. But it seems you people watching this movie and those who seem to be devoted fans to the comic book series seem to be quite ignorant of how this whole story came about., regardless of whether this movie did really suck or not. The idea of Faust is the idea of a man torn by reason and individuality against the values that society try to blindly install into its citizens, which at the time the idea was conceived would be the influence of the Church and its ideas of how the world works and how people ought to behave.

There is not a single original line in Faust: Love of the Damned, and, the truth is, that's not even the worst of it. Faust... is a miasma of eye-rolling sexcapades (dressed up in a way that is clearly meant to seem demonic, but that falls exceedingly short), poor and tired special effects, and a completely incomprehensible plot. Even veteran horror actor Jeffrey Combs of Re-Animator fame can't pull this movie into something watchable, although his sudden turn to the dark side is probably the only good twist in this terrible film. One almost wonders whether Yuzna used some sort of blackmail material to convince Combs to be in this dreadful flick (with an interesting pair of sideburns to boot).Faust... says nothing new about the natures of good and evil or the entity of the devil. In addition, it borders on pornographic with its senseless sex scenes and downright offensive with its portrayal of sexual abuse. Barely redeemable.