The first (and best) chance to experience the highly artistic supernatural thriller "Revelator" is the Los Angeles theatrical run that begins on August 25, 2107. The DVD and VOD releases follow on September 5, 2017.
The following YouTube clip of the "Revelator" trailer wonderfully highlights the incredibly eerie and stylized tone of the film that show that it favors art over commerce.
Writer/director J. Van Auken also stars as "disgraced psychic detective" John Dunning, who fully experiences the blessing and the curse associated with having the "sixth sense" gift of being able to see dead people. The "blessing" is being able to eke out an existence helping the living come to peace with the passing of loved ones; the curse is both constantly seeing the breathing impaired and watching their anguish.
The "disgraced" portion of Dunning relates to his clients typically being elderly widows, whose purely voluntary payments typically earn Dunning the ire of other relatives. Further, the nature of the sightings impair the ability of Dunning to prove his gift.
The "curse" also compels Dunning to move roughly every three years; he always selects a newly constructed apartment building because no one has ever died there. His statement that the first people in such a dwelling start dying after three years explains why that is the average length of his tenancy. This failure to achieve long-term peace of mind also plays a role regarding John valuing an opportunity to live somewhere where no one ever has (or ever will) die.
The passing of regular client Mrs. Bellvue greatly complicates the already challenging existence of Dunning; disgraced reporter Valerie coincidentally showing up to coerce him in to letting her join his daily routine and report on his activities contributes additional drama.
The reference to the "liquid assets" of Mrs. Bellvue is amusing considering that the family fortune is tied to a valuable source of water that that clan sells to Los Angeles; that water being on an island that Dunning inherits from Mrs. Bellvue escalates his threat to the family from being a nuisance to being an obstacle to them continuing to enjoy the lifestyle to which they have become accustomed.
Bellvue heir Elias wants to use the "stick" approach to get Dunning out of the picture; his uncle offers the "carrot" in the form of offering our gumshoe his desired peace in exchange for solving a mystery surrounding a death.
The ensuing investigation sends Dunning and Valerie into the desert, where Dunning literally comes face-to-face with the consequences of genocide. This soon leads to a larger discovery regarding another otherwise-buried past.
Like the classic film "Chinatown," which also involves the tremendous value of water in Los Angeles, Dunning learning more about the history of the Bellvues both increasingly shows him that everything is not Jake and that no Bellvue is looking out for his best interest.
Van Auken particularly shines both in front of and behind the camera regarding essentially drawing-room confrontations at the end of "Revelator." Not everyone walks away, it seems that the folks who survive pay a high price for what they have, and justice is only partially served.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Revelator" is welcome either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy,
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