From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie Def By Temptation released in 1990.
Starring:
James Bond III, Kadeem Hardison, Bill Nunn, and Cynthia Bond.
Directed by:
James Bond III
Genre:
Horror
MPAA Rating:
R
Budget:
N/A
IMDb Rating is currently:
4.4
The Synopsis is:
A demon simply called Temptation targets and sets out to destroy a future evangelist, Joel, to acquire his soul.
Story:
The story was written by James Bond III, who also directed, produced and stars in this film.
In an interview he did with Brandon Meyers on the Movie Pilot website https://moviepilot.com/posts/4056985 he explains that he made the film in hopes of presenting a film to the public that combined two genres that have been typically featured separately, black exploitation and horror, Blacula released in 1972, being the most memorable exception of note.
Now there isn’t much information about the making of this film on many film databases, but I managed to find a video from Troma’s YouTube page interviewing the cinematographer for the film, Ernest Dickerson where he explained James’ desire to make the film led him to find resources in Ernest, and many of the actors on the set of Spike Lee’s School Daze released in 1988 where they all worked together.
James got a very small budget to make the film through Hush Management then owned by Melba Moore’s husband at the time. (Melba Moore was a famous R&B artist at the time and she makes an appearance in the film as Madam Sonja.) (Also, many sites refer to Hush Management as Hush Records, however that is not the legal name. Currently there is a Hush Records legally created in 1995 which is not the same company associated with this movie.)
The story is pretty good, slow moving and unfolding using naturalistic dialogue to lead the audience through the events.
There is a few pop culture jokes. One in particular has the first bartender in the film being asked if one of his girlfriends could be borrowed out and he responds, “No my brother, you got to get your own.” as a reference to a popular commercial for Hey Love: Sounds of Sexy Soul where the actor appeared in the late 80’s where he says the same line.
Freddie Jackson, another popular R&B recording artist of the time signed on Hush Management as well, says rock it for old time sake and later a character by the name of Dougy says don’t you wanna dance with me, both the names of popular songs from Freddie.
Now let's talk about the title of the film. The title of the film is a play on words. The word, def, sounds a lot like the word, death, so the true title would have been Death By Temptation. It sounds more appropriate to describe the theme of the film. In case you didn’t know, the word def is a word used in the 1980’s and early 1990’s as a way to describe something as being awesome or incredible.
Pacing:
At an hour and 35 minutes, it’s short and sweet. There could have been more time to clarify some of the action, but the editing was pretty tight. The only thing that disrupts the pacing is the revolving flashback scenes replays a few times too many.
Challenge:
The challenge is Temptation. She is literally the personification of temptation demonized for the purpose of the film. The film is a morality tale, but it’s not probably one you want to see play out.
Temptation has set up shop at a bar in Brooklyn, where she feeds off the flesh and collects souls. The most desirable of all those souls would be an innocent one like the protagonist in the story, Joel.
Temptations first victim is a playboy bartender who is a pretty scandalous character. He coerces one of his girls to get an abortion and then a few moments later sets up a kinky date with a married woman.
Another victim is a married man, Norman who just wants to enjoy a night of infidelity. There is a funny scene between the two where she requests a list of expensive champagnes and he motions to the bartender to say the bar doesn’t have it so he doesn’t have to spend any money.
Temptation is only buying time as she waits for the protagonist to come to the bar. She comes up with an excellent plan to get him there through Joel’s schoolmate K. She projects his ultimate fantasy so he will want to see her again and bring Joel to the bar.
As soon as K brings Joel to the bar, things really amp up and I loved every minute of it.
I really enjoyed this villain. She’s always a step a head of the protagonists and she’s entertaining to watch, even when she’s possessing other people.
Empathy:
Joel has recurring dreams about his deceased father as a woman in black mysteriously shadows Joel. It replays the last days of his father's life and how he dies in a car crash that Temptation has caused.
One of the things that his father says during his sermon is, “Blesseth is the man that endureth temptation.” This pretty much hands us the thesis for the movie.
Joel has been sheltered from the outside world, reared by his grandmother who has foreseen that he would be an evangelist. He has graduated from ministry school and is ready to begin his purpose.
Temptation mentions somewhere along the story that Joel is the last of his line of religious men. Hence, there is a desperation for him survive this test.
In New York, Joel is a fish out of water and K has agreed to look after him while he’s there.
Now, there is some confusion about who K is to Joel.
They talk about the grandma as being the same to them both, so first I thought that they were cousins. Then K refers to Joel as his partner. It also turns out that K and Joel went to ministry school together, but K went into acting, which he is moderately successful at.
The turning point for K is when Temptation dumps him, he finally begins to see that something strange is going on. K teams up with the one guy at the bar who openly says how spooked out he is of Temptation, Dougy.
At first you think that Dougy is just a terrible pickup artist, until the final third of the film when he admits that he is an agent of a branch of the government that investigates murder under strange circumstances.
