Reflections of Evil (2002) User Reviews

A film like no other !!!!

[NateManD · 7/10 · 11 June 2005]

I recently found a copy of Damon Packard's "Reflections of Evil" on DVD at my local record store. This version runs 90 minutes, I guess the original was over 2 Hours. Anyways I thought the film worked perfectly on a 90 minute running time, because it's literally non stop massive insanity. Acid lovers be warned. The director will probably never make a film again, because of all the celebrities he sent thousands of copies to. The film is post dubbed, so all the dialog sounds very surreal and funny, especially some of the voices that are sped up. Anyways, the plot of the story concerns Bob, an overweight watch salesman who aimlessly roams the dirty streets of L.A, trying to sell watches to people when he's not cursing them out. The beginning of the film we see his sister, almost in a dream like sequence. The intro feels like an ode to filmmakers Jean Rollin and Jess Franco. Then we are treated to psychedelic color filters and street bums and drug addicts galore. A dark nightmarish underbelly of L.A is exposed to the viewer. Bob never has luck selling the watches, and his mom gets on him about his weight. He loves sugar and is constantly consuming sweets. One scene he's seen shoving his face with Mcdonald's food, an obvious critique on American consumerism. Yelling obscenities in front of Miss Congeniality posters, and falling head first on to the pavement over and over. Then the film goes into a 70's flashback. Bob goes to Universal studios with his mom and sister, his sister witnesses a cocky young Steven Spielsburg directing, before overdosing on PCP. Throughout the film he is haunted by images of his dead sister, she's returned to warn him about his eating problem. The universal studios turns into hell where people are forced to ride amusement rides over and over till they repeatedly fall and splat on the pavement. Images of chaos are thrown at the viewer full force, symbolism of of a 911 world, where chemicals affect the insanity of L.A's population. There's not much else I can say to describe "Reflections of Evil". Damon Packard is definitely an artist, maybe ahead of his time. In the history of cinema there have been directors like Bunuel and Jodorowsky, who have shown viewers what they don't want to see, but need to see. Packard definitely has the early shock element that was part of surrealism in cinema. Reflections of evil is funny and frightening in it's excess. It takes the viewer on a chaotic roller-coaster ride (literally) and doesn't stop till it falls head first. In other words I loved it!

Odd and interesting low-budget flick

[DJJOEINC · 7/10 · 27 May 2007]

Reflections of Evil- a mesmerizing & disjointed journey that follows a frustrated and mentally disturbed watchseller ply his trade in LA.This movie will not be for everybody- but it hooked me from the beginning- the sound editing is off kilter but perfect for the dementia of the lead character.This film was made on a shoestring- most of the shots were stolen on the streets of LA and @ Universal Studios.At times the movie felt like a 70s horror flick mixed with a 60s acid trip with random bumfights thrown in-bizarre stuff like a Klaus Kinski ride at an amusement park and the ominpresent Miss Congeniality posters in the background of homeless folks struggling to survive. B+

Jesus Christ

[saint_brett · 5/10 · 9 February 2024]

A Pollock Trust Fund presents "Reflections of Evil.' It sounds like an offshore account to dodge the IRS.

An old looking Tony Curtis introduces the movie, and for some reason, Perfect Sleeper Serta commercials are inserted into the movie, baked fresh from the late 1960s.

Julie, whoever she is, escapes from a psych ward, or the 60s themselves, and isn't conditioned to 1970.

Now what in the hell is the horrible dubbed audio?

Um, Chris Farley walks down the street unmedicated and swearing like a drunken sailor as two old couples are watching commercial-laden TV. Out of sync leather recliner delayed noises don't match when one of them raises to go spy on Farley, who's causing a ruckus outside.

A truck in another commercial for 'White Line Fever' literally bursts onto the scene, or screen, unannounced as Farley continues to stumble down the road agitated.

Betty Crocker ready to spread Frosting Chocolate is sliced into the movie by Tyler Durden.

I'm rewinding all that again as it's completely gone over my head, and I even neglected to mention there was 'Psycho' music interlaced amongst it all with a shopping commercial ad as Irene, whoever she is, carrying on like she's in 'Natural Born Killers.' (If Irene was armed, I think we'd have another mall shooting on our hands, judging by that expression on her dial.)

Is this really an official movie release? What am I actually watching here?

I've never seen anything like this before and been caught off-guard.

Farley pukes his guts up or out and vomits about ten gallons of Bush's Beans and Offal.

Um, let's see a show of hands. Who loves the F word?

Stabilize, movie! Can we get some stability on set, please? Stand down, movie! Stop that now! The movie needs some sort of traffic cop to control the out-of-hand situation.

This movie is making me feel like I'm five all over again and in a swimming pool with no arm floaties. I'm all lost at sea and on my own with this one.

Farley walks around Hollywood hocking stolen property, and everyone he encounters swears at him and becomes aggressive. This reminds me of Henry Rolling's walking down the street and bumping into everyone he meets.

Even Elvis gets in on the act and shucks and jives.

