Fighting Evil While Grieving

Bruce Von Stiers

There has been a surge of murder suicides in the city and across the country. As this is happening, Ors Gabriel is struggling with the loss of his beloved dog to cancer.

This the beginning of the horror thriller film, The Activated Man. The film follows Ors as he tries to come to terms with the death of his dog, Louis. But Ors keeps having these visions that are haunting him. At first, it's just visions of the dog in some kind of astral projection. Then the visions take on an ominous and dangerous atmosphere.

Sarah is Ors's girlfriend. She is sympathetic to his grief, but also, as a cop, has a somewhat more realistic outlook on things.

The visions move from just the dog to seeing some kind of ghoul type person, white faced, blackened eyes, black clothes and a black, flat brimmed hat. Another vision is of an ominous looking man surrounded by flames. Later, it is learned that the man in this flame vision is a neighbor, who's kind of creepy and has older women into his apartment.

A chance meeting with the neighbor, Jeffrey Bowman, leads to a whole different element of the story. Jeffrey seems to know a lot about grief and how to overcome it. Ors finds out that Jeffrey is some kind of psychic. One that can root out bad spirits. But is there something nefarious behind Jeffrey's seemingly calm and reassuring repartee?

Then Jeffrey invites Ors to a small gathering he's hosting. Ors arrives too late for the event but Jeffrey is going to help him with the spiritual thing. But the evil man that Ors had been seeing in his vision appears. He tries to get Ors but Jeffrey helps Ors break whatever spell the evil man is projecting.

The rest of the film involves Ors fighting and overcoming this dark force that seems to want to take him over and make him do horrendous things. And, as Sarah is investigating one of the latest murder-suicides, things get a more than a bit complicated.

The evil presence that Ors keeps seeing is who Sarah calls the Fedora Man. This is some kind of ghost or spiritual entity that can appear anytime, but mostly in dreams. I am not well versed on the paranormal. I didn't realize before checking out things about this film that the Fedora Man is an actual paranormal phenomenon. There have been bunches of social media postings regarding the Fedora Man and whether he is good or evil. Apparently, there are many so-called factual writings on him as well as a bunch of paranormal fiction.

Jamie Costa played Ors. He's portrayed Kurt Russell, Jack Nicholson and Obi Wan Kenobi, amongst other characters in over forty films and television episodes. Ivana Rojas played Sarah. She was featured in several episodes of This Fool and co-starred in the horror/thriller film F.E.A.R.

One pleasant surprise in the cast was Tony Todd. He played Jeffrey. Having first come into notoriety with the title role in Candyman, he had over two hundred fifty screen credits. Those included two films I've reviewed, Traveling Light and Realm of Shadows. The Activated Man is supposedly the final film that Tony Todd acted in before he died.

There are a couple of other noted actors who have minor roles in the film. Sean Young played the mother of Ors. Kane Hodder played his father. You might know Hodder as Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13 th films. From Blade Runner to D.C. Down, Young has over one hundred fifty film and television credits.

Scott Brown played The Fedora Man. He appeared in episodes of Black Lightning and Doom Patrol along with several film roles.

Other actors appearing in the film included Andrew Keegan, Vladimir Kulich, Sab Shimono, Takayo Fischer and Sonia Jackson.

The film was written and directed by Nicholas Gyeney. His previous credits include writing and directing Beta Test and Ultra Low. The cinematographer was William Hellmuth. He was the cinematographer for Drive All Night and Murder She Wanted.

The film was produced by Nicholas Gyeney and Kelsey Aho.

I thought that The Activated Man was a great film. Not only was there the good versus evil elements, but there was also the crushing grief that Ors felt after his dog died. I have experienced that grief myself, so that was almost a bit too real for me. With his resolve and the help of Jeffrey and Sarah, Ors is able to find his way and discover what this evil intrusion on his life meant.

The acting was well done, with fierce emotion flowing through the roles of both Costa and Rojas. And Tony Todd was excellent in his role as Jeremy.

The Activated Man had a limited theatrical release and is now available on VOD and various streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime.

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© 2025 Bruce E Von Stiers