The Deaths of Ian Stone

'The 8 Films to Die For' Series....don't you wish they were better? I do. Granted, I've probably seen less than half....but I've yet to see one that really impressed me. Some of them are better than others, and some of them have good concepts that unfortunately lose steam half way through. I'd have to place Ian Stone in that latter category.

The film starts out interestingly - we have Ian Stone (Mike Vogel) whose life is cut short when he's attacked by something very dark and scary on his way home from a hockey game.

After being brutally attacked (and killed, we assume) he suddenly wakes up at his desk at work....and isn't that blond woman at his office the woman that was just his girlfriend when he was playing hockey? Then Ian goes home to a different woman (played by the terrific Jamie Murray) who he's definitely involved with now. The mystery grows as Ian tries to recount his glory days playing hockey by showing her his yearbook - only the person in the team picture wearing Ian's number isn't Ian at all...

Ian tries to figure out why he's having memories that don't appear to have actually happened to him....and just when I was really starting to get into the story, a mysterious creepy man shows up with all kinds of warnings for Ian that he's about to be killed, and that he has been killed before.....in fact, every day for a long time - and then he starts a new life over.

Instead of just letting the story unfold, and letting Ian (and the audience) unravel this mystery slowly, the movie proceeds to spill out the whole story about halfway through. Leaving a) no mystery left at all, and therefore b) not much else that can happen beyond a whole lot of killing Ian a few more times and some running and screaming. And oh yeah, Mr. Mysterious Man tells Ian exactly who he is and what he has to do to fix everything.

And that's pretty much it. Except that it goes on about an hour and a half. The CGI effects become annoying, and I didn't even really care too much about the outcome once the mystery had been taken away.

I'll continue to watch more of the '8 Films' series - but my expectations are pretty low at this point.

High point of the DVD -the extras (which were the webisodes from the Miss After Dark HorrorFest 2007 contest). More fun than the movie and a lot more suspenseful.

-Mother Firefly