
As a child born in the 80s, my sentiments as an adult have exposed me to plenty of different movies and that has inevitably made me wish for more images of Charles Band, more than that the images I saw encouraged my creative sparks. I would later find myself performing fantasy deposits at the rental stores. Finding myself doing great efforts to encompass imaginary images that are neither in the grasp of reality nor really visualized.
That also goes deep into my childhood, often trips to my local video store Jumbo Video before Blockbuster left me with a wild imagination after coming across VHS cases of Re-Animator, Subspecies, and so many more B movie classics. The covers and the strong appeal urged me on with such demand I simply began to picture and dream up builds and plots around these outrageous covers. Upon later visiting rental shops, I would also unwittingly rent widely revered films like RoboWars, or Arena owing to their production origins.
I was deeply pleased, however, to read the interview conducted with Charles Band by our own Jay Creepy. See the link to the interview here (From An Empire to the Moon: A Severed Cinema Interview with Charles Band). Thus, let us start with a review of the latest movie Charles Band Quadrant, made in 2024.
A contemporary female figure embarks upon a voyage across a murky cyber version of London. One dominates a boat cabin, inside the boat cabin there is a battered girl who is apparently resting on the bloodied mattress with her skull bashed in. A knife is handed to the girl by a killer, the girl cackles and receives the knife in a cruel manner.
In the outside world, Erin is brought back by the headset by two scientists, Meg and Harry. They have a lot of questions concerning her stay in the Quadrant. Were there any hateful feelings directed to anything in there? No. Rather. Amazingly, she is the first one who has experienced such a feeling. Erin claims that it was quite arousing to be in the Quadrant.
Erin’s fascination for Jack the Ripper was to such an extent that, according to Meg, she is scarred deeply by the very picture. But she did not feel fear when she was in the heart of it. Unlike the Quadrant, this was unique. Even when Jack the Ripper was next to her.
Harry however has to remind her that in the case of the Quadrant, it is only your thoughts that are projected.
‘Erin, you are going to remove your fear today by facing them,’ Meg and Harry say to the subject. ‘You will burn them.’ But Erin does not wish to face them; she wishes to indulge in them. She wants to enjoy the situation, not to get rid of it.
Carswithe took her guinea pig money and donated some of it to a poor and starving musician.
On the other side of the scene are Meg and Harry who ponder on the use of the Quadrant for assisting people psychologically as opposed to letting them have fun out of it. It is undoubtedly an interesting argument to have these days in the field of cinema. Is the cinema art or the movie itself a medium of someone’s artistic expression effortlessly free of any moral restraints? Should a cinema audience utilize it for their fantasies in privacy, or should it be utilized to justify their fantasies and their outlook towards the world, pushing their tendencies to the world?
Erin is also introduced to Robert. A new young male character who is not only looking for the Quadrant to get rid of his fears but also makes Erin take him to an attractive place her residence which happens to be close to a graveyard. The walls of her room are adorned with photographs of Jack the Ripper and his victims and images from the 1880s helping his nerves none at all.
Robert has an anxious talk regarding the inability to manage the fright, and the dismay over swallowing the pills responsible for managing his receptiveness regarding the Quadrant. He notices the vision of Erin, who morphs into a demon. When he wakes up and sees the blood has splattered on his face, it had all been a virtual reality experiment. Nightmares changed into a bloody face.
Erin pledges to go into the world alongside him and liberate him from the fears that haunt him She enters in disguise as Jack the Ripper and begins seducing a prostitute. She was handed the knife by Jack inside the Quadrant. This is followed after she converted the prostitute woman’s blouse into a kissing cloth. She stabs the young whore fleshy and graphically to death. In the midst of wearing a VR headset, she feels very ecstatic.
Erin swaps in with the starving girl wannabe musician on the street shortly after.
One of the which has the backdrop of a portrait of one of Jack’s victims, who resembles the hooker, located right behind the hooker’s head. The whore brandishes a switchblade and claims that is her surprise for any moron who tries to mess with her.
Erin levels up her Ripper fantasy by actually gratification Her hooker is stabbed in blood lust. You can see blood all over the place. Excellent! A very effective movie moment.
Meg is seen becoming tipsy from the alcohol back in the Quadrant lab. Meanwhile, Meg seems to have some crossover issues too in terms of her fantasy vs. reality experiences. She knows it could be dangerous in the Quadrant.
Erin, on the other hand, explains to her coward of a boyfriend, Robert, that there is no value in having Harry and Meg for help, as he only runs away from the challenges that lie within him. He urges him to be brave and cover him in a carpet before their sexual activities. Well, that works quite often!
Robert and Erin both agree to assist each other. She slashes and bashes monsters who come for Robert as she enjoys doing so while being in a terrifying place known as the Quadrant. Hand in glove. And while doing this, their aim is to ‘ignore’ Meg and Harry, for they are not helping them in any way.
In the lab, Harry asks Robert if he took his meds in order to get ready for the Quadrant. He replies rather ill-mannered that “Not today”. Robert fits the VR helmet. Robert sees women screaming like banshees followed by zombies advocating them in the woods. This time, Robert is very brave! They cut those evil beings into chunks of meat, all bloodied up, in a vegetative state. Absolutely stunning graphics!
Robert emerges back from the Quadrant, triumphant and out of breath like he just had a Herculean ejaculation. Harry immediately gives all credit to the therapy of the quadrant. Not so fast there buddy. Robert explains that the offer to go all the way with a testimonial interview about Quadrant’s psychological healing attributes is not for him today. During the fight, Robert felt resentment that Erin was more helpful to him in the fight than he was seen in the reflection of his projected nightmare.
