Faust: Love of the Damned (2000) Reviews

• ... and I'll sell you my conscience for $4.50.

  BA_Harrison2011-11-16

  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.

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• Awful comic book flick

  The_Void2007-10-01

  Faust is a classic German legend focusing on the classic idea of a man selling his soul to the devil. Faust: Love of the Damned takes that basic plot and adds in a heavy metal soundtrack, a bunch of gore and a comic book central character and the result is...well, not even as good as you might think it will be. The inspiration for this film was a comic book by Tim Vigil and David Quinn which, like every other comic book ever made, I haven't read. However, it would seem obvious that director Brian Yuzna took most of his inspiration from this film from the comic book revenge flick 'The Crow', and somehow this film doesn't come off as well. The film focuses on John Jaspers; an artist who witnesses his girlfriend being killed by a bunch of thugs. Some other things happen, and Jaspers end up in contact with the mysterious 'M', who offers him the chance to get revenge on the thugs who ruined his life, for the small price of his soul. Naturally, Jaspers jumps at the chance to sell his soul for revenge, but he later regrets it when he turns into a horned demon... I'm actually quite a big fan of Brian Yuzna - I wouldn't hesitate to call the likes of Society and Return of the Living Dead 3 modern horror masterpieces; but Faust: Love of the Damned is undoubtedly his worst film. Typically for Yuzna, there's no shortage of gore and gruesome special effects, which is nice and there's plenty of interesting scenes and imagery; but the plot is all over the place, really quite boring and the film doesn't seem to know what it wants to do once the horned demon superhero pops up; it goes from being a demonic horror movie to some sort of comic book comedy! The one liners that Faust utters are awful, and the suit looks pretty damned silly too. Yuzna did manage to collect something of an interesting cast - Mark Frost doesn't really impress in the lead role, but the film has supporting turns for the likes of Jeffrey Combs, who is good in the sort of role you don't often see him in, and Andrew Divoff, who is clearly ripping off his own role in the crappy Wishmaster, but at least it's amusing to see. Overall, Faust: Love of the Damned is really too silly to be taken seriously, and I don't mean that in a good way! Avoid.

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• "There is no grand design. Just an outbreak of chaos."

  Backlash0072002-10-31

  This movie lives by those words. Faust is simply a fluff film meant to have fun with. You people have got to stop saying that this film ripped off Spawn. This comic was published back in the 1980's! The 80's folks. Got that straight? Now, Faust is not a good movie, it's a good looking movie. It's stylishly done. Brian Yuzna has certainly progressed as a filmmaker. Screaming Mad George's effects are, as always, different. There is a strange lack of gore, however (most reviews kept talking about the gore, but they obviously have not seen other Yuzna/George collaborations). It does get a little far fetched when M turns the chick into a blob of goo. It's just ridiculous, I wish Yuzna would take his films more seriously sometimes. I mean, sometimes it's funny, but at others it's inappropriate. There is also a monster that looks dead-on like Dr. Freudstein in Fulci's House by the Cemetery. My other complaint comes during the subway scene. Why do they have to have sex after they escape danger? It's over the top to say the least. Faust does have a plus side. You've got a couple of cult favorites starring. Jeffrey Combs always adds something to a picture and Andrew Divoff is perfect as M. He has one of the most evil voices ever (I'm just not sure about that haircut). Mark Frost gets the award for gratuitous over-acting. It is a comic book movie though. There's also a great soundtrack. Nothing like some good old fashioned heavy metal to drive a violent flick. "You can't cure evil, Dr. It's not a sickness."