That’s a Men in Black subplot that leaves the audience a little interested for more but that is as deep as it gets unfortunately because Temptation is too advanced of a challenge for them.
Technical:
Ernest Dickerson provided a lot of information in his interview about the film, that is sorely missing from many movie resources.
The film was shot in Brooklyn and used Laurence Fishburne's house for many of the scenes. Many of their equipment were rented and many of the talent were favors from friends and recording artists from Hush Records.
Ernest said that he collaborated a lot with James Bond III to add elements in the story borrowing from other well known horror films, as well as test out some new cinematic tricks of his own.
While James took care of the actors and the written element, Ernest decided how many of the scenes would look and took on the visual effects.
And this is why the film, through a low budget feature, has incredible visuals to create the spooky appearance of the film, playing with light and shadows.
I especially love the gorgeous billows of smoke and mist as well and it’s mingling with color and light. This is not an easy trick. This really gives the film some depth and density to the feeling of unease as the story unfolds.
One of his best effects were the TV monster, inspired by Videodrome 1983. It’s yet another element of the film that did not feel low budget.
Ernest was not able to shoot the climax of the film, which was actually shot by the Troma team as Lloyd Kaufman acted as the DP on those shots and tried as much as possible to match Ernest Dickerson’s style.
The stranger fish-eye angles used in the climax scenes exaggerate the style further and really gives you the sense of loss of control.
The soundtrack is pretty groovy with lots of R&B songs that hearken back to the mid to late 80’s by artists like Freddie Jackson and Melba Moore. I didn’t mind it in the film because it kinda brought back some memories of that time.
Performances:
The performances were all good and unique to their roles. I enjoyed them a lot.
James Bond III plays the mild mannered gentle spoken character. For what his character stands for in the film, he did well. Many reviewers felt his performance was too whinny, but I think he did fine.
James had also been in films like School Daze and experienced an illustrious career as a child TV actor.
Kadeem Hardison plays the character 'K', which is very naturalistic to the many other witty roles he has played during his career. At the time he shot this movie he was not very famous as an actor, but a year later he became famous for his role on A Different World TV series. And even though he is not the star of the movie, the distributors thought it would sell more videos if he was on the cover.
Another connective feature in this film to another in his career, “K” becomes a ghoul at the very end of this movie chauffeuring the new Temptation, Dougy.
Kadeem plays a ghoul chauffeur in the movie Vampire in Brooklyn released in 1995.
Bill Nunn plays Dougy and was a Spike Lee alum, like most of the other actors in this film and his performance brings in fun and levity that was much needed.
Samuel L. Jackson excellently portrays a small role as Minister Garth during the early years of his career, before he became a household name. Later posters of the movie feature Samuel L. Jackson and it misleading appears that he is the main character.
Cynthia Bond plays the demon Temptation giving the character all of the incredible animation it needed to be surreal and supernaturally sinister. I was really captivated by her performance and how intensely dedicated she was to the character. She had some TV roles later, but it seems, she stopped acting after 1994.
However, she became a bestselling author of a book called Ruby in 2014 and was featured in Oprah's book club.
And a special note of recognition to Melba Moore playing Madam Sonya very well. I was truly surprised she was so good. I particularly got a nice chuckle from her over the top performance and it fell in line with the way Temptation behaved.
Best:
For me there were so many amazing scenes. One of them that makes me laugh now, but was kind of shocking the first time I saw it was the scene where “K” is telling Joel about Temptation and how it’s spliced in with the scene of her seduction and attack on a male victim. K is describing her as sweet and innocent, while she is ironically doing the opposite.
The Ending:
The ending is truly where all the fun is in this film. It's a true spectacle of schlock when Temptation faces off with Joel. Its over the top and a bit cartoonish but I think that is part of the late 80’s horror movie formula that I really enjoy. The low budget makeup effects for Temptation’s beast form and transformation was at least entertaining.
Wish List:
The film was low budget, and you can tell, but there were a lot of great ideas, especially to do with the subject of temptation. I wish that was explored more, within and outside the context of religion.
I really wish that there was a lot less recycled footage. I think that was something that many older films did to pad out the time.
I think that time could have been used to develop Joel’s character from a host of different memories of important life lessons associated with temptation that his father taught him.
Enjoyment:
The film had good reviews when it was released but it had a hard time with getting a video release.
I didn’t really know about this film until it was on late night TV back in the late 90’s and I really got a great kick out of it. It’s got all the stuff I like, tests of faith, practical monster makeup transformations, and low budget bravado.
I love films that do things in a big way even though they don’t have the budget for it. I think it’s so very inspiring.
I was also totally mesmerized by the lead actress’ portrayal of her character. It was unique and bold. She didn’t hold back and I loved every minute of seeing her charisma on screen.
And not to mention, this seductive kind of horror theme is of my favorite kind of horror, besides vampires and Dracula.
This is definitely my favorite Troma film that I’ve seen so far.
My Rating:
7.2
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it.
This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off.
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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