The devil from 'Natural Born Killers' hijacks some of the actors voices. That reminds me of those spaghetti karate movies with dubbed over English I watch.

Fentanyl wasn't around in '75, so I don't know what I can put all this bizarre behavior down to. Is leaky radiation exposure possible? The movie hints later on about jets dropping that white acid salt cloud onto us. Don't give me that crap that it's a coolant to drop the temperatures of the plane's engines.

One junkie's head spontaneously combusts. A pigeon chirps like a baby chicken.

This can't have been filmed in '75 because 'Miss Congeniality' is on a billboard.

I just checked the phone, and it claims this movie was released in 2002. But my DVD description says 1975.

You know what this is, don't ya? It's the 'Falling Down' gone postal extreme edition meets 'Class of Nuke 'Em High.'

Why is the sound so loud? And what are all those disgusting noises here and there?

This guy's like Del Griffith's brother, only he's not selling shower curtain rings.

How come no one has ever told me about this movie before?

Farley hops on a bus, and I'm praying Phoenix's Joker is sharing the same ride. What a hoot that'd be!

You know what this is, don't ya? A movie made by and for the Skid Row tent people.

The apartment Farley squats in comes equipped with a fridge full of food, and I especially love the Bush's Spam Escargot or the meatballs topped with moss. I think I'll pass on the plate of raw slugs though.

My aunt Marlene should have been in this movie. She'd fit right in.

What did the lady at the start of the movie have to do with any of this?

Did that half-eaten hamburger with the ultra-raw pickled onion really just move on its own and split open?

This isn't a movie with second or third acts; it's just one homeless man's day-to-day struggle to hustle stolen junk.

If this were Europe, they'd be selling magazines, not stolen watches.

Farley wanders aimlessly from one scenario to another.

The snowflakes of today will find offense at the off-duty cop scene and the Universal ride scene at the end, which mocks Auschwitz.

I can hear Karen Carpenter's voice, and I doubt they had permission to use it.

Just like the 'Jaws,' 'Star Wars,' and 'ET' copyrighted material they've inserted. I highly doubt Steven Spielberg agreed to his cameo at the end as well.

The movie loses its way at the 56-minute mark with this Universal Studios skit.

Where'd Farley go?

And who are all these other hippie weirdos?

The Farley madness was on course for a 10/10 rating, but it's turned into this other weird mellow nonsense with Flower People. Why has this been inserted?

The movie suddenly advocates for drug use, and all that pill popping and weed do is induce patterns and colors in a heightened state of astral travel. It's the cheaters method, not real OBEs.

I don't know what any of this means.

It's turned into a scrapbook full of an assortment of different additives not connected to the Farley bum.

I enjoyed the hard-hitting nature at the start with all the aggression, but it's turned bizarre and stupider.

Enter the dragon again, or Farley in this case, and now they've stolen 'Full Metal Jacket' material, and what comes to mind about this scene is that Canadian guy Jon Lajoie and his "I Kill People" song. He wouldn't have gone astray in this scene to add to the mix of madness.

1982's 'White Dog' makes a cameo, as do hundreds of other aggressive beasts attacking Farley, whose only counter is to swear at them.

All this swearing and aggression, yet no one's throwing down any actual action.

Someone just fell out of the sky for no reason and perished.

I'm surprised I didn't make an appearance in this movie, as I had a man making throat-slitting gestures at me on Hollywood and Bronson while cursing me out at the top of his lungs.

It's like they just filmed random people in the street like it's 'Candid Camera,' or something.

I think if you want to educate yourself about American culture, then study this movie.

And I believe this movie is like a handbook guide where umps, pitchers, and catchers learn their trade when losing their cool and confronting each other nose to nose.

Why won't this end, though?

It's worn out its welcome and still going some two hours later. I get the point already.

This movie needs medication to stabilize its unbalanced brain receptors, as they're all wired wrong.

Is this what it's like in the minds of those zombies from Kensington, Philadelphia?

I'm almost afraid to ask, but why does IMDb claim that there's a part two on its website called 'The Next Day?' Dear Lord, no! No way in hell, man. Not on my watch. My God, say it ain't so, Joe.

My God.

I'm out.

Excellent, unmissable, ambitious, uncompromising, controversial....

[FilmFlaneur · 9 July 2003]

Financed by a private trust fund, lasting well over 2 hours, written, directed, starring, and largely distributed by Damon Packard, Reflections of Evil is one of the more interesting independent features to emerge from America in the last few years. An unrelenting assault on American consumerism in general and Hollywood in particular, it also manages to have a go at such targets as the Bush administration, Vietnam vets, police, the chemtrails controversy, redneck TV viewers and dog lovers. 'Introduced' and tail-ended by a coiffeured Tony Curtis obviously speaking elsewhere (key passages of which are patently re-edited and overdubbed to apply to the new film), Reflections of Evil is punctuated throughout by other 'found footage' - notably that which insistently advertise tacky 70's goods or promotes the ABC Movie of the Week.

