Faust: Love of the Damned (film)

Faust: Love of the Damned is a 2000 Spanish English-language superhero horror film directed by Brian Yuzna. It is adapted from a screenplay by David Quinn and Miguel Tejada-Flores based on the comic book of the same name by Tim Vigil and David Quinn. It was produced by Ted Chalmers, Carlos, Julio and Antonio Fernández, Bea Morillas, Miguel Torrente and Brian Yuzna. It premiered at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival on 12 October 2000.

The film, which was the first of nine to be produced by Filmax's Fantastic Factory label, won the award for Best Special Effects at the 2000 Catalan International Film Festival in Sitges, Spain.

Plot
Jaspers, an amnesiac wearing metal gauntlets with claw-like blades kills multiple people before being detained by officer Dan Margolies. John almost kills Margolies but stops after the two see Claire, a woman in the shadows who quickly dissappears. Margolies takes John to a psychiatric hospital. While attempting to use musical therapy on him, doctor Jade De Camp observes John staring at a death metal CD. She plays it, driving John into a rage but recovering his memory.

John tuns out to have sold his soul to a man named M to avenge the death of his girlfriend Blue, who had been murdered by gangsters. In exchange for signing a contract, M gave John the gauntlets and supernatural powers. John killed the gangsters, but then learned he had become M's slave and could not break the contract.

Meanwhile, Margolies researches The Hand, M's secret society, which was mentioned by John. At the hospital, John is taken by M's henchmen who drug him and throw him in an empty grave. John is buried alive while M threatens to kidnap Jade. John finds himself in Hell and is attacked by skeletons. After defeating them, John escapes his grave.

Before Jade is taken away by The Hand, John – now transformed into the devil Faust – arrives, killing the men and saving her. A survivor from the attack returns to M's mansion to inform him of what happened, but is seduced and killed by Claire, who is M's wife. Jade returns home after talking with Margolies. John eventually appears there, wanting to protect her from M. The police then enter, hearing her screams. John transforms into Faust and kills them while Jade flees.

Faust corners Jade on a subway and begs her to come with him. The police chief, working for M, also arrives to take Jade. Faust rescues her from the police, cutting a subway train in half in the process. Faust takes her to his old apartment where the two start having sex, but stop when she begins screaming. Jade reveals that she was raped as a child but cannot remember the attacker's face. At M's mansion, the police chief interrupts a meeting to reprimand M for not mentioning John's power. Margolies, hiding in the house, witnesses M kill the chief. M discovers Margolies shortly after.

Allying himself with The Hand, Margolies calls Jade and lures her into M's mansion. M plans to use Jade to lure John for a demonic ritual he intends to conduct. M is betrayed, however, when Claire has his doctor give him a poisoned syringe of medicine. M kills the doctor before collapsing. Claire shoots M in the head with a shotgun and tortures Jade. After Jade becomes corrupted, a still alive M imprisons Claire and prepares for the ritual.

John returns to the bridge where he first met M and has a vision of Jade in danger. He rushes to her aid and crashes the ritual as Faust, but cannot hurt M because of their contract. Defeated, he turns back into John when the traumatized Jade rejects him for M. M proceeds with the ritual, killing Claire and Margolies. A gate to Hell is then opened. M rapes Jade to humiliate John, but her childhood trauma snaps her back to full awareness and she remembers that it was her father who assaulted her. M summons a demon from the gate which proceeds to burn all of his followers to death. Jade knocks M unconscious and frees John, who kills the demon as Faust.

M tortures John, but Jadr offers her firstborn child to him in exchange for John's freedom from their contract and his soul returned. M agrees and burns the contract, but in doing so John loses his powers and his earlier injuries begin to take effect. Jade then reveals that her childhood rape left her unable to conceive. Now free, John stands up and fatally stabs M, but succumbs to his wounds while Jade mourns over his body.

Cast

 * Mark Frost as Jonathan "John" Jaspers / Faust
 * Isabel Brook as Jade de Camp
 * Jennifer Rope as Blue
 * Jeffrey Combs as Lt. Dan Margolies
 * Andrew Divoff as M (Mephistopheles)
 * Mónica Van Campen as Claire

Release
Faust: Love of the Damned premiered at Sitges Film Festival on 12 October 2000. It was released theatrically in late October 2000.

Trimark released it on DVD in 2001, and Mosaic released a DVD in the UK in January 2002. Arrow Video re-released the DVD on 18 April 2011, containing several special features.

Reception
AllMovie's review of the film was mixed: "Check your brain at the door and eat up this grisly eye candy." Jonathan Holland of Variety described it as "entertaining in a voyeuristic way but also as corny, crude and excessive as they come." Gareth Jones of Dread Central rated it 2/5 stars and called it "utter, utter trash" that is a guilty pleasure. Bloody Disgusting rated it 4/5 stars and wrote that it was much better than expected, though cheesy and corny in spots. Patrick Naugle of DVD Verdict called it "low budget horror slop with lots of T&A" of interest mostly to Yuzna fans.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was released through Roadrunner Records and featured songs by heavy metal artists. Machine Head's "Take My Scars" was used as the film's theme song, playing over the film's opening credits. The band's song "The Blood, the Sweat, the Tears" is also featured in the film, but not on the soundtrack. Other songs included in the film but not the soundtrack are "Remanufacture" by Fear Factory, "Lady Bird" by Baby Fox, "Def Beat" by Junkie XL, and "Breed Apart" by Sepultura.


 * Track listing