Every now and then, a movie comes along that is, on paper, the cinematic equivalent of The Enigma of Amigara Fault – you know, the kind of film that you take one look at and declare it was made for me! And sometimes, it happens to be a thirty-five-year-old TV movie. Let’s talk about Cast a Deadly Spell!
Cast a Deadly Spell is a – okay, deep breath – horror, fantasy, detective, comedy television movie directed by Martin Campbell about a private investigator in 1940s Los Angeles. Who, of course , is called HP Lovecraft (and played Fred Ward, somehow smooth and bedraggled at the same time) and is hired by a shady millionaire (a deft David Warner) to find his missing driver who has absconded with a very important book. So far, so Chandler, especially the character of the rich daughter who fell right out of The Big Sleep but is more warm comic relief than femme fatale, the twist is that in this version of post-War Los Angeles, everyone can use magic. Well, except Lovecraft, who refuses like a moron – at least, that is what his old flame Connie (an almost unfairly captivating Julianne Moore) and his old partner turned crime boss, Harry (Clancy Brown Clancy Browning all over the place) tell him.
What were they smoking at HBO in 1991? I can understand if they were looking for the next Twin Peaks, but Cast a Deadly Spell only really resembles Lynch and Frost’s masterpiece in the way that it expertly merges all of these genres together. This movie ( I wish it had been a proper series but it would have had an audience of one and my stolen Nielsen box would not have worked in Scotland) swings big with these genres, but smartly lets the detective story take the lead. The mystery and lore fit well on a typically labyrinthine plot as we follow Lovecraft to diners were he is nearly demon food, to a potential lead who has actual gremlins in his engine, and a winged demon on his tail. That is a euphemism for following him. I promise.
Cast a Deadly Spell makes little effort to contextualize its world – where the magic came from, when it came into usage, and so on – yet it is so damn entertaining that it does not matter to me in the slightest. It is a Raymond Chandler story mixed with the dying embers of the fantasy craze of eighties cinema and that is all I should need to say to recommend it. A weird fantasy-noir masterpiece, Cast a Deadly Spell was made for me – and hopefully, for you too.
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By Kevin Boyle
By Kevin Boyle
Header Image: Bloody Disgusting
No But Listen 