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A film buff (Breaking Away‘s Dennis Christopher) suffers a schizophrenic break, dressing up like various movie villains on a killing spree, getting revenge on everyone who slighted him. He also pursues a Marilyn Monroe look-alike (Linda Kerridge) who doesn’t realize how dangerous he may be, and evades a sympathetic police investigator (Tim Thomerson).
Fade to Black, written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, falls into a typical slasher film pattern and overstays its welcome by a kill or two. But this low-budget genre fare is elevated by Dennis Christopher’s anguished lead performance. Christopher gives the character enough moments of sympathy to make us worry about him, even as he stalks his victims and vanquishes them. In one of the film’s most striking scenes, Christopher masturbates to a poster of Marilyn Monroe that hangs on his bedroom ceiling, then apologizes to her image afterwards. The film has added appeal for cinephiles, as Christopher’s character works for a film advertising center, features clips from several classic films, and has a climax atop the famous Mann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
With Gwynne Gilford, Norman Burton, Peter Horton, and Mickey Rourke in one of his earliest screen roles.