Review of The Deaths of Ian Stone (2008) by Shawn E — 20 Feb 2008

"The Deaths of Ian Stone" is an interesting, if ultimately frustrating, little horror film. The first half of the film deals with Ian dying over and over, living various different lives, each shorter than the last, as the reason for his many deaths and resurrections slowly reveals itself. Little bits of information as to what this reason is are provided to the viewer with each life, thus avoiding, for the most part, the tedium that could possibly result from this type of storyline.

Once this reason is revealed, however, the film takes a rather confusing turn. A mythology involving a group of supernatural creatures known as harvesters as well as Ian's involvement with them is presented to the viewer that, while ambitious in its creativity, is just not related very well. The storyline at this point becomes very muddled, as the film attempts to juggle a few different things at once. We are given the backgrounds of each of the various characters, who they are, and how they play into Ian's situation, we are given explanations as to the nature of the harvesters themselves, and we are given the reason for Ian's deaths and resurrections, which is, in and of itself, rather convoluted and, at times, contradictory. I don't want to reveal too much here, as one of the main strengths of this film is the mystery surrounding Ian's plight, but I will say that, going by their actions later in the second half, those behind it all appear to do a complete 180 as far as their intentions towards Ian go. I will also reveal that Jenny is supposed to be one of their targets, though you wouldn't know it by their actions. She's unguarded and vulnerable for much of the second half, but, for some reason, she is left alone.

On a positive note, the acting in the film is strong, the characters are interesting, and the look of the harvesters, though not perfect, was quite well done. Even though the end result was a bit of a mess, I appreciated the effort that went into the film, and I enjoyed the originality and unpredictability of the story. Fleshing out the ideas presented in the story a bit more and making the actions of the bad guys more consistent with their perceived intentions would've improved the film greatly, however, in my opinion.