Full Eclipse
Full Eclipse is a 1993 science fiction crime film directed by Anthony Hickox. Starring Mario Van Peebles and Bruce Payne, the story is set in Los Angeles where the police department has assembled a unique squad of officers who possess the ability to turn into werewolves. The tagline of the film was: There's a new police force on the streets... and they only come out at night.
| Full Eclipse | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Sci-Fi Crime Horror |
| Written by | Richard Christian Matheson Michael Reaves |
| Directed by | Anthony Hickox |
| Starring | Mario Van Peebles Patsy Kensit Bruce Payne Anthony John Denison Jason Beghe Paula Marshall Victoria Rowell |
| Theme music composer | Gary Chang |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | David R. Ginsburg Richard Christian Matheson (co-executive producer) |
| Producer(s) | Peter Abrams Robert L. Levy Norman Marcus (associate producer) Tom Patricia (co-producer) Lee Rafner (line producer) |
| Production location(s) | Los Angeles |
| Cinematography | Sandi Sissel |
| Editor(s) | Peter Amundson |
| Running time | 93 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Citadel Entertainment HBO Pictures Tapestry Films |
| Distributor | HBO |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Original release |
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Plot
Max Dire is a Los Angeles detective who is feeling the strain that his profession entails when his wife of two years, Liza, accuses him of bringing his work home and leaves him to ponder her future, while his partner, Jim Sheldon, commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. Realising that Max is experiencing problems, Adam Garou, a high-ranking officer distinguished by his success in reducing crime in other big cities, invites Max to join him at his apartment for a weekly meeting with other police officers who are experiencing difficulties. Adam advises Max that since he is a good detective and he should try to solve his problems rather than quitting the force.
Although Max is skeptical as to whether he will derive any benefit from the meeting, as he and his wife had already attended counselling sessions without success, he reluctantly attends the meeting where he meets other police officers such as Casey Spencer and Ramon Perez. Everyone who Max meets at the meeting praises the impact that Garou's influence has had on their fortunes. Max soon realizes that the activities of the group also entail embarking on vigilante missions to clean the streets of criminals.
Max initially tells Garou that he is not interested in joining the group, but agrees to accompany them to a party where criminals are exchanging weapons. Before gatecrashing the party, Max notices that each of the group members injects themselves with a strange chemical, which he learns has been produced by Garou. After they have injected this chemical, Garou and his team become more powerful and seemingly impervious to injury. The next day Max attempts to advise his incredulous boss of the strange goings on, but to no avail.
He visits Casey Spencer who tries to persuade him to inject himself with the chemical. When he refuses, she shoots him. As Max lies dying on the floor, she injects him with the chemical and he is instantly healed. They sleep with each other and, afterwards, injecting themselves and raid a criminal lair after. As Max and Casey easy dispatch the criminals, they sprout long claws from their knuckles, and grow sharp teeth. One of the criminals escapes and informs his crime boss what he saw. He is given instructions to deal with Garou.
Garou learns of Casey's sexual encounter with Max and angrily advises her that he is 'top dog' before raping her. Afterwards, Garou and his group, including Max, gather together for another night of attacking the criminals. After injecting themselves with Garou's chemical, the officers enter a vehicle to depart. The vehicle explodes as the key is turned in the ignition. As the remnants of the vehicle burn, the criminal who had been instructed to kill Garou is horrified to see that all of the officers have survived and that they are in their monster-like state. The dead bodies of the criminal and his associates are dropped from a helicopter through the glass ceiling of the crime boss' home.
The same night, Max meets a deformed ex-police officer in a holding cell. He tells Max that he knows Garou and they used to work together. Garou has worked in numerous cities, and after the streets are cleaned of crime, all of the officers who work with him were killed (though he had escaped). He also explained that his deformity was caused by overuse of the chemical. Garou kills the officer to silence him and Max covers for him, but his suspicions are aroused and he begins to conduct some research into Garou.
After making a startling discovery, he sneaks into Garou's apartment and finds Garou extracting the chemical from his own brain with a syringe. Max advises Garou that he realizes that he is a werewolf. Conflict ensues and although Max and Casey escape from Garou's apartment, the latter is fatally injured. The next day Garou prepares to complete his final operation and Max resolves to stop him. After Garou has killed all of the criminals, including the aforementioned crime boss, Max shoots him with a silver bullet and Garou falls to the ground. Thinking that Garou is dead, Max turns away. However, Garou, who informed Max previously that a full eclipse protects him from everything (including silver), reappears behind him. A full eclipse had passed overhead as these events took place. He then turns into an extremely large werewolf, losing his human form entirely.
Max flees as the other members of Garou's group are killed. Garou tries to kill Max, but the latter injects Garou with a solution of silver nitrate. As the eclipse is over, this kills Garou. Before he dies Garou returns to his human form and tells Max that if he lies in his blood he can take his power. In the finale, Max is shown to have moved to Denver with his wife Anna and their relationship seems to have improved. She is shown cutting her finger with a knife as she is chopping up food. Max licks her finger and then leaves to undertake some paperwork. She notices that her cut heals immediately and stares after Max bewildered. Meanwhile, Max is shown looking up on a computer the dates of coming eclipses in different American cities.
Cast
- Mario Van Peebles as Max Dire
- Patsy Kensit as Casey Spencer
- Bruce Payne as Adam Garou
- Anthony John Denison as Jim Sheldon
- Jason Beghe as Doug Crane
- Paula Marshall as Liza
- John Verea as Ramon Perez
- Dean Norris as Fleming
- Willie C. Carpenter as Ron Edmunds
- Victoria Rowell as Anna Dire
- Scott Paulin as Teague
- Mel Winkler as Stratton
- Joseph Culp as Detective Tom Davies
Reception
The film has received mixed to positive reviews. Kim Newman, who reviewed the film for Empire magazine, described it as "harebrained fun with lotsa guns and lotsa cool lines".[1] Joseph Savitski, who reviewed the film for Beyond Hollywood, stated that "Payne is masterful as Detective Garou, a seductive and evil villain with arrogance and confidence to spare. When he's on-screen, Payne demands the attention of the audience, and you're hard pressed to resist his performance. Payne is also the perfect adversary, the kind you're supposed to hate, but who has the charisma to draw you in nonetheless".[2] The script writer Richard Christian Matheson stated that "most monsters have a sort of grudge against humanity, but I don't think Garou does: he simply dislikes crime. That makes him interesting, and Bruce really brings all of these nuances out. He's a wonderful actor and a very bright man".[3] Matty Budrewicz of UK Horror Scene stated that Payne's performance was 'completely electric..., unleashing a turn of magnetic and seductive evil'.[4]
References
- Newman, Kim. "Full Eclipse". Empire. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
- Savitski, Joseph (5 September 2004). "Full Eclipse (1993) Movie Review". BeyondHollywood.com. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2011.
- Matheson, Richard Christian. "Full Eclipse: Full Moon Fever: Police Lycanthropy". Fangoria. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
- Budrewicz, Matty (26 April 2014). "COPS AND WEREWOLVES: A FULL ECLIPSE retrospective with director Anthony Hickox". UK Horror Scene. Retrieved 29 April 2014.
External links
- Full Eclipse on IMDb