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The Vagarant (1992) - Chris Walas

This ugly, straight to cinemax, black horror comedy. Stars Bill Paxton and Michael Ironside in mediocre performances. This was really hard for me to find. During the time of this review, I had not seen the movie since I was thirteen or so. I was really young. I remember a lot from it. Some images have danced through my mind for the past fifteen years or so. I would search for it online and come up with nothing. Then BAM! right out of nowhere it pops up on YouTube and came out on Blu Ray in August. Wow.

The Vagarant features Paxton as a jerk, yuppie that becomes obsessed with a strange homeless man that constantly invades his home. Almost instantly bad things start happening. People start turning up dead and Paxton is the lead perpetrator. He has no case when it turns out that he is a sleep walker and now apparently sleep killer. Michael Ironside does his usual heavy man work. No problems there. The movie is hokey and silly. Too silly at some points. It should stop that. However, the movie has a unique storyline that sort of draws interest.

The movie is poorly made but on the high side of poorly. The scary scenes are actually really creepy and some of the comedy scenes are funny. This is just one of those highly predictable movies. You know whats coming at every turn. For once I would like to see a movie with believable dialogue. Most of the effects are stylized and exaggerated. The homeless guy in this movie looks extra crispy and covered in some sort of slime. Just look at the art direction! Contrary to the movie poster this is not a movie about a leprechaun.

I thought that this movie was... Okay. It has blood and guts. It shows mutilated body parts and showcases a serial killer at play. That's all fine and good. The underlying plot isn't horrid. It's just incredibly cheap and predictable. The parody of the middle American yuppy life aspect saves it a lot but not much. Be wary that it might get boring. I think I loved watching it for the nostalgia factor. 

  • The SWAT raid scene took three days and 1500 bullet hits to set up. All of which were fired in less than one minute, resulting in less than 10 seconds of on-screen time. 
  • Shot in 45 days.  
  • Richard Jefferies based the character of the Vagrant on an actual homeless person who lived in a vacant field located across from a guest house Jefferies was residing at in Studio City, California at the time. Moreover, the script Jefferies wrote took almost ten years to finally be made into a film. 


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