Directed by:
Charles BandCinematography:
Mac AhlbergCast:
Tim Thomerson, Helen Hunt, Michael Stefani, Art LaFleur, Richard Herd, Anne Seymour, Michael McGrady, Richard Erdman, Biff Manard, Wiley Harker, Pete SchrumVOD (1)
Plots(1)
Jack Deth is a trooper in Angel City, circa 2247, mopping up the last of the disciples of the Martin Whistler. Whistler uses his psychic power to 'trance' those with weak minds and force them to obey his every desire. Whistler had been thought to be dead by now, but he's alive and well, and in the year 1985. Whistler's plan - to hunt down the ancestors of the City Council. With the Council disbanded, nothing is to stop Whistler from controlling the city. That's where Jack Deth fits in. Jack is sent back in time by inhabiting the body of his ancestor. The only problem is that Whistler's ancestor is a police detective, and he's begun trancing people back in 1985. With the help of Lena, a strong-minded punk rock girl, he must find and protect Hap Ashby, a former baseball pitcher now living on Skid Row, and face Whistler in a final confrontation. (Full Moon Features)
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Reviews (2)
On the one hand, a lot of B-movies blatantly rip off their A-list counterparts, but on the other hand, they are sometimes an inexhaustible source of inspiration. Trancers is a shining example of this. On the surface, it may copy Blade Runner (a hard-boiled whodunit that starts in a neo-noir future) and Terminator (a villain travels back in time to the 1980s to kill the ancestors of his adversaries), but inside it all, it manages to create its own world and infuse it with a heavy dose of previously untested ideas. For example, you travel back in time by being transported into the body of your ancestor after being injected with a drug. The main villain attacks using hypnotized people. And the action scenes are slowed down by special time-manipulating clocks. Sure, we've seen all of this in later A-grade movies, but I wonder where they got it from? The plot overall doesn't make much sense, and the main draw is the aforementioned small ideas that the film plays with in a very funny way. For example, when the police chief from the future goes to the past, he is transported into the body of an eight-year-old girl in pajamas, who then comes to shake the main character down at night with a Dirty Harry look on her face. On the other hand, there are a number of moments that are obviously not meant to be funny and are unintentionally so. But thanks to a great central cast (Tim Thomerson is hard-boiled to the bone and the chemistry between him and the likeable Helen Hunt works as it should), it's a fine entertainment that, at a modest 76 minutes, passes by perhaps a little too quickly.
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I'm happy with what I saw here. It's a fast-paced B-movie that ticks along pleasantly, with some good moments where it's even funny. The main hero is appropriately tough, and Helen Hunt is still young and quite innocent here. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, and the premise is actually quite good and not completely worn out.
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Photo © Empire Pictures
![Trancers - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/164/406/164406469_192f06.jpg)
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