Typically,
horror movies reflect the fears of society, but occasionally they express the
peculiar anxieties of the people who make movies. Seriously, who else would be
worried about obsessive fans whose fandom crosses over to the dark side of
stalkerdom? It happened to Lauren Bacall in The Fan (1981), Morgan
Fairchild in The Seduction, Wesley Snipes in The Fan (1996) and now
it happens to the ridiculously bland object of John Travolta’s adulation in
Limp Bizkit front man Fred Durst’s The Fanatic, which opens this Friday
in New York.
Moose
means well and he fans hard, but he is definitely on the spectrum, so he is
often misunderstood. For reasons we cannot fathom, he is a big fan of Hunter
Dunbar, who made his name as the star of action-driven horror movies.
Unfortunately, Dumb-bar bolts from a signing event to deal with some personal
issues just as Moose was about to have his turn. Of course, the socially clumsy
Moose follows Dunbar out into the street, where he makes a terrible impression.
Wanting to try again, the poor fan turns up at Dunbar’s home, thanks to some of
the tricks of the trade he learned from Leah, a paparazzi friend. Dunbar reacts
even worse than we might expect—and so the cycle of misunderstanding keeps
repeating, making conflict inevitable.
In
all honesty, The Fanatic is pretty mediocre in nearly every way, but
Travolta really goes all in as the Moose. He even has a meltdown worthy of Nic
Cage—and we mean that as a compliment. It is frankly a pretty brave performance
for someone like Travolta, who is probably more used to identifying with Dunbar’s
position. Regardless, he makes Moose acutely human and ultimately quite tragic.
On
the other hand, it is impossible to understand why anyone would be a fan of the
charisma-less Dunbar or Devon Sawa, who plays him almost entirely without any redeeming
attributes. As a result, the weird upshot of The Fanatic is that it makes
us sympathize with stalkers. In fact, Leah the paparazzi (nicely portrayed by
Ana Golja) is probably the film’s most intriguing character, even though it leaves
us wondering how she ever connected with Moose in the first place.
Durst
and co-screenwriter Dave Bekerman rely on a lot of stupid decision-making to
advance the plot, which is definitely problematic. However, cinematographer
Conrad W. Hall gives it an impressively stylish Hollywood Boulevard-by-night look
and vibe. It is nice to know Travolta can still crank it up when he wants to,
but his efforts mostly go for naught here. Not recommended, The Fanatic opens
this Friday (8/30) in New York, at the Cinema Village.
