Main cast: Andrea Zirio (Father Abraham Fallen), Ortensia Fioravanti (Sarah Fallen), Fabio Tarditi (Thomas), and Daniel McVicar (The Grand Master)
Director: Nicolo Fumero
Fallen is quite a bait and switch, in that it promises to be one thing, based on the official teaser, only to end up being something, well, completely unexpected.
Supposedly, if one believes the teaser, the world is engulfed in the Darkness. Satan’s forces are here! Only, clearly because of budget limitations, I get to hear all of this through conversations and other forms of exposition. The whole movie takes place mostly in a single setting: what looks like an abandoned, unfinished construction hastily refurbished for the purpose of this movie. There’s even daylight in many scenes, so I can only wonder where this Darkness is. Perhaps it’s metaphorical? Who knows.
Father Abraham Fallen is charged by the Grand Master, boss of the secret elite operatives that everyone knows the church has, to counter this Darkness. So that means he holes up in that place with his wheelchair-bound daughter Sarah and one earnest lad Thomas that helps Abraham do various household chores because our hero is too busy being a mean drunk. I suppose he’s waiting for the demons to come find him? What, these demons have nothing better to do, like taking over the world for Satan?
Whatever, really, the plot of this movie is barely there; it’s just an excuse for these guys to hole up in this place so that there is a movie to be made at the end of the day.
Wow, Abraham Fallen is one of the most unlikable main characters I’ve come across in a while. This guy treats everyone, including his own daughter, like dirt and staggers scene from scene being a bad-tempered drunk. He’s not even particularly competent, which makes me wonder why he is even chosen for this task in the first place. Perhaps the Grand Master just wanted him out of everyone else’s way?
Eventually, in the later parts of the movie, it turns into a daughter-father angst movie which sees Sarah rightfully lashing out at her father for being such an utter piece of dung. It is quite cathartic to see her do that, because up to that point, Abraham has doing remotely useful or likable to justify him being such a constant mean drunk. Then I learn what he did to his late wife, and oh my goodness, if this guy were to be a priest, Satan is welcome to this world.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that Fallen is a bewildering mess. What is it about, exactly? The premise makes little sense, and the movie progresses in a non-chronological manner that only makes everything seem more pretentious and muddled. there is hardly any payoff to the whole Darkness angle, and really, this movie is one big bore of a waste of time. Really, what is the point of this movie? Is there some kind of political or economic turmoil in Italy that necessitate the making of this turd as a means to facilitate money laundering?
