Assassin's Revenge (2018 film)

Assassin's Revenge is a 2018 direct-to-video superhero film starring, written, directed, and produced by Richard Driscoll. During its production, it was shopped under other names such as The Kamikaze SquadThe KAMIKAZE SQUAD - Indiegogo campaign and The Black Knight, which were also marketed as being separate films.
==Plot==
In New York City, two masked gunmen begin robbing a jewelry store, but accidentally activate an alarm. Detective Frank McMillian answers a call by a police helicopter to intercept the thieves, and chases them through a slum in his car. The chase continues until the thieves are cornered in a container, at which point one of them throws a piece of rebar, which goes through McMillian's car's window, killing his partner.
Flash forward several years to the future, and McMillian is driving around the countryside, musing over how police work has changed over the years, the death of his partner, and briefly considers becoming a "shogun assassin", "like they had in Japan." 
A brief comic-book-style cutaway saying "After much thought" reveals that McMillian has now become a vigilante. He thinks to himself about New York and its population, while ambulance drivers throw away a newspaper whose headline mentions the capture of an occult gang. Night having fallen, criminals begin their nightly activities. A long-haired criminal throws a molotov, burning a man to death. A prostitute and her pimp get into an argument, and she kills him. The same prostitute and her daughter are then accosted by a rapist in an alley, who kills the mother, only to be in turn killed by the daughter, who has a katana. Meanwhile, a poker game underworld figures is in progress, which McMillian is taking part in. McMillian wins the game, and executes the mob boss.
The film then flashes back to ten years prior, when McMillian had first encountered William Bard, a psychotic criminal, who had just robbed a bank. After a high-speed chase, McMillian captures Bard off-screen, and he is incarcerated in a mental hospital. However, an asylum doctor, in love with Bard, engineers his escape. McMillian consults with his self-aware AI Tennyson to figure out where Bard may have escaped to, while reviewing footage of accountant Michael Lombard and his wife being murdered. McMillian locates the former Dr. Fawkes at an erotic dance performance, and follows her backstage, interrogating her as to Bard's whereabouts. She doesn't give him any answers, and he leaves, thwarted.
Brooding on a rooftop in the present, McMillian thinks to himself about Bard's activities, and how the criminal had encountered and partnered with Elizabeth Bathroy, an immortal Hungarian noble woman and serial killer, who had killed hundreds of girls to maintain her youth and to please her master, Satan.
Again flashing back to the past, Bard refuses an apparent prostitute's advances, until she reveals to him her true identity as Elizabeth Bathroy. Bard goes to Bathroy's address, ignoring her lesbian servants, until he meets with Bathroy. Though he himself does not believe in such things, Bathroy convinces him to indulge in Tarot, before she forces him to breath in green gas she'd exhaled, following that up with passionate sex, in which her true demonic nature is revealed. The ritual complete, Bard has now gone completely insane.
Now scarred and with a decayed face, Bard holds a classroom hostage, taunting the teacher and making hints about molesting the children. The teacher offers herself in place of the children, but Bard refuses, and demands a ransom from the citizens of Los Angeles. When the ransom was delivered, Bard killed the teacher anyways, but was afterwards captured by the police. McMillian watches the news footage from his lair, and watches live video feed from the White House of Barack Obama talking about Bard's capture.
Bard is subsequently put into cryogenic suspension by Mayor Patrick O'Donnell, who wants to continue getting money from the billionaire's companies, as well as prevent Bard's death. McMillian meets with an informant to get Bard's location. Meanwhile, the mayor is at a meeting with other underworld figures, watching pre-recorded footage of a further-decayed Bard ranting and raving. Bard's underlings then appear, killing all of O'Donnell's men, and kills McMillian's informant.
McMillian then watches news footage revealing O'Donnell's capture and trial, with O'Donnell going free after the prosecution disappears. McMillian then broke into O'Donnell's home, interrogating the disgraced mayor as to the whereabouts of Bard. With O'Donnell refusing to cooperate, McMillian sets up an elaborate death trap, and leaves, stealing O'Donnell's Gatling gun.
McMillian, unable to find Bard, considers hanging up the cowl and retiring to a normal life, but realizes he's too far gone to do so. Regardless, he decides to take a break from searching for Bard, and the film ends.
==Cast==
*Steven Craine as William Bard: A psychotic criminal escaped from Bedlam Asylum, with a penchant for dark humour.
*Michael Madsen as Frank McMillian: A former NYPD detective and current vigilante, seeking to bring Bard to Justice.
*Bai Ling as Dr. Zilia Fawkes: A former doctor for Bedlam Asylum who fell in love with Bard and became his costumed accomplice.
