1993 and 1994 proved to be a very interesting time in the history of Full Moon Entertainment, and not only because the era of Paramount distribution was coming to a close. Full Moon had started in 1989 with a kind of throwback gothic horror vibe, embodied by films like PUPPET MASTER and PUPPET MASTER II, MERIDIAN, and THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM. In Charles Band’s first Video Zone behind-the-scenes feature, he likened Full Moon movies to comic books, planning a future of long-running series and interconnecting characters. By 1994, Full Moon was fully in its comic book era, making essentially hard-edged superhero films, like DOCTOR MORDRID, DOLLMAN, MANDROID, and INVISIBLE: THE CHRONICLES OF BENJAMIN KNIGHT. Even the PUPPET MASTER franchise saw its diminutive stars go from essentially slasher villains to heroes taking on pint-sized demons from another dimension.
DARK ANGEL: THE ASCENT fits perfectly into that mold. It feels like an adaptation of a mid-‘90s Image comic book that doesn’t exist, in the vein of VAMPIRELLA, LADY DEATH or WITCHBLADE. The story follows a young demon woman who flees her home in Hell to escape to the surface world, where she meets and inevitably falls in love with a handsome doctor. She’s seduced by both the beauty of Earth and the sheer amount of depravity, as she begins to hunt down sinners to send their souls to the other side, with the aid of her trusty dog named Hellraiser.
One thing I cannot help but love even though it is surely a coincidence: a feisty young redhead from a world beneath our own is fascinated by the surface, so she flees her overbearing father to come to the upworld, where she meets a dashing, dark-haired, blue-eyed man who she cannot quite communicate with because they are from literally separate worlds. The plot is literally THE LITTLE MERMAID, but she’s from Hell. That alone should be a selling point.
Another thing I can’t help but notice is that depending on the scene, DARK ANGEL looks like either the cheapest or most expensive movie Full Moon ever produced. The little horns and wings are very Spirit Halloween-coded but the wide shot of the Hellscape is legitimately, jaw-droppingly impressive.
I love this movie. I’ve always had a soft-spot for it, and I think it tends to get buried under some of the zanier, more attention-grabbing entries in the Full Moon catalogue when it really is a refreshingly character focused and well-crafted romantic supernatural thriller.