Reviewed By
Vaughan

Analysis
Based upon the graphical novel by David Quinn and Tim Vigil, Faust brings to life a demon of vengeance in this shadowy and sadistic movie produced and directed by the man behind such horror classics as 'Re-Animator', 'Return of the Living Dead 3' and 'Bride of Re-Animator'. Faust is a ruthless dealer of justice and punishment in a world of victims and criminals with more than a passing resemblance to the 1997 movie conversion of 'Spawn'.

Mark Frost plays the lead character as a tormented man standing on the edge of sanity, when he is offered a chance to hit back at those that have murdered his girlfriend in exchange for his sole, he gives up his body and spirit to the creature they call Faust. Frost does a decent enough job portraying a hell spawned demon and makes the part even more effective with his slightly crossed eye's which make him look truly insane during the scenes within the mental hospital. Yuzna regular Jeffrey Combs makes a secondary appearance as a hard bitten cop who has a near death experience at the hands of the enraged Jaspers (Faust's human form) and is hot on his trail after he escapes. I must admit that Combs' role is a hard pill to swallow with his scrawny frame and geeky persona, he just never convinced me that his role was anything other than a part offered to him by an old friend. Andrew Divoff does himself no favors by portraying a character that is almost identical to The Djinn from his 'Wishmaster' days adding his name against the dictionary explanation of the word typecast. His portrayal of the malevolent M is however effective for this films atmosphere and when paired with Claire, his equally evil and scheming henchwoman played by Spaniard Monica Van Campen, he just melts into the background as everyone (including you ladies, come on admit it) ogles the curvaceous figure of the films female eye candy.

The effects are mainly isolated to Faust's makeup and the various mayhem that ensues as our demon fighter gets busy with his wrist knives that were clearly borrowed from X-Men's Wolverine character (or is that the other way around). The facial makeup during the two stage transformation of Faust is excellent and combined with Frost's wise cracking and frankly insane dialogue delivery, brings the character to life. The other scene definitely worth mentioning whilst talking about makeup is a moment that has to be seen to be believed. I first saw this segment on the fabulous UK Channel 5 show 'Out there' and it features Monica Van Campen as her character has her breasts and buttocks enlarged to ridiculous proportions as part of a punishment by M. She is then somehow reborn from the remaining fleshy pulp in a scene that is beyond bizarre and reminded me a little of the kind of thing David Cronenburg would do.

Key Area	Rating (out of 5)	Comment
Action		Fight scenes are pretty much the order of the day.
Tension		Not as frightening as it should have been given the material.
Violence/ Gore		Some moderate moments of slashing coupled with a few decapitations.
Bare Flesh		Thanks to some very sexy scripting, Monica Van Campen displays her 'upper-level' in a steamy but murderous sequence showing everyone how truly outstanding she is. A female assassin also shows her charms in a see through top whilst giving Faust a good kicking.
Plot		Not a bad story but the execution was just too unremarkable and with the Faust character being a kind of anti-hero, you never really feel that you are rooting for anyone.

Verdict This is a hard one to summarise but it all really comes down to your taste and tolerance for this type of film. It could have been a really good, dark horror film but instead I was left feeling that although certain scenes were extreme (such as the 'ballooning breasts'), the majority gave the appearance that punches had been pulled and limits were not pushed. It's fun in places and the cast mix is interesting at least, but it was like eating a doughnut and finding that the jam is missing.

Movie Pictures (Click picture to enlarge)