Deth is back and he's never even been here before. (Trancers (DVD))

Name: Ailran

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Product:	Trancers (DVD)
Date:	20.05.07 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Script, good main characters, Terminator rip off, fun & enjoyable

Disadvantages: Rips of Terminator, low budget

Trancers

Trancers is one of the few straight to video, B-movies of the mid to late 80’s that still stands tall in my collection (others would include Better Off Dead, Dead Heat and Hell Comes to Frogtown).

Charles Band’s Empire Pictures, and later Full Moon Entertainment, produced an incredible amount of films during that period. Most just falling over that line of bad-but-not-quite-bad-enough-to-be-good but a surprisingly high number being reasonably good, or so bad that they became entertaining to watch.

In fact Charles Band is still going strong, his Full Moon Entertainment still producing straight to DVD titles. They maybe not up to the ‘quality’ of his earlier productions, but then that may be because I’m older, and supposedly wiser, now and don’t quite have that urge to search out the low budget releases I used to. His films include not only the Trancers series but also the horror ‘classics’ Puppetmaster and Subspecies, all series that were not only fun to watch but managed to reach a level of commercial success that made Empire/Full Moon the envy of many a low budget film maker.

The main aim of most b-movie creators, then as well as now, is to take a successful movie and rip it off. Most of the straight to video films of the era aped the science fiction and horror films that were prevalent in that decade, going that little bit further horror wise and slightly crazier sci-fi wise. By following the trends on the big screen the makers could almost guarantee a video shop sale and the shop a built in audience. As a company grows then just their name would reel in the viewer. I dread to think of the number of awful films I’ve seen just because the Full Moon name was on the packaging!

If you have a liking for low budget, well made horror and sci-fi then Charles Band’s name would more often than not lead you to an entertaining 90 minutes escape from real world. Full Moon/Empire could be situated somewhere between the output of Troma (generally idiosyncratic awfulness) and the lower level Hollywood companies.

Anyway after that divergence into the company behind the film it’s about time I got onto Trancers itself.

Trancers is a semi serious take on Terminator and 40’s hard boiled detective movies, mixing the science fiction time travelling of one with the attitude and look of the other.
Tim Thomerson plays Jack Deth, a detective from the future, who hunts down ‘Trancers’, normal looking people who have been taken over by the mind power of a man called Whistler and who become almost zombie like. Deth has recently singed (i.e. killed) Whistler and is now mopping up his surviving ‘weak willed squids’, as he calls them.

Unfortunately somehow or other Whistler not only survived but has also managed to go ‘down the line’ (back in time) to 1984 where he is wiping out the ancestors of the council, rulers of the future. Jack Deth is the only officer whose ancestor can be tracked down, hence he is the one his commanding officer makes go ‘down the line’
Brief explanation: The person going back in time inhabits the body of their ancestor, hence only someone with a documented ancestor in LA at the time Whistler arrived can go back and stop him.

Jack arrives in LA, confused, out of time and searching for someone in a city of hundreds of thousands. He has the names of the other council members ancestors, but that is all he has to help him. Enter Helen Hunt, the beautiful, talented star to be of Twister, Payback and an oscar winner for As Good As It Gets (it may have only been because all her opposition were English and the Americans voted for the only one of their countrymen but she won, and that is what the records will say) as Lena, a one night stand Jack’s ancestor was with and someone who knows their way around ‘ancient’ LA.

What makes this film is a fun, witty script (by Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo) and two knowing performances by the leads. Tim Thomerson is a star who never quite reached the level he deserved while Helen Hunt showed at this early stage that she was a true talent. They work so well together, the chemistry between them is apparent to see all through the film.
The whole film is very tongue in cheek; it is a good mix of the humour, science fiction and detective genres and never overplays any of the styles too much.
Jack Deth is one of those cool, hard-boiled, 1930’s detective types we would all like to be, or at least all admire. He is sort of character that we don’t get to see often enough, a realistic human in extraordinary circumstances.

As a final comment on what an enjoyable film this is it is one of only three films I have on video and DVD, and being what a skinflint I am actually buying a copy of something I have on video is not something I do, even more so when the are no extras on it at all!


Running time: 76 minutes
Directed by: Charles Band
Certificate 15
Available on DVD for less than a fiver!

Summary: One of the best low budget gems from the 80's