Which scenario brings more relief? Is it getting the feel of a hero portrayed in movies because of psychopathic courage which is a form of healing or experiencing sheer terror and ‘making it through’ which is considered healing? Or does it leave one paralyzed to make real changes in the real world because of the fake accomplishment or closure? What type of therapy renders more benefits?
Robert bows out. It’s Erin’s turn in the Q again. She is back in those misty streets of London as a deranged Jack the Ripper stalking Robert. In the imaginary situation, Erin leads Robert to lure a hooker so she can run her through with a knife from behind.
Meg stops the program because she is not getting benefitted from it but rather it is exciting her.
Meg tells Erin that playing the system like a game has its consequences; she should do things the right way. Erin is fearless. Meg expects her to leave Robert alone so they can continue the Quadrant treatments without distraction.
Meg is telling Robert that Erin is quite volatile, there is something hidden there, first, she seems to have been ‘worked’ on in the Quadrant and now Meg is saying she might need mild restraints because she may have a very violent outburst. This appears to be Harry’s warning about her possibly going berserk if not calmed down the right way. It seems a Venice-style clash between Meg and Erin is on the cards.
While Robert is in a drug-induced extended session to keep the effects of Quadrant active outside the lab, he sees Erin hurling insults at a ‘prostitute’. He hears a prostitute scream. Would such a thing happen in real life? Or only in Robert’s mind, so to speak.
Harry is saying that I know it may still work on Robert in order to cure him, but Rob is not so sure. Harry hints that it worked once in the past (suggesting Meg!). Don’t get too close to Erin, Harry cautions Robert. The reason for the concentration was that he promised to see her that evening. Unfortunate!
Rob and Erin argue over a dead person that they both killed in the Quadrant. She says it was instinctual. Rob did not have such instincts. Erin turning to Robert asks “Do you forth help me in getting rid of the corpse?”
The first test was easy: we’ve beaten the providers’ scouting block in the quadrant. But now Meg has a brain freeze and gets as far as one of the blockade breaches. Therefore, Erin gets eliminated from the shooting sequence. Liz is believed to be on one of her wild spy missions again. Certainly, the voices are becoming concerning and realistically there were always voices in Liz’s head in season 2. How many times did she shout over the whole division ‘There are voices, there are brian flies surrounding me’ Come on, it’s reasonable why Steven’s mind is so scrambled.
The upshot is that it is no longer dependent upon English speakers. If I needed to speak step by step in such low complexity to foreigners, I wouldn’t do this, as it teaches patience one step at a time, and learning feels tedious. The only extra work now is watching Erin’s video from our side all the way to the end, and while Erin can theoretically do much more in a shorter timeframe… Getting into that flow can be annoying.
More time has already passed since the announcement of the post since I started typing it out while thinking to finish the post first. It is worth noting that I really liked how Shannon Barnes portrayed the character of Erin. The switch between various strong emotions, especially psychopathic ones, came across incredibly naturally and effectively. This level of character presentation is remarkable and entirely believable. Kudos to Shannon Barnes.
Geezer: The beef between Elizabeth Shannon, and Trina is not only factual, but Karen is also learning these truths for the first time. It becomes apparent that the two girls are struggling for the position of the best girl ‘watch for as they are treated in other seasons and how to continue on and return to their drug on her approach Karan and asks to take them now.’ Sounds clear enough.
Robert touched me, the one played by Christian Carrigan, he seemed sweet and had that 80s innocent flair. He is a shy young man who embarks on a turbulent love affair with a forceful girl. She is drawn to him for his insecurities. She is drawn to him for his internal strength. It was believable, for the outrageous premise.
The two Quadrant doctors also appealed to me but mostly Meg was supposed to appear more threatening, although she was portrayed as somewhat cured it is a difficult thread to sew. But fine performance still.
I appreciated the implementation of the idea. The effort to agora ‘supernaturalize virtual reality,’ appears to be a sub-genre unto itself, as does the use of superpsychologiztion and volumetric metaphor. Another such movie would be Videoverse (Cassex, 2021). Thus, yet another Full Moon Feature and yet again a movie that is recommended. And Aimee: The Visitor (2023) from last year. It would be a great triple bill.
I also quite enjoyed the gruesome graphics and monsters. Very pleasing to the eye and the suicide sequences were very VR but emotionally charged by the performers playing both victims and assailants.
What I also enjoyed about the film was its short run time. I recall older horror flicks, particularly White Zombie, having this short run time which, when coupled with a good and thrilling action plus scenarios where dread is quite anticipated, shortened that long second half of the film where it feels like adding too much irrelevant details in order to tie some b or c or d character plots or to move to other plots which in quite a number of films, quite frankly, is where the biggest downfall of the films tend to be.
Quadrant Downers:
Charles Band movies never rank among the high budgets and music type of movies but I felt more effort to the song might actually elevate the production quite more.
I guess the faceoff at the end could have been more intense given Meg’s hypothetical history. More, more of those would have helped. Somewhat of a minor downer.
In the end, I loved the sharp focus of this movie and the story of Erin’s twisted obsession with Jack the Ripper was relatively comprehensible. The motivations and the conclusions were expected but interesting and satisfying. On behalf of Severed Cinema, I urge you all to watch Quadrant right now. Old Leather Apron is waiting for you in the Quadrant to relieve you of your fears. Have fun!
For More Movies Like – Quadrant – Visit on 123Movies