INQUISITION

Produced by Jason Santo
Directed by CC Chapman
Written by Garth Franklin
Edited by Steve Sherrick
Director of Photography - April Cresey.

Daniel Faust - Dan Gorgone
Jessica Hawthorne - Cassie Ross
Travis Krieger - Steve Sherrick

I've written this review 4 times already. Each one nothing more than a pale impression of the last, none even beginning to capture the essence of CC Chapman's INQUISITION. His personal journey into religion and murder is the most interesting examination of what it means to take another life that I've seen in a long, long time.

INQUISITION captures an eternity inside of 30 minutes. The battle between good and evil has raged since the dawn of time. Light and darkness vai for supremacy while man sits trapped in the middle, caught in the twilight world of his existence. Sometimes, not often, man is used as confrontational marionettes enacting the will of the gods.

Whatever your beliefs, spiritual or not, you cannot deny the two halves of the coin: right and wrong. INQUISITION blurs the lines between the two with moral ambiguity and creates and unsettling examination of life on the dark side.

Travis Krieger is a killer, and the most wanted man in country. The name alone causes parents to lock doors and women to walk in pairs after dark. Every slice of his knife is a hedonistic eruption of pain from a monster believing he works on the side of right.

What people don't know is that Travis has been trying to complete events started centuries ago. Events grounded in the both testaments of Jesus Christ, and possibly even one of the largest mass-murders in history, the Inquisition.

While out on a blind date, Daniel and Jessica are stalked and abducted by Krieger. While bound and gaged in the killer's basement, the would-be lovers are tormented until they finally collapse into a state a of corrupted nirvana. It's then that those centuries-old events are allowed to climax.

During the climactic moments of INQUISITION, when everything is revealed, there's a nice twist that occurs. It's not one of those left-field gimmicks filmmakers rely on instead of logic to finish their stories. It's an honest to goodness twist that follows the SIXTH SENSE-like clues provided. Clues that I admittedly had to go back and look for during a second viewing. The screenplay rings of the writtings of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathanial Hawthorne (who one of the characters is named after).

Improving upon his acting is Dan Gorgone as Daniel Faust. Recently, in a review for an episode of Chapman's shortfilm showcase FADE TO BLACK, I noted how far Gorgone has come in his acting. He's confident and relaxed in a role that seems shallow on the surface, but draws complexity from illuminating both sides of the previously mentioned coin. Simply put, the man gives the best performance I've seen from and FTB actor.

In the other incarnations of this review, I couldn't work in a reference to Gorgone's work. Everytime I did it felt like I was distracted from the story itself. It wasn't until just now that I realized his character is the story. Even now I'm still learning something about this movie.

Damn.

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