*Eileen Daly as Elizabeth Bathroy: An immortal Hungarian countess and serial killer, working on behalf of Satan.
*Rebecca Lynley as Louise Lombard: Wife of accountant Mike Lombard.
*Patrick Bergin as Mayor Patrick O'Donnell
*Jacob Sherwood as Michael Lombard: An accountant that worked for Bard, but was murdered by him anyways. Sherwood also portrayed McMillian in scenes for which Madsen was not available, and estimated that "...any shots of Michael Madsen where you can't see his face are actualy[sic] me".
==Production==
===Crowdfunding===
In an Indiegogo campaign titled "The KAMIKAZE SQUAD", Driscoll wrote a synopsis for his project.When a disgruntled Police Detective decides to take the law into his own hands after the death of his partner he retires from the Police Department to transform into The BLACK KNIGHT a Batman style hero to enforce his own type of law.The-then cast numbered Michael Madsen, Bai Ling, Tom Sizemore, Steven Craine (Driscoll's acting stage name), Jeff Fahey, Linnea Quigley, Patrick Bergin, Dudley Sutton and Colin Baker.
Driscoll wrote that the film was already funded by having sold various rights to the film, and clarified that the campaign was to fund second unit footage slated to be filmed in Los Angeles. which he anticipated would take three days. He also claimed that filming was largely complete.
The campaign was written about on Release Wire, with an addition to the synopsis: "The KAMIKAZE SQUAD Is a story about a group of men & women with special powers that have been hidden from the public. But when New York is in turmoil from a chemical weapon attack by billionaire sociopath William Bard, Commissioner Rosen decides to call in the help of Superhero vigilante The Black Knight to lead the 6 outcasts in a suicide mission to stop William Bard."Crowdfunding Campaign for DRagon Entertainment Newest Feature Film, the KAMIKAZE SQUAD, Launched on Indiegogo
The campaign started on December 4th, 2016, ended without getting a single donation.
===Pre-Production===
Entries were created for the film on Cinando.com, with one reflecting the original title, "The Kamikaze Squad", but with an entirely new plot resembling that of "Suicide Squad" (and reflecting the article on Release Wire)THE KAMIKAZE SQUAD - Cinando.com, while a new title had the original synopsis attached to it, "The Black Knight".THE BLACK KNIGHT - Cinando.com
 Both films were listed as having the exact same cast.
===Filming===
On January 19th, 2017, Jacob Sherwood posted on his official Facebook page that he'd signed a contract with Driscoll.Just signed a contract Sherwood made a subsequent post on January 22nd, Sherwood posted a photograph of the Cornwall countryside, revealing that he was on the way to do six days worth of acting and stunts.Driving through scenic Cornwall He posted about the film again on the 24th, saying that one of the people in the film had worked on "Highlander: The Source", and did not post again about the film.
==Reception==
Public reviews on Amazon.com are less than favorable. User Pilot stated, "I could only watch about 10 minutes of this movie. The cartoon inserts and the poor writing made this unwatchable." The Movie Guy says, "The main problem with the film was they boxed in the main character. They should have left[sic] Madsen be Madsen and get rid of the stupid goggles."Assassin’s Revenge [DVD - Amazon.ca]
However, reviewer Benjamin Carter wrote, "Just checked this out and really liked it a lot. Had elements of my favorite movies."
==Home Media==
The film is available on DVD and Blu-Ray, and was released direct to video on September 4th, 2018.Assassin's Revenge - Amazon.com
==Trivia==
*Writer, Director, Producer, and star Richard Driscoll (credited as "Steve Craine" for his performance) has previously been convicted of tax evasion, and defrauded HMRC of 1.5 million pounds.Frunza, Marius-Cristian - Value Added Tax Fraud
*Actor Jacob Sherwood was never paid for his performance.
*Footage of what is clearly recognizable as being Los Angeles doubles for New York City prior to the opening credits.
*The film's comic-book-style text balloons are rife with spelling and grammatical errors.
*While the character's name is written as Elizabeth "Bathroy" throughout the film, Madsen's voiceover correctly pronounces the name as "Bathory". Driscoll's character consistently refers to her as "Bathroy". Even the end credits animation spells it wrong, and the only place in which Bathory's name is correctly spelt is in the cast listing in the end credits.
*Barack Obama appears in archive footage as a bad impersonation of his voice is poorly synced over it, talking about Bard's capture.
*The film's listing on Amazon claims it to be 90 minutes long. It's actually 20 minutes shorter than that.
==References==
Category:Real films
Category:Real superhero films