Nemesis 4: Death Angel (also known as Cry of Angels) is a 1996 sci-fi action movie written and directed by Abert Pyun. The film is the fourth installment in the Nemesis film series and is the last one to have Pyun involved at any capacity. It stars Sue Price, Blanka Copikova, Andrew Divoff, Nicholas Guest and Norbert Weisser. Made in Slovakia about two years after part two and three were shot, the film is loose on continuity because Nemesis 3 didn't sell very well, so more nudity was added. Shooting was done in between the filming of Adrenalin: Fear the Rush, another film by Pyun shot in Europe.
In this entry, Alex Sinclair is a professional cybernetically-enhanced assassin in a world where humans and cyborgs have had a ceasefire. Her skills are top notch but she tends to be a bit messy and things get real bad when she kills Carlos Jr, the son of a crime syndicate leader. She also gets visions of a woman in black with a distortion VFX who haunts her, probably an angel of death alluding to how death gets closer to Alex because every bounty hunter is after the muscular killer now.
This one is a sort of reboot of the series in the sense that very few things are brought back, only the fact that Alex is a genetically modified human and some plot points that are honestly not that noticeable at first. Don't expect a concrete continuity. The production values are still on the lower end and the limitations are apparent, but the very pretty european setting carries a good amount of the weight and gives the movie a rich amount of locations Pyun works with quite well, just as he did with the desert and industrial locations in the last two.
A lot of the movie features uncensored nudity from Price and others, surely an attempt by the makers of appealing to the direct-to-video crowd who wanted softcore stuff. A curious thing to point out is that this is probably one of the few times a brawny female body has been eroticized and threatened the way more normative bodies are shot in such films and turned seductive in sexual sequences. A nice refreshing sight. Because of these scenes, the unreal and surreal vibes are back due to the playful way Pyun uses lighting and takes advantage of his new shooting locations, as mentioned above, and also because of the outlandish and bizarre deaths. The more out-of-this-world storyline with apparitions and strange occurrences are further proof that a great deal of changes were more out of the director's desire to touch upon particular themes and ideas.
The film mostly unfolds as a sexy thriller with some sci-fi components but things are mostly kept tight and intimate, the camera mostly stays in closed spaces and does close ups of the actors. Every performer does a very decent job and all retain their charm, especially the leading lady. After a rather vague and understated resolution we see what I can only assume is a tribute to Sue Price as a montage sequence of stock footage put together with some of her highlights appears on the screen, followed by her screen credit. A very worthy and awesome goodbye to the series, at least that's what it was until 2017 but that's another story.
Totally recommended for the DTV scavengers who enjoy this very B-level series and are also eager to see a lot of muscular nudity. This one should satisfy with its intriguing plot and solid cast.
