The Deaths of Ian Stone Review

Ian Stone (Mike Vogel) feels like something is going wrong in his life. The clock stops during the hockey game after he tries to score the winning goal and he confesses to his girlfriend Jenny (Christina Cole) that he is losing his mind. Then on his way home he sees a body on a train track and when he tries to help the body comes to life and holds him until a train runs over him. Suddenly Ian wakes up and he’s in an office late with an assignment. His co-worker Jenny wonders what’s wrong with him. He then goes home to a different girlfriend Media (Jaime Murray) who ends up stabbing him through his stomach and watching him bleed. Ian wakes up again this time in a taxi and he’s driving Jenny to her house. Over and over Ian experiences a different life and a different ghastly death with Jenny the only connecting factor. Ian slowly begins to piece together that he’s being chased and has to protect Jenny–and for some reason he can’t be truly killed. Well not just yet. Vogel is a decent all-American guy who plays a likable character the audience can root for. As Ian the actor is multifaceted turning from a naïve kid to a streetwise punk from a successful exec to a messed-up drug addict from a frightened guy to a hero and so on. Cole’s Jenny is rather one note–it doesn’t seem like the actress has much range. Murray as the femme fatale is delightful and looks a lot like something out of the The Matrix. But ultimately this is Vogel‘s calling card and should be a nice addition to his resume. Director Dario Piana knows how to heighten the tension as Ian Stone tries to figure out what is happening and along with the script by Brendan Hood they provide enough intrigue to make people care and wonder why the clocks stop in each of Ian’s lives and what significance it plays in each of them. Ian’s retains more of his memory the more times he dies and is reborn so to speak and when he starts to figure out the puzzle  Deaths of Ian Stone becomes more disturbing. Piana casts the shadowy Harvesters creatures who wander in and out of Ian’s weird predicament as shadows in the window or as whispery figures around a dark corner; they are definitely nightmare-inducing and provide more than a few jumps.