Packard plays Bob, the overweight hero of his film. His bemused and oppressed character dresses in multiple layers, favours baggy pants, and lugs round a baggy hold-all from which clothes hang down. Headphones and radios drape in a clutter round his neck. He survives by tramping the streets of LA, selling - eventually giving - watches to anyone who will listen to an apologetic sales pitch, although he never succeeds in making any profit from his enterprise. Aptly, given the sweet-coated culture of so much of the film's scorn, Bob is addicted to sugar. Repeatedly punctuated by irrational rage and displays of self loathing, his business patrols also include excessive consumption of cakes and candy - which, in an early moment worthy of John Waters, leads to a spectacular vomiting on the sidewalk. Back home, or at a restaurant, the 400 pound Bob is upbraided by his mother for being so weak-willed and disgusting, and the two constantly bicker. Interspersed with Bob's unsteady progress, is the vision of a woman (who, we later learn, is his dead sister) wandering the streets, then a studio, looking anxious in a pink negligee. The two will finally be reunited at Universal studios.

Some have complained that Reflections of Evil is a disorganised, hard to understand film. In fact it has quite a simple structure, one in which episodes from Bob's perambulations, an extended flashback to his childhood in the 70's, and an hallucinatory drugs dream are neatly headed up by repeated, ironic, announcements of the threatened ABC movie. Inevitably a film of this sort can seem self-indulgent. But Packard has some prime targets to shoot at, and the occasional longeur (the Universal studio park footage and Bob's viewing of the latest Star Wars instalment could both have been profitably trimmed, for example) can be forgiven. He obviously has a weakness for the continental horror of the 1970's. The dreamy scenes featuring Bob's sister look as if they could have slipped out of any Jean Rollin erotic vampire flic, and one of his equally excellent shorter films (also on the DVD) lovingly imitates an extended 70's erotic horror trailer. Reflection of Evil easily incorporates those elements, as well as being a most unlikely candidate for ABC's 'movie of the week' then or now (Packard has sarcastically distributed it with the words 'joy' and 'love' as a selling point).

For an independent, low budget film, it's a relatively sophisticated production with multiple set ups, excellent sound editing and none of those long-held scenes familiar from Warhol's 'Factory' or other underground films. Sound plays an important part in Packard's world, and several reviewers have commented on how deliberately intrusive this element is. He frequently favours SF epics like The Omega Man, Planet of the Apes, ET and Star Wars for source extracts, and their music plays out serenely between the raucous dialogue scenes. (Charlton Heston was one of the bemused recipients of the DVD.) Scenes of confrontation, alienation and of impotent rage are common in Packard's film, but he manipulates these moments so that they have a tragi-comedy of their own, both disturbing and hilarious at the same time. Victim and cultural commentator at the same time, the director's unfocussed howls of impotent outrage are easily associated with by the audience. In this context, post-synching, often the bane of independent productions, is conspicuous. Packard makes a virtue of this handicap, as his supporting characters are frequently dubbed with ludicrous voices and accents, while Bob's own conspicuous consumption of junk food is marked by excessive munching and farting. There are some scenes which stay long in the memory: Bob's public rants while standing next to a succession of Miss Congeniality film posters, for instance, or the long sequence in which a series of owners set their dogs on him in the street. The hilarious scene in the diner when he tries to sneak mouthfuls of food from under his mother's watchful eye; the redneck couple observing an unsteady hero from their window ('He's drunk on those liqueur chocolates again!') or the crazed negros, ranting in the street, one suddenly pulling a knife.

The obese Bob, harmlessly proffering his watches, is a threatened small-time entrepreneur, although his dishevelled state also suggests vagrancy. There's a neat corollary when we learn that in life the director has personally distributed 22,500 DVD copies of his only feature, including some 8,000 on the street by hand, although it can now be had online. (Amusing accounts of reactions garnered, from willing and unwilling recipients of this artistic persistence, can be found at the official website). No doubt those who pick up Packard's unforgettable work, only to be outraged by its scathing attack on complacency, will have been affected exactly in the way the director intended, as his film is a sure kick to the groin of much of Hollywood's - and the media's - self-satisfaction. As if in official confirmation from this, the director has now been given a lifetime ban from Universal Studios (not on the basis of the amusing Spielberg-directing satire that appears in the film, but as a result of him shooting unofficially on their lot!). For those with an open mind, Reflections of Evil is unmissable personal project, and a sure cult in the making.

One of the most intellectually challenging films in a long time!

[x-stierna · 8/10 · 10 March 2003]

Reflections Of Evil is without doubt one of the most intellectually challenging and demanding films I've seen since the golden days of the underground scene in 1960-70. I can agree with the opinion that it does come down very hard on the viewer, but as demanding as it is it's also refreshingly relieved from all the Hollywood main stream production values that has been the obvious and only choice for much to long. Personally I'm quite fed up with all that, and I strongly recommend everyone who feels the same way to take a good look at Damon Packards film.