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• Faust:Love of the Damned

  Scarecrow-882007-06-06

  What a mess this was. There are some fans of Wishmaster evil demonic genie Divoff who plays, I believe, Lucifer here(..with albino white hair!)and he certainly has a way of exhibitioning pure evil with the way he tilts his head and twists his face. This film seeps every ounce of artistic integrity from the original play bludgeoning us over the head with Ringo knows what. Faust himself was once this artist named John Jaspers(Mark Frost, incredibly hammy) whose lover was killed by her portly pimp and his accomplices, wishes revenge to the point he'll sell his soul, gain from Divoff these Wolverine-esquire titanium blades, kill those who did his ole lady in, and face the consequences for his harbored anger and blood-lusting vengeance. Divoff has control over him and forces him into destroying a Chinese Consul meeting wiping out something like 19 people. Jeffrey Combs is a detective who wishes to know why he did it as Faust(in human form at this point)is catatonic. A psychologist,Jade(Isabel Brook, a stunning beauty) who uses music to get inside what makes the mad crazy, soon becomes a chess-piece between Divoff's Lucifer and Faust(still John at this point). Soon Divoff is through with his acquisition and buries him alive, but the joker kills a skeleton choking him(huh?)and returns from the near trip to hell as a steroid-n-crack version of the Daredevil who obliterates, I'm guessing, more than 20 or so people(and a slew of damned cops..I figure the entire police station was emptied into Faust's feverish wrath). Divoff has a chick by his side, Claire(Mònica Van Campen, melts fervent heat right from the screen) always trying to seduce someone into robbing her master of his power since Lucifer's human shell is weakening(..I don't know, ask those who made this damn thing what the point is of Lucifer staying in a weak body when he should be able to invade many of those who worship him). She loves showing her breasts(they are quite delicious, I must say)and cavorting around like a cat in heat. Jade has issues..a buried rape from someone whose face is covered in wax(you think this sounds silly, wait until you see the method of torture used to project who the rapist was)and she falls in love with the John. Combs soon joins allegiance with Lucifer and the poor Jade is tricked by him into Divoff's lair..she is a hostage at the mercy of her captors. Meanwhile, Claire who desires Lucifer's seat will perhaps get her wish. The film throws the kitchen sink at you..are you willing to duck? Because, the climax has this beast summoned from hell, Faust trying to save Jade from being impregnated by Lucifer, Combs swallowing a serpent removed from the stomach of Lucifer's Claire who betrayed him, and a blood, sacrificial orgy of Satanists. Phew, I'm telling you, this flick is messed up!

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• How in the heck did anyone rate this beyond 1 star?

  svenjins2011-01-31

  Holy moly, what the heck happened here? Brian Yuzna...you're better than this! I've seen you do better than this! How did you make something this hideously AWFUL? I watched this because it has Andrew Divoff and Jeffery Combs in it. Well, at least both of them are fun to watch as always, but they're only as good as the awful material will let them be. It seriously, truly feels like they shot this from the first draft of the script, and that said draft was written by a high school dropout goth. The two leads are horrifically awful. Frost hams it up something fierce as John Jasper. Hamming is probably too generous a word. He has absolutely no idea what he's doing and uses idiotic facial expressions to fill in his complete lack of any talent whatsoever. Brook is nearly as bad, just slumming it hideously the whole way through. The makeup is awful, with Faust's outfit looking like the cheap rubber that it is. His Wolverine-knockoff claws look like flimsy plastic and bounce around everywhere. You really don't believe that he could cut through a car roof with them. The story lurches around and barely manages to stick together. The characters have no dimension to them. They do things because the script wants them to, not because it actually fits their paper-thin character in any possible way. They just do what's necessary to move things along. There's no motivation here beyond "The director and writer said to!" One minute, the lead chick loathes and fears Faust, and the next minute they start shagging. Yeah, that makes sense. Yuzna, how did you mess this up so BADLY? At least his other efforts have managed to be fun. Reanimator, From Beyond, Dagon (I know, he wasn't the director, but he was heavily involved in creative direction), etc may not have been great movies, but they were fun cult flicks. Faust isn't fun at all. It's not even so bad it's fun. It's just nigh-unwatchably horrid. How this movie won ANY kind of award other than a Razzie is something that I will never grasp even if God himself came down and explained it to me. Do yourself a favor and miss this. If you want to see Divoff being sinister, go watch Wishmaster. If you want to see Combs doing his fun hamming (and I mean that in a good way. Combs is fun to watch), go watch Reanimator, From Beyond, or The Frighteners. If you want to see something that will make you truly believe that you've wasted 92 minutes of your life beyond anything you could imagine, watch Faust.

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