Dark Angel: The Ascent

1994 Directed by Linda Hassani

Horror Marathon 2024 Day 11 Film 23

Another Full Moon Production- this one feels like most of the budget was spent on a boisterous intro scene. We're a circle of hell- the commandment to torture landlords and bankers with "zeal and imagination." Men are chained together, whipped, and burnt with tongues ripped off. It's all some spectacle and brimstone. One of the fledgling demons has visions of the world above! blasphemy!!! Cheeezy as fuck. Her family of demons prays at dinner -Amen.

Veronica Iscariot is played by Angela Featherstone as this zealot with a clear moral code to cleanse mankind. The special effects of her crappy demon wings and skirt are thankfully done away with once she reaches the plane of Earth. Featherstone's characterization is pretty muted- more like some alien staring off into the abyss of each soul with her vibrant blue eyes. There's just enough naive presence and boisterous bible thumping here to make it laughable. Sins are punished in extreme ways like other 90s anti-heroes.

Sadly there aren't more kills that garner the special effects this title deserves with severed bodies strung up like we're in the movie Seven. It even includes the old testament morality to destroy all sinners, but told from the protagonist as a dark angel it's all done for God's purpose (complete with visions of angels that float like bubbles from the world of Oz). It's almost too charming in its plotting, eventually having some off kilter forced romantic scenes with some silly gore sequences. She never really has any antagonist to fight her outside of some goofy policemen. It simply loses the feeling of any high stakes while it should concern humanity's fate.