Fatal Deviation (1998)

For every big budget movie that is released, there are many more low budget movies being made.  It is easier for someone to pick up a camera and shoot something on a shoestring budget than it is to get funding and release something into theatres around the world.  This makes it easy for smaller studios to make the knock-offs of blockbuster movies that we call mockbusters.  But there are hundreds of thousands of other, non-mockbuster low budget movies floating around.  This week, I cover one of them.

Fatal Deviation is a low budget movie from Ireland, directed by Shay Casserley and Simon Linscheid.  The action movie followed Jimmy Bennett (James P. Bennett, who helped co-write the movie) as he returned to his hometown and was targeted by the mob boss who killed his father.  He fought in an underground fighting tournament in a monastery, he used martial arts on every mob member he met, and he saved the girl that he loved.

It was difficult to come up for an idea for this post, so instead of keeping it contained to one, I’m going to relate it to a few ideas that I thought about but didn’t really want to delve into.  Some might be topics that I’ll get to at a later date.  Others will be ideas that I regurgitate with different movies every once in a while.  And some ideas will be bad brainstorming done while trying to come up with a good idea.  This is basically going to be a structured freeform that goes from one small idea to the next without me getting too deep.

A Quick Review

Hailing from Ireland, Fatal Deviation was a low budget foray into the action genre.  It blended a mob story with martial arts and bad acting to make for an experience that was quite unlike any other.

James P. Bennett had the charisma of a piece of bread, without the texture of the grain.  He played an action hero with no relatable characteristics.  There was nothing about his performance to latch onto.  His one saving grace was his martial arts skill.  He definitely knew how to perform the moves.  Though the choreography wasn’t the best, he was able to pull off the stunts.  If only he had as much skill with acting.

The story wasn’t the greatest either.  Jimmy came back to town, got invited into the mob, declined, dated the girl one of the mob members liked, then fought the mob.  There was no deeper story.  It was as surface level as that.

If there’s only one bad Irish martial arts mob story that you watch, make it Fatal Deviation.  It has a fighting tournament in a monastery.  With a few drinks among friends, it could be a whole lot of fun.

Irish Movies

Movies have been coming out of Ireland ever since they became an entertainment standard.  The first Irish movie, A Lad from Old Ireland, was released in 1910.  It was directed by and starring Sidney Olcott and would begin a long relationship between Ireland and film that would span more than a century.  By that, I mean that there are still Irish movies being released.

There aren’t a lot of Irish movies that I’ve seen, especially when it comes to the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  Only two movies that I have covered come to mind when I’m thinking about Irish films.  Fatal Deviation is one.  The other was the horror flick, Shrooms.  There was nothing particularly Irish about that movie.  It wasn’t about Irish people (the main actors were American), it didn’t go into Irish lore… The only thing about Shrooms that was Irish was the setting.

Fatal Deviation is a different story.  All of the actors were Irish.  They spoke with accents so thick that I could barely understand them.  The location was Ireland.  The story still could have been set anywhere.  You don’t need it to be an Irish story for the movie to be Irish.  The second Irish movie that I watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies felt more Irish than the first, which I nearly forgot was Irish.

Low-Budget Films

This is a topic that I’ve probably gone over before.  Low-budget films are movies that tend not to have the financial backing of the big Hollywood studios.  People have different definitions of low budget.  Some simply go with a budget that doesn’t get as big as the blockbusters that are released into most cinemas.  I want to go even lower than that.

Fatal Deviation is much closer to a no budget film.  It looked like a bunch of friends got together and decided to make a movie.  Less than 9,000 Irish pounds financed the movie.  Movies with budgets this small tend to be movies that are made by people who want to make a movie no matter what their situation.  They might not be able to buy the best cameras or hire the best cast and crew, but they have the desire to make something.  They want to create.  That can certainly go a long way in some cases.

In the case of Fatal Deviation, many of the cast and crew were working on multiple aspects of the film.  Director Shay Casserley also served as the cinematographer, filming the stuff that he wanted to be in the movie.  Star James P. Barrett was one of the cowriters.  The other writer, Simon Linscheid helped Shay Casserley with the directing.  Those are the three off the top of my head that I knew were pulling double duty.  With how low the budget was, I’m sure there were more.

Many low budget movies are the same way.  There will be actors doing crew duty, and crew members working as extras.  There typically isn’t enough money to hire a lot of people, so it requires people to hold multiple positions.  Personally, I’ve worked on a couple short films in school.  I was a co-writer, a co-director, I shot a couple of the sequences, and I was an extra multiple times.  It is necessary to step in where needed for the betterment of the final product.