As difficult as it might seem to be for an average viewer to agree with the narrative style, it's well worth the effort to put up with it. On the other hand, if you are at all familiar with the work of Bunuel, Kenneth Anger, Morrissey, productions from "The Factory" and overall experimental film making as such, you will probably find the use of overdubed sounds and the visual compositions as an effective audiovisual exclamation to the very quintessence of the various ideas.

This aggressive and abusive in-your-face tale of an over consuming, over developed and high speed accelerating culture bursting in it's own gloating can be very hard to accept, and I can understand why the main stream viewer have serious problems with the daring and provoking approach of this film.

But It's not a question whether you like it or not, that's hardly the point. The point is that it truly is a most remarkable piece of work, and probably more related to experimental, over expressive and self dissective art form culture than anything else.

Either way it is indeed impossible to ignore a film like Reflections Of Evil, and if you are at all interested in what's happening on the true alternative scene of independent film making today it definitely is a must see. For all you others, take a refreshing holiday from Hollywood with Damon Packard as your tour guide and host. I personally guarantee you a unique film experience!

Reflections on Reflections of evil

[SchmollywoodBabylon · 9/10 · 14 September 2003]

I think it´s a pure masterpiece of art. Really. I have the deepest respect for this kind of filmmaking.

It´s not horror. It´s not splatter. It´s satire. The best satire I´ve seen in years.

I wrote this just have seeing it the first time:

"Reflections on reflections - Damon Packard, genius or just insane?

One sunny afternoon a strange spam-mail dropped into my mailbox. I first thought had to do with a project I was working with, but I soon realized that this was something completely different. It was about Damon Packard´s epic movie about a man called Bob and his trip through the streets of LA: Reflections of evil.

Damon wanted to give me a copy for free and I mailed him at once. I needed to see this flick. And after studying the very cryptic official page I was going mad. I MUST SEE THIS MOVIE!

I´ve never been so curious about something like I was this time. When I haven´t received a copy in almost one week and really felt sick. I wasn´t myself. I wanted to hear the mailman drop the package in my mailbox.

My angst disappeared on Friday morning. The mailman had a present for me. A dvd from Damon Packard!

A friend of mine got a copy the day before and said that this was very strange, so I just manage to keep away from the movie for a couple of hours. This was something special, and I didn´t want to see it at once. But what the f**k!

This is the story of a slightly tragic salesman. Or is he really tragic? Roaming the streets of LA, furious and clearly out of his mind. It´s like a roadmovie, but inside the heart of tinseltown. The city of happiness and madness. It´s not only about tinseltown, it´s about the american society, the fury of the people. This is the country that never sleeps and never seems to get some rest. People are furious and sad, confused and obsessed. Some reviewer said it made him think about Apocalypse Now - and I agree. This is the ultimate inner travel I´ve seen in many years.

Slowly the city around Bob is turning very weird. The hate comes out and the paranoia is over us. Helicopters is watching everything, cops are everywhere and people are just insane.

During the time the Bob is attacked by homeless people and dogs we´re turning back in time, till 1971. Bob, his mother and older sister is visiting Universal Studios and taking the tour. After his sister disappears and get´s involved with weird sect that makes her one of them. She dies of an overdose (I think). No she want´s to save Bob from the hell he´s in, from beyond the grave.

Let me say one thing, this is a movie that´s helluva hard to describe. The best way to understand what I mean, is to see it. Go get a copy goddammit.

Packard have shot the movie on 16mm, super8 and Digital8 on a very low budget. But this don´t mean it looks like crap, because it dosen´t. Packard and his cameraman is clearly very talented and the jumping from documentary dogme-style to classic dolly-shots are marvelous and works very well. The light is most of the time very tight and moody. Some people seem to be disturbed by the strange and noise soundtrack. But I don´t. Everything seems to be dubbed afterwards and it makes the feeling of the movie more surreal.

I know, I´m being hypnotized by this flick. I can´t help it. It had something that spoke to me very clearly. Maybe was it the inspiration from J. Kennedy Tools novel Confederacy of Dunce's or the surreal and unconventional storytelling? You´re pulled into Bob's strange mind and all the people he meet. And it´s impossible to stop.

Packard goes from very cheap physical humor to Woody Allen-esqe dialogues, from Jess Franco and Jean Rollin to Herzog and Fassbinder. The inspiration clearly comes from the movies from the sixties and seventies and it works well.

Does Packard want to tell us something with this movie? Maybe I´m very wrong, but I think so. This is a story about a country falling apart. About people who dosen´t trust the system and the constant `big brother' watching over them. The fear of that somewhere there´s a couple of fat men in expensive suites that makes all the decisions of the country's future.

Packard seems to have a love-hate relation to America, Los Angeles and the entertainment industry. Universal Studios become the symbol of the cultural decay of the world and when it almost literary turns into living hell at the end, it becomes clearer. There´s only Damon Packard to make E.T. a terrifying experience. E.T. - the symbol for peace and happiness, cute children and the moral people.

