Keanen's Film Blog

In moving pictures, dark fantasy usually sucks. (With the exception of Hellraiser and The Witcher.) “Evil is good” is a tough sell for American Christian audiences, who have historically made up the bulk of Hollywood’s market. Anime can get away with a lot more, but in terms of American movies, there is not much to pick from.

Let’s consider for a moment that Groundhog Day is dark fantasy in disguise. It’s a “what if?” movie, and such movies are usually explainable if you assume the protagonist has demonic powers. Bill Murray is the spirit of Satan, doing ritual suicides and resurrecting repeatedly. He lusts after his naive muse, bending time to subjugate her to his will. The man is unstoppable, and at the climax he takes the titular pagan sacrificial animal with him to the grave, only to resurrect and claim vengeance again.

Let’s set some rules for high-quality dark fantasy and see if Groundhog Day lives up to them.

1. Must refrain from all dialogue for the first 1 minute. It sounds easy, but some shows can’t help but start the blabber right away. Tone needs to be set for high-octane spectacle.
- Fail. Newscasting sets the tone for the film from the first minute. Characters talking. Blah.

2. The characters must not be vampires, literal faeries, Van Helsings, or any other 19th-century TV cliche that everyone is tired of seeing.
- Achieved. Most of the characters are presumably human.

3. To make a show that is someone’s dark fantasy, you need a good writer. The writer doesn’t need to be fast, friendly, or necessarily cheap, the writer needs to be good.
- Maybe. Screenwriter Danny Rubin also penned Hear no Evil (1993) and S.F.W. (1994), both of which don’t look too hot. Co-writer Harold Ramis was Obama’s favorite director, and a prolific one at that, though his career was mainly mainstream comedy.

4. Must have on-screen nudity. This kills the “teen drama” angle.
- Fail. There is no nudity in the film, and the characters are mostly middle-aged.

The film does not feel cheap or stupid, but it is a little dull. It spins at a low RPM and doesn’t kick it to high gear except in fleeting moments of spectacle, like driving a truck off a cliff or getting zapped with a toaster in a tub. It’s a movie about enjoying the small things, which is hard to do when the small things in life suck for most. 1993 also saw the release of the video game Doom and the birth of the Web. Groundhog Day could have been released in 1980 and not felt out of place. It was made in an antique American mindset, despite the potential of its now-famous premise. If that’s your thing, give it a watch.