Charles Band films are an acquired taste. People tend to love them or hate them. I’m one of the few who can go either way. When I see his name on a movie, I’m prepared to give the film a shot, but I don’t expect much out of it. That said, “Decadent Evil” did surprise me.
This film is a vampire tale with a creepy homunculus named Marvin thrown in for effect. Marvin used to be human and the former lover of the vampire Morella (Debra Mayer), who caught him cheating on her and changed him into a stiff puppet she keeps in a cage to torment at will. Marvin has a son named Ivan (Phil Fondacaro) who is out to kill Morella because he believes the vampire killed his dad. Imagine Ivan’s surprise when he comes across his daddy in the cage.
There’s more to the plot, but it doesn’t really matter as it all gets lost in the usual Band madness of nudity, cliched dialogue, mediocre special effects and bad acting. When it comes to the aforementioned acting, however, nobody in the cast is as horrible as Jill Michelle, the good girl vampire stripper named Sugar. She delivers her lines with all the passion of a rock and seems to have one facial expression throughout the film.
Despite these complaints, “Decadent Evil” was still rather compelling. I know it sounds odd, but I was mildly curious to see how it all ended. And the fact that the movie moves at a pretty good pace only helped it. Clocking in at just over an hour was a godsend and a good move on Band’s part, too. Had it gone on any longer it would’ve meant more scenes with Sugar, her easily-persuaded boyfriend Dex (Daniel Lennox) and the puppet Marvin. There is only so much torture one can take.
If you are looking for an entertaining film that doesn’t ask for much, there are worse ones out there. On the other hand, there are plenty of other films to watch that are far superior to this, and Band has made some of them, too.