Probably some of you are just calling this movie crap. Some of you will just throw it in the garbage (don´t) and some people, like me, will love it. Adore it.

Give Packard a movie contract and some money, let him do whatever he want. He deserves it.

(and, yes...Damon isn´t insane. He´s a genius)

/Fred"

hello there, how are you?

[xaing9 · 7/10 · 21 January 2004]

I found this movie on here (IMDB) by sheer accident and went ahead and bought it, because I suppose I am impulsive. And also because I thought it sounded odd. And I like odd crap. I guess. Anyways, I watched it and I pretty much liked it. It is indeed odd. I guess my favorite parts are the first 20 minutes and the Spielberg segment. I like how the big, fat guy falls on the pavemnt a lot for no particular reason. It's Great! -Thomas Hasselbach II

Weird and random

[MartianOctocretr5 · 2/10 · 21 May 2007]

I've heard of going outside the lines. This bizarre film goes outside the known universe.

The whole thing plays out like a psychotic episode. In washed out cheap film, we witness a sick obese man who wears many layers of clothing like he's homeless, (but he's not) suffering from a life threatening eating disorder making him eat like he's always feeling starved, who wanders around Hollywood, peddles watches, yelling at anybody he sees. He hobbles around like a beached whale, and frequently cracks his skull on the pavement. He's middle aged, but still lives with his nagging mother. Are we to laugh at him? Pity him? Hate him? Who knows?

Whereas an art house director partially assembles a jig saw puzzle for you and gives you the remaining pieces to figure out the meaning, this director just takes the jig saw pieces and throws them all over the place, landing anywhere they might, some lost forever. The "non-structure" structure is taken too far, and becomes a nuisance. It was actually entertaining to see old footage of some vintage 1971 TV programming, and I wonder how he found all this stuff. It jumps on to the screen at spasmodic intervals. The obese guy's late sister pops in occasionally going OD with hippies or dancing around in an angel dress. Vignettes mock Steven Spielberg and Universal Studios. The director makes a caricature of himself as the deranged obese guy. There is some attempt to attack the movie industry, and bash people who just vacantly stare at whatever is on TV; an apathetic couple watches the Movie of the Week (in 1971) while outside their house, the heavy guy (in 2002 ?!?!) yells and pukes.

Nothing fits together. How all this relates to the eating disorder or the hippies and drug overdose victim is anybody's guess. A lot of it looks like a couple of guys with cameras wandered through Hollywood, and filmed anything they saw: helicopters, birds, posters advertising a Sandra Bullock movie, and mentally ill people. Apparently the film was meant to say something about disturbed people and their eccentric behavior, but does it mean-spiritedly and poorly. The value of viewing this is solely for the curious novelty of how odd it is. Nothing more.

You Had A Sugar Overdose On The E.T. Ride

[essdubyacee · 8/10 · 26 February 2005]

Go to any big city and you'll encounter scores of wacked-out individuals wandering around, conversing angrily with no one in particular, watch this film and you may get some inkling of just what the hell is going on in these poor soul's minds. Reflections of Evil is essentially a "day in the life" of one such man as he navigates the gauntlet of his private hell. The manner in which director, producer and main character: Damon Packard achieves this can be best described as "experimental" you have never seen anything quite like this. There is no sense in even attempting to catalogue the many unconventional devices used, satirizing Universal Studios with the depiction of a "Shindler's List ride" is hysterical, and they just go on and on. Reflections of Evil will be hard to swallow for many, but if you appreciate, daring or even reckless film-making that goes where mainstream film doesn't dare and makes no apologies, this film will not disappoint

Reflections of Evil-yecch!

[mhh1964usa · 2/10 · 11 February 2005]

I was handed this DVD by a fellow filmmaker, whose comment was: "The scene where the guy gets drunk on liquor filled candies is hilarious".

That idea might have been funnier if Damon was remotely watch-able. A movie that seemed like it was 3 hours long because of it's tedium, and it's over the top annoying lead, had me fast-forwarding through the whole thing.

It seemed like this guy was obsessed with 70's kitsch and offensive Jewish stereotypes for no other reason than to say 'hey, my parent's paid for this film...look at me everyone!."

The film wandered and went nowhere. The stock footage, fake stock footage and over-use of bad commercials reminded me of a bad student film.

If this is the future of film making: I'll take a book.

I'm speechless

[somesunnyday · 10/10 · 9 February 2011]

I'm not going to attempt to explain the plot. Plot is really irrelevant when describing this film. It's an experience, an inexplicable dark feeling just below the surface of consciousness. The thoughts and actions of the main protagonist, although on the surface seem odd, are strangely logical and coherent in the bizarre environment in which he inhabits. The streets are recognisable as L.A. but light, sounds and characters he comes into contact with are surreal. It's a perpetual state of dusk all the time and something sinister is brewing beneath the surface. The main character's strange idiosyncratic behaviour somehow fits in with his environment and as a result seems normal, like the strange happenings in a dream that seem perfectly logical at the time until you wake up and realise their incongruity.

