Fade to Black

Fade to Black is a 1980 American psychological horror comedy film written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, and starring Dennis Christopher, Eve Brent and Linda Kerridge. It also features Mickey Rourke and Peter Horton in minor roles. The plot follows a shy and lonely cinephile who embarks on a killing spree against his oppressors while impersonating classic film characters. Plot Eric Binford is a hollow, chain smoking, socially awkward and unlikeable young man who is also an obsessed film addict whose love of old films extends far beyond his job at a Los Angeles film distributor's warehouse and endless late-night film screenings in his bedroom. For his vast knowledge, he has been bullied by his friends and family. His singular obsession eventually turns into psychosis after he crosses paths with Marilyn O'Connor, an Australian model and Marilyn Monroe lookalike who becomes the physical embodiment of his cinematic desires. After Marilyn unintentionally stands up Eric on their first date, Eric becomes homicidally unbalanced, transforming himself into a gallery of classic film characters—including Dracula, The Mummy and Hopalong Cassidy—and sets out to destroy his oppressors, starting with his abusive and crotchety, wheelchair-using, ex-dancer, Aunt Stella, pushing her wheelchair down a staircase to her death (reenacting a scene from Kiss of Death (1947)) and making this look like an accident. Eric attends her funeral dressed as Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark's role from the aforementioned film). Eric then dresses up as Count Dracula to attend a midnight screening of Night of the Living Dead (1968) at a local cinema. Afterwards, he bursts in on Marilyn in the shower while looking for an autograph in a scene straight out of Psycho (1960); he escapes and targets a sex worker who had snubbed him earlier. She trips, falling to her death, and Eric licks her blood off his fingers.