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In a Larry Fessenden movie, everybody is a character and sets the stage for something greater by merely existing. And in Blackout, we get just a glimpse of that. The movie is an unsatisfactory but rather interesting attempt at adapting Fessenden’s audio drama which makes use of the routines of Fessenden’s company, Glass Eye’s Tales from Beyond the Pale radio drama-esque horror series.
In Black Out, the character Charley played by Fessenden is a definition of desperate. It was portrayed in the audio play as a B-movie sketch where Charley prepares himself before transforming into a werewolf. This movie has an underlying plot but the subplots tend to fall flat. The new details incorporated into the sequel Black Out definitely provide a feeling of dread and stand out but they also portray the same emotion that Fessenden fans are used to. Fessenden and his cast did a brilliant job collaborating, but in the end, it does not matter.
Blackout follows the doomed Charley Barrett (portrayed by Alex Hurt), a recently exiled alcoholic who is well liked. Charley happens to be a werewolf. Charley was turned by a soldier in 1942 and now wants to kill himself before he becomes incapable of harming innocent bystanders. He strolls around the town of Talbot Falls completely disoriented while making contact with people he intends to fight, which are mostly people he doesn’t want to have deep convos with. Like well intentioned but nosey pastor Francis, classes John Speredakos, who fakes kindness toward Charley by offering him a lift. Or the grumpy estate billionaire, Jack Hammond, Marshall Bell, whom Charley has been contending with for some time now. There’s also Sharon Hammond, portrayed by Addison Timlin, who happens to be Charley’s ex-wife, Jack’s estranged daughter. She has other partners, expertly cast by Joe Swanberg.
At the same time, police are investigating a series of seemingly unrelated murders. Civic minded cop Alice (Ella Rae Peck) and her skeptical partner, Luis (Joseph Castillo-Midyett), find some animal fur at one of the crime sites. They then go on and have a discussion regarding the German phrase ‘umwelt’ which roughly translates to “self-centered world,” a state in which everyone is trapped in their own individual viewpoints. This standout part of the dialogue performs significant work in helping to reconcile some of the elements of Blackout and also helps to define Fessenden’s ethos as a filmmaker. I would urge that this kind of enterprising dorm room philosophizing was more dominant in Blackout.
What proves to be slightly puzzling is Charley’s aimless trajectory, though it is not too frustrating. If anything, it suffers from the opposite extreme: “Blackout” is not nearly as lo-fi psychedelic and Fessenden-esque macabre as it could be, because Charley does engage in positive conversations, sometimes with people whose company he does enjoy, such as Miguel (Rigo Garay) a family man who is also framed (by Jack) for some of Charley’s crimes, or Earl (Motell Gyn Foster), a talkative recluse who makes silver bullets for Charley (and at his request). Fessenden’s pointed dialogue does not always strike the right note coming out of the mouths of his actors, but it does set the scene for the movie’s best and mostly dialogue-driven shots.
If anything, Blackout is most deficient when it is at its most procedural, competently following Charley during the ever rising, body tally and the incessantly approaching police. Fessenden loves minor roles like the scarcely articulate Pastor Francis, or indeed, the foulmouthed drunk who attempts to fight a poor Mexican migrant Bob (Kevin Corrigan), who slurs Churchill’s speeches while drunk. These characters also stand for Talbot Falls, an archetypal American town which was named after Lon Chaney Jr.’s favorite Universal monster.
If Blackout lacks anything important, it is more umwelt. As for the young boy in the couple’s atmospheric opening scene which devoids the women. Retired couple Clay von Carlowitz and Asta Paredes are real-life partners, actors in the movie undress to have intercourse in the middle of a set. He is playful, yes, but she scoffs and keeps asking if that is his fantasy. By the time we get to the part where they are assaulted, we know enough about these characters to wonder why it will be impossible to know them anymore. That’s obviously impossible, given the fact that their role in Charley’s story is so severely limited.
Even though Fessenden’s rationale for his supporting characters might not always work well, it is easy to understand why he appreciates them. The creature he produces looks and sounds good, but like most of Fessenden’s works, it is not particularly good. If anything, Blackout is afflicted by the well known reputation of its director, who is known for more experimental and whimsical works. Fessenden’s latest has a lot to recommend, but not enough to fully satisfy.
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