I'm not sure exactly the message or meaning Damon Packard is trying to communicate and I don't really care. All I know is, I dig it...

Challenging to sit through all in one go, but worthy...

[the_raven7 · 4/10 · 25 May 2003]

There's been a huge cinematic backlash against Gee-Dubyah-Bee's "war of stupidity"... errr... I mean "war on terrorism" in the past couple of years, led by "Bowling for Columbine" and other like-minded docos. Of course there's nothing more appealing than watching the little man stick it to Uncle Sam, but this little curiosity does it in such a way as to leave its audience dazed and confused, and is a fictional account (supposedly) to boot.

Unable to peddle his watches on the pavement, a fat, middle-aged little-boy-lost (in all the worst senses of that phrase!!) tries to scratch out a living in a world that has all but forgotten him and glossed over atrocities of the past. No one is interested, and when he attempts to give away his merchandise he is almost killed for his philanthropy. (Strangely, art seems to imitate life here, as this is also the story of the distribution of this film - apart from a couple of screenings to a small handful of paying customers at underground festivals, it has been peddled by its director/star, Damon Packard, to an exceedingly disinterested world, and is now being given away free to any and all takers (how I received my copy - I'm a sucker for free stuff!!), receiving various terse responses.) His whining mother all but disowns him over an eating disorder and he wanders the streets trying to avoid altercations with police, dogs, hollywood mainstream pap, guns, the memory of Vietnam, racism... actually the list of themes here is so large it amounts to a state of paranoia almost unparalleled in cinema history.

There's a subplot in which his sister runs through high-rise estates and theme-parks, looking like a reject from a Rollin or Argento flick and suffering from PCP flashbacks. Steven Spielberg (not the man himself of course, but a rather convincing(ish) actor) even makes an appearance at one point, early in his career, and comes across as a demented hack; which, of course we all, lovingly, know him to be... :)

Very little cohesive narrative is evident throughout and, in true b-movie tradition, all dialogue has been dubbed in post-production... badly. What begins as a mildly irritating whine however soon becomes a grating annoyance whenever anyone opens their mouth or even moves. Some of the sound is completely overdone to point up the comedy (some nice Edith Massey-esque gross-out moments for instance), but other times it just gets in the way of the film - the foley "artists" must have had a field day with the creepy THX surround sound capabilities!! Picture quality makes it look like a reject 70s drive-in flick, and indeed there are some moments where that is appropriate (like the welcome splicing of clips from ABC specials, the gloriously lurid intro and outro sequences with Tony Curtis, s****y trailers and the "Golden Guru" flashback), however the majority is just plain hard to look at. There is, however some great "geurilla news" style editing late in the piece and a warped journey that looks like the cameraman was handed a night-vision camera, some lysergic and told "just follow me", as the director/star battles his way through roller-coasters, big screen Hollywood misadventures and even Schindler's List: The Ride!! in his search for self-fulfilment.

The film's publicity states that it is "something to bring JOY and LOVE and HAPPINESS... in a time of apathy and dysphoric gloom...," but really only seems to become the thing that it hates most in its apparent anger at "issues". Film ends up feeling like a personal rant from a director who has "potential" (as can be evidenced by the genre stylings in the scant previews/special features), but is still a great wee piece of (post-post-??)modern exploitation that deserves to be seen by those of us who like their films a little (or even a lot) off-centre and not spoonfed.

"What On Earth Is Going On Out There?!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 19 July 2021]

If you've ever asked the question, "What the hell did I just watch?!", prepare to ask it again. REFLECTIONS OF EVIL is definitely NOT for everyone. Some, might even say that it's not for anyone!

An absurdist nightmare caught on film, the casual, raised-on-Hollywood viewer will rip their eyeballs out over this one!

Writer / Director / Actor, Damon Packard plays the immense asthmatic named Bob, who resembles a cross between an overstuffed laundry bag and a shabbily-dressed Christmas tree.

We follow Bob on his various urban adventures, as he encounters a vast array of interesting, sometimes violent characters. All, while the ghostly Julie (Nicole Vanderhoff) attempts to break through to his plane of existence.

Or, something like that.

The disjointed, disorienting dialogue is, well, disquieting. It, along with the beyond-bonkers imagery, exists in some alternate, schizophrenic universe. Bob's life and mission are fittingly incomprehensible.

EXHIBIT A: The tour of the set of THE OMEGA MAN. This is sheer, crackpot brilliance!

EXHIBIT B: The tie-in with Steven Spielberg's filming of SOMETHING EVIL is genuinely bizarre, and ultimately hilarious!

EXHIBIT C: The Golden Guru segment is a gem! Hippies have never shone so bright!

Packard takes horror in an entirely new direction that's both inspired and insane. Watch Skid Row come alive! Suburban, pet dogs attack! Helicopters everywhere!

Through it all, Bob marches on.

Nothing can possibly prepare you for the utterly berserk, Universal Studios finale! It's alarming, disturbing, and VERY funny!

