Part of Dead By Dawn Festival

Some films are such an obvious labour of love; where the heart and soul of its creator is laid bare on screen.  Accidental Exorcist is one such film.  Writer/ director Daniel Falicki is present for the screening and is a delightful ball of enthusiasm, ADHD mannerisms, and wandering, tangential anecdotes.  Sadly, we’re left wishing wistfully that the film is better than it is.

It’s a premise with real potential.  Richard Vanuk (Falicki himself) has the ability to exorcise the demons from the poor souls they’ve possessed.  He receives these assignments from an unseen ‘agent’ whose sources of information remain mysterious.  Inevitably, these frequent encounters with the forces of darkness have eroded Vanuk’s physical and mental health.  Like a jaded film noir gumshoe, he’s pickled in alcohol and struggling to pay his rent. It’s possible he may have to even suffer the indignity of an office job.

Apparently, the character of Vanuk was supposed to be played by an older, more grizzled actor, until Falicki was forced to step in at the beginning of filming due to some wrangling with the Screen Actors Guild.  What changes necessitated we can guess at, but it looks as if the more humorous aspects of the script were amplified.  This would certain seem in keeping with Falicki’s character.  Vanuk is world-weary, cynical, caustic and appears relatively unafraid when dealing with his ‘clients’.

The establishment of Vanuck’s world is nicely done. The visuals looked as bleached and sallow as Vanuck’s hollow cheeks; a world devoid of joy.  For a while, it’s a lot of fun to wade in this squalor, watching Vanick go about his business.  However, it isn’t long before the story slips into an endless cycle of exorcism, alcoholic obliteration, and arguments with his landlord.  It rather meanders to no real conclusion and as a result it becomes something of a slog.  This is despite the best efforts of Falicki and some very decent effects achieved on its small budgets.

More could have been made of the relative lack of threat the demons seem to possess.  Although each is draining for Vanuck, we never often feel as if he’s in genuine peril.  If there was a cumulative effect on him perhaps; a larger plan at work, and the soul the demonic forces wanted to harvest was his, there would be more of a dramatic impetus.  As it stands, apart from a brief moment of real human connection, there is no feeling of character development, or a clear arc.

It might be that the last-minute changes required a substantial reworking of the story, but as it stands Accidental Exorcist rather fizzles out. It feels like a missed opportunity.