Fade to Black is a 1980 American psychological horror comedy film written and directed by Vernon Zimmerman, and starring Dennis Christopher, Eve Brent and Linda Kerridge.

After Marilyn unintentionally stands up Eric on their first date, Eric becomes homicidally unbalanced, transforming himself into a gallery of classic film characters—including Dracula, The Mummy and Hopalong Cassidy—and sets out to destroy his oppressors, starting with his abusive and crotchety, wheelchair-using, ex-dancer, Aunt Stella, pushing her wheelchair down a staircase to her death (reenacting a scene from Kiss of Death (1947)) and making this look like an accident.

Not long after, Eric dresses up as The Mummy and drives his mean and vindictive boss, Mr. Berger, into suffering a deadly heart attack while he is working late at night at his distribution warehouse.

This leads to the Mann's Chinese Theatre where the insane Eric is shot by the police on the roof of the building while reenacting Cody Jarrett's death scene in White Heat.

A labor of love for the director (who stated that it wasn't a horror film in an interview after its release), it starred Dennis Christopher whose previous credits included the 1979 Academy Award-winning Breaking Away and Robert Altman's 1978 ensemble piece A Wedding.

[5][6] The film also co-starred Australian actress Linda Kerridge (for whom Yablans rewrote the screenplay after meeting her at a party one year prior) due to her likeness to Monroe and who fell into obscurity afterwards.

[citation needed] Actress Gwynne Gilford was pregnant during production, and gave birth after it ended to future movie star Chris Pine.