Imagine taking handfuls of mind altering substances while traveling through time and other dimensions. Here's your chance! Don't blow it!...

A masterpiece

[julief82 · 10/10 · 17 January 2020]

For the sake of objectivity I will state upfront that this movie is one that a viewer will either love or hate, to be sure. What is it about? That is nearly impossible to explain, and the thousand words permitted here would not be nearly adequate for summation, so I won't even bother trying. If you're curious enough you'll just have to watch it yourself to find out, if you dare. It's a challenging film for many reasons, but it's worth it.

it is very rare to find a movie that is not boring...

[theosvj · 10/10 · 9 November 2005]

I have stopped watching commercial movies since 2000 more or less. I got tired of repetitive patterns, clichés and "twists" that dominate most contemporary film making. Yet when I first accidentally entered a screen showing Packard's work, I was blown away forever! It felt like there was still life on earth. Some people somewhere on the planet still making honest cinema. The experience was so intense That I didn't manage to see all of it.I had to get out for a breath. a few scenes were more than enough to rearrange my brain structure and gain courage and hope for my own artwork. a bold effort to give form and shape to abstract thinking/emotions/feelings , an effort to achieve what cannot be told, what most fear to accept. Packard is a modern age hero, I revisit his work frequently and show it to my students. I recommend the film to everyone with knowledge of cinema history.

Grade-A garbage

[chrisbender-14532 · 1/10 · 31 March 2020]

I can typically appreciate a low budget bizarre freakshow, but this movie is so aweful, I'm amazed I could sit through the entire 2 hours. I felt nothing but nausea and headache from these characters. So if you're into vomiting, a lack of story, bad sound editing, randomness and bad direction, then this movie is for you.

I cant get it out of my head

[bpatrick-2 · 10/10 · 28 January 2007]

It's one of those things that causes me to laugh out loud at any time on any given day. It has infected me. I will never be the same. Of all the movies I have seen this one has affected me the most. I'll never listen to the carpenters in the same way. Whoever Damon Packard is I want to thank you for making a film that continues to entertain me on a daily basis. The world has changed. Night Gallery has got nothing on you. I want to put this film on every car windshield in every church, schoolyard and agency in town. I wish it were something that could actually air on TV but... We all know that is not going to happen anytime soon. I'm not sure if its the fact I grew up in L.A. and know almost every location this was filmed or I'm a glutton for punishment but I don't mind this film at all. In fact the E.T. ride is one of my favorite filmed sequences of all time.

A Rare Film of Singular Brilliance.

[mdgarmager · 10/10 · 13 December 2009]

Film maker Damon Packard is an enigma. Or, at least he is to me. I have tried to figure him out, get into his mind, understand his intentions... Is he a serious artist, or is he just screwing with our minds? Is he really obsessed with the actors, directors, producers, and films that he showcases and borrows from in his work? Does Damon Packard even exist? I think he does, though it is hard to believe that a man, who may just be the Orson Wells of this generation, is a living breathing mortal human being.

I have seen 4 or 5 Damon Packard films, each one a good film, meriting at least one viewing. But, it's Reflections of Evil that affected me the most. I have watched it in its entirety twice and I am convinced that it may be one of the greatest films of all time. Yes, you read that right.

How does one gauge a film's greatness? Is it the cinematography, directing, acting, sound score, set design? Yes, all of those things, or just one of those things, if executed in a superlative fashion, can make a film that belongs among the pantheon of great film art. Reflections of Evil has all of the components that make a great film. However, on these merits alone, the film would be nothing more than a mildly amusing curiosity. What fires Reflections of Evil into the stratosphere and beyond is its ability to entertain and fascinate the viewer completely and utterly. There isn't a single frame of this film that doesn't mystify and dazzle. It is so "out there", so hilarious, so entertaining, and so evocative. It's a cosmic, mind-blowing, out-of-body, magical experience, and it's not to be missed!

Please do yourself a favor and purchase a copy directly from Mr. Packard. He'd appreciate it. He deserves the audience and the money.

www.damonpackard.com

OH MY GOD!!!

[menapace1 · 1 June 2003]

I watched the whole movie. Not a lot of people can say that. This has to be the most obscure, most inscrutable, and downright strangest movie I have ever seen. The DVD also comes with Packard's previous work, but for God's sake don't look at that!!!

A masterpiece unlike anything you will ever see!

