The Deaths Of Ian Stone
Get this guy some moisturizer
We live in a world of regret. Each one
of us has a moment in their life they'd like to do over. Maybe say
something different or act a different way in the hopes that the
outcome would be different. These range from life decisions such as
going to a different college or taking a different job. There is
always the “what if” in life that invades our minds in those
brief moments before falling asleep. These fantasies we have are
created from our own minds and turn out the way we want. But what
happens when these different lives are not your decision and there is
nothing you can do to stop them from happening?
The Deaths of Ian Stone is a 2007
horror movie starring starring Mike Vogel (Cloverfield, The Help) as
Ian Stone. Ian is an American living in England. He plays hockey and
is very much in love with his British girlfriend, Jenny (Christina
Cole, Casino Royale, Hex). One night after losing a hockey game, Ian
comes across a man lying in the road. He gets out to check on him,
but is attacked by the “corpse.” He is pushed onto nearby train
tracks and is hit by an oncoming train. At the point of impact, Ian
wakes up at his desk in an office. He is confused and remembers
nothing, but tries to go about his day. Outside his office, he sees a
man having a heart attack. One of the people attending to the man
holds his hand and appears to be pulling the life force out of him.
Ian is no longer dating Jenny, but lives with a mysterious woman
named Medea (Jaime Murray, Devil's Playground, Botched). The next
day, Ian meets an old man who frantically warms Ian that he is in
danger and that “they” are coming. The old man is grabbed by
something and pulled away. Eventually, Ian is killed by Medea, who is
one of these monsters, and instantly starts a new life. The cycle
continues with Ian waking up in a new life, but the one constant is
that Jenny is in each of these lives. He begins to remember pieces of
his previous lives when he runs into the old man from before. He
learns that these monsters are called Harvesters who feed on fear and
pain. Ian also discovers that he is one of them and rebelled against
the colony when he fell in love with Jenny. Will Ian be able to
remember his true past and free Jenny and himself from this endless
cycle?
Hugs!
The concept of repeating lives in
horror and science fiction is nothing new. The Deaths of Ian Stone
instantly brings to mind The Time Machine and The Butterfly Effect.
It's always fun to see where these movies go when they explore
different lives of the main character. This movie does give us a few
different lives, such as Ian being a heroin addict, but I feel like
they should have really switched things up. Most of the time, he and
Jenny were just working a different profession. The story itself is
pretty mediocre, giving off the sense that I've already seen this
movie before. Where this movie differs is the inclusion of the
Harvester monsters who look like a cross between the smoke monster
from Lost and Blackheart from the Marvel Super Heroes arcade game.
The special effects used to create the monsters are decent and I
never felt like the movie was overdoing it. The movie avoids most of
the science fiction in favor of monsters and action. There is some
blood and gore, but for a horror movie, this wasn't particularly
scary or thrilling. The action is pretty much paint-by-numbers, with
the last 20 or so minutes focusing solely on Ian fighting the
Harvesters. The try to make the movie a love story, but it isn't able
to really pull it off.
The character of Ian Stone is supposed
to be your typical All-American boy, but Mike Vogel looks so much
like Michael DeLuise who played the bully Matt Wilson from Encino Man
that I couldn't take him seriously. I also find it strange that they
decided to set the movie in the UK and have every other character in
the movie be British. Is this supposed to be some fish-out-of-water
experience? It just seems random and unnecessary to make the main
character American. I also find it weird that they have him play
hockey. I love hockey and I'm always happy to see it in movies, it's
just not the biggest sport in either the United States or England.
The acting and direction in the movie is fine, but nothing
spectacular. That pretty much sums up the entire movie. Nothing is
offensive or bad. Everything is just “OK”.
Aw, snap
The Deaths of Ian Stone tries to add a
horror twist to the life-altering science-fiction genre. The
inclusion of the Harvesters makes for an interesting idea and lets
the movie have more action and violence. The monsters look good and
the special effects are not overdone. I'm glad the movie explained
who they are and what they're doing. Plenty of movies get lazy and
only give a half-assed explanation. The action is decent with some
good blood and violence. As a whole, the movie is pretty mediocre.
No new ground is broken which is a shame because they could have made
the cycle of lives far more interesting than what they came up with.
The Deaths of Ian Stone is a watchable movie and even has a few good
moments, but it isn't particularly special.
5.5/10
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