Damsels in Distress

Action movies have a tendency to cast males as the heroic characters.  For every female led action movie, there are ten action movies starring men.  In these movies, the men are fighting for many things.  They’re saving the world.  They’re saving hostages.  Or they’re saving a woman that gets given to them as property by the film’s end.  Women end up being a trophy in action movies.

You probably already know this, but let me explain in my stupid, male brain way.  In most action movies that get released, the action hero’s wife, girlfriend, daughter, or mother is put in danger.  Batman v. Superman was just released and put both Lois Lane and Martha Kent into dangerous situations requiring the aid of the superheroes.  The women are simple motivation for the superheroes, moving them forward into the big fights.

In Fatal Deviation, the whole conflict was motivated by the female that Jimmy falls for.  He started dating the girl, which sparked jealousy in a mob member.  All of the trouble in the movie was a result of this jealousy.  It pushed the mob member into trying to get rid of Jimmy, and it pushed Jimmy to fighting back to save her.  At the end of the movie, Jimmy got her.  She had no other point in the movie but to be the end item for the hero and the villain.

Martial Arts Movies

A subsection of the action genre is the martial arts film.  They involve hand to hand combat that looks realer and more painful than effects heavy action.  Most of them come from countries in Asia.  China, Japan, Indonesia, and Korea have each produced martial arts movies with various fighting styles.  Actors and directors have managed to come to North America and make movies in the Hollywood system.

Movies that aren’t necessarily martial arts movies sometimes incorporate martial arts in them.  The Expendables 2 is not a martial arts movie, but it does have a martial arts fight between Jason Statham and Scott Adkins.  Hollywood has also taken martial arts and blended it with standard gun action to make “gunkata.”  This style has been used in movies such as Equilibrium.

Fatal Deviation was filled with martial arts but wasn’t afraid to add in other action.  James P. Bennett showed off his martial arts skills throughout the movie with kicks and punches, while also taking moments to shoot guns.  As opposed to most American action movies which take standard gunplay and add martial arts, the Ireland produced movie took martial arts and added guns.

Like I said, none of the ideas were all that great.  I couldn’t come up with anything that seemed perfect for Fatal Deviation.  I came up with the ideas that I briefly touched upon.  Most of them (Irish, martial arts, damsels), I didn’t feel like I had enough expertise to expand upon the initial concept.  With the low budget films, I was afraid that I was retreading a subject I’d already covered.  And I didn’t want to do a straight up review.  So I threw them all together.

Fatal Deviation was one of the more difficult movies that I’ve had to write about.  Maybe it’s because it didn’t have a whole lot going for it.  Half of its runtime could have been cut and the movie would have been the exact same.  It wasn’t a good movie.  It had few redeemable qualities.  Some people might even call it unwatchable.  I wouldn’t go that far.  I would watch it again with friends.  We could have a good time.  That doesn’t mean it isn’t terrible.

This isn’t the worst movie I’ve ever watched for the Sunday “Bad” Movies.  I didn’t hate Fatal Deviation.  I remember things that happened in it.  It has that much going for it.  It’s absolutely a must see for people interested in bad movies.  You probably won’t like it, but you need to see it.  That’s the best I can say for it.

Here are some notes to finish off this lackluster post:

• Fatal Deviation was suggested by @brideofcrapula.
• I mentioned Shrooms in this post.
• The only actor in Fatal Deviation that was in another Sunday “Bad” Movie was James P. Bennett, who was in Beverly Hills Chihuahua.
• I mentioned Jason Statham, who was in Death Race.
• I also mentioned Scott Adkins, who was in The Legend of Hercules.
• Have you seen Fatal Deviation?  What did you think of it?  There’s a comments section below if you want to discuss the movie or this post.
• You can also use the comments section to suggest movies for me to watch in future Sunday “Bad” Movie installments.  Or you can let me know on Twitter.
• You can find me on snapchat with the username jurassicgriffin.  I mostly use the story feature on there to share clips of movies I’m watching.  Every once in a while there’s something else.
• Next week’s movie is Grimm’s Snow White, since The Huntsman: Winter’s War is going to be coming out.  I’ve seen it before and I’m excited to be watching it again.  It’s one of my favourites from The Asylum.  I’ll see you next week with a post that is hopefully better than this one.