[udar55 · 10/10 · 26 July 2009]

The plot in a nutshell - Julie (Nicole Vanderhoff) dies of a PCP overdose in the 1970s following a trip to Universal Studios. Her soul then wanders Los Angeles looking for Bob (writer-director Damon Packard), her younger brother who is now a crazy 35-year-old street urchin who is dying from his addiction to sugar. Sounds simple right? Well, that is like telling someone the plot to TETSUO is about a guy who inserts a metal pipe into his leg and gets hit by a car. This is a full blown surreal nightmare and probably the closest anyone has come to translating schizophrenia to film. Packard frames the film as if it is an ABC Movie of the Week and (in the uncut form) works in all of his copy-written obsessions including E.T., Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, John Ashcroft, one of the new STAR WARS flicks and even THE DEVIL'S RAIN. Packard uses a variety of elements (8mm, 16mm, digital) to convey all this and it works perfectly. The scene set in Universal's E.T. rides is really insane (have I used that enough) and Packard's unauthorized filming apparently got him banned from Universal for life. There are tons of seemingly unscripted confrontations on the street and I'd say Packard's biggest accomplishment is that you can't tell what is real or fake in this film. Featuring an intro by a dubbed Tony Curtis and Sage Stallone as Dan August (!).

Amazing

[plstly · 9/10 · 30 June 2007]

"Reflections of Evil" is quite a roller coaster ride, particularly when it reaches the summits of it's twisty, winding course. I for one will never forget the scene in which a nasty cop harasses the main character (played by director Damon Packard). As for Packard's willingness to let dogs actually attack him like he was a side of beef, well if that isn't suffering for your art then I don't know what is.

Also amusing and kind of subversive is how they ducked shooting permits to film in theme park rides. The actors perform among real patrons who are waiting in line unaware they're now participating in a movie.

This is a raw, dreamy/nightmarish film that's certainly a unique experience to watch. I won't soon forget it.

A rare bit of Pure Genius

[catdaddy21870 · 10/10 · 17 November 2007]

How often can a writer...a poet...a painter or musician bring to there mind's foreground the very essence of the demons that haunt them? Often enough, I suppose, but to bring those nightmares to life through their chosen medium, and then to express them to an audience is, in my view, rarely accomplished. Now, as if that wasn't enough, imagine the work of art in film form, and imagine it's content forcing you to hold your sides from tearing open with laughter whilst your simultaneously lead down the main characters bleak and tormented life.

Damon Packard is a true artist. A Genius. A master of the craft of storytelling and film making. He is fearless frame by frame, from the opening titles to the end credits. This film should win an Academy Award and be taught in film school. SEE THIS FILM, BUY IT IF YOU HAVE TO!!!!! It's one of the most important films of our times.

Sincerely Steven Spielberg Director

BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR

[ngwttintl · 10/10 · 29 May 2003]

I will not write a complete summary because I'm terrible at such things. This film felt very important when I viewed it. Humor and terror are balanced brilliantly from beginning to end. When the film began I thought 'there's no way this could keep it's pacing until the end.' I was wrong, it does, and it also takes you into unpredictable territories along the way. Damon Packard is very in tune with

what makes films so great. I was told when someone gave me a dvd of this film that Packard funded the entire project with a trust fund of some sort. Money well spent!!!! There is no way anybody in Hollywood would touch subject matter as awesome as this. One would have to fund it completely independently. I can't wait to see his next film.

Beyond Good or Evil

[tylerrabbit · 18 January 2005]

** contains a minor spoiler i guess** Reflections of evil transcends ordinary descriptives like 'bad' or 'good. I can't express the magnitude of this film. It reflects the postmodern condition so perfectly. It contains the entire range of human existence and then some. Hypnotic, epic, hilarious, moving, thought provoking, artistic: everything a great movie should be. The fact that it was shot on low grade stock effectively drives home the eerie 1970's movie of the week feeling which permeates and holds together this masterpiece. I heard the original edit was like 6 hours or something outrageous; I'd watch it any day... I tend to disagree with those who feel this is an all out attack on Hollywood and mass consumption. These elements are in the movie but it's because Packard is a true artist and an artist portrays her/his environment. Reflections Of Evil isn't a commentary it's a reflection of the world through a very personal yet somehow universal mirror. I don't think the filmmaker dislikes Spielberg or Lucas, he's obviously an o- g Star Wars fan. My favorite part is the "on the set of something evil" segment with young Spielberg. This part is probably the funniest s*** ever recorded by a mechanical device, (not because it's making fun of Spielberg, which it isn't really, he's almost an incidental character) but because it's pure chaos and absurdity. Packard's tenacity and spirit give us hope in a time when we need it most.

Destined to be remembered

[knele · 9/10 · 5 June 2008]

That's right. One day, when all the drivel that currently preoccupies so-called movie fans has passed into the obscurity it deserves, "Reflections of Evil" will still have a life. Weird kids -- i.e., future artists -- will turn to it for inspiration. Scholars -- those few that exist -- will study it for the insight it provides into hyper-paranoiac America at the turn of the 21st century. Steven Spielberg should count his lucky stars that "Reflections of Evil" exists. Without it, he'd have no legacy whatsoever. But because he was satirized by Damon Packard (who's weirdly a Spielberg admirer), future generations will know him as the corporate shill he was, churning out movie after movie that told his contemporaries absolutely nothing about the times in which they lived, and becoming a billionaire in the process. Spielberg is the Thomas Kinkade of circa-2000 film-making, and Damon Packard the Heironymus Bosch. Alas, he doesn't know it, but the limited intelligentsia of the future will.