CERT: TBC / FORMAT: VOD / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW (US), TBC (UK)
Four disparate people discover their immortality during surprising circumstances in Jon Dabach’s four-chapter anthology starring faces new and old. Touching on subjects that include terminal illness (the film’s stand-out highlight), unsettling teacher-student relations and suicide, each segment – themselves featuring different directors – attempts to add a ‘life after death’ twist to the usual genre clichés.
In its favour, Immortal features some strong performances, including potentially a career-best from Candyman’s Tony Todd. TV’s Dylan Baker also turns in a solid turn as a history teacher while new kids on the block Lindsay Mushett and Samm Levine also do their bit to keep this indie production’s head above water. The scenarios themselves are relatively entertaining too, often providing a surprising ending (although not always).
What doesn’t work is the aimlessness of the narrative. All very well to have four chapters stand apart from one another, but in this case you find yourself waiting for the four new immortal’s lives to cross. That they never do, leaves you feeling as if somebody found the treatment for an unmade seventh season of Highlander and made four episodes without all the sword stuff. Speaking of which, it was fun to see Highlander alum Mario Van Peebles, although a travesty that his role was so short and ultimately pointless.
Less a fully formed feature and more a curiosity for fans of the genre, Immortal is well executed despite what appears to be a low budget and does the best it can to squeeze everything it can out of the script and the cast. Had it gone just that extra mile in working the stories together in some sense, the end may have felt just a little more satisfying.
