Watching the detectives 4

After Southern Comfort, The Right Stuff, Remo Williams, and Tremors, Fred Ward was the blokeyest of bloke actors. His various bids for Hollywood actioner stardom didn't really work out (as they did for Bruce Willis), but he made some very cult-worthy attempts. Martin Campbell’s neglected classic, CAST A DEADLY SPELL (1991), sees Fred portray H.P. Lovecraft as a private eye in a post-noir fantasy L.A. Tough, savvy ex-cop Phil Lovecraft firmly rejects all magic, but the city witches teach dancing, a blonde heiress hunts a unicorn, there’s blood rain at sunset, and the Dunwich club singer is played by Julianne Moore. Lovecraft is hired by a wealthy widower (David Warner) to find a rare book. His sleuthing search for the Necronomicon finds slapstick zombies everywhere. Giving ‘runes’ conjures up a monster from a cooking pot. Our heroic shamus is attacked by a stony gargoyle but saved by the femme fatale. Clancy Brown plays a slickly nasty gangster intending human sacrifice: “Any idea how hard it is to find a virgin in Hollywood?” Great slimy Old Ones return with a genre-breaking burst of midnight earthquakes. An enjoyable TV-movie that's great to see again, CADS creates a solidly witty blend of Chinatown and Ghostbusters that pre-dates popular Buffy spin-off Angel, and might have influenced The Dresden Files (2007). The Spanish DVD has English sound.