Horror Movie Review: Deadgirl

Deadgirl

Starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Candice Accola, Eric Podnar, and Jenny Spain

Directed by: Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Hazrel

Written by: Trent Haaga

Production Company: Hollywoodmade

Release Date: September 6, 2008

Deadgirl is less a story about a dead girl and more the story of disenfranchised friends Rickie and JT. Rickie and JT are your typical angsty teen boys from the lower economic echelons and marginalized by the locals. They have been best buds for a long long time, always there for each other when everyone else and the world seemed out to get them. Then they skipped school and went roaming in an abandoned mental hospital, the Nuthouse as JT calls it.

The two friends soon discover that the old Nuthouse isn't completely abandoned. Inside they find a feral dog and...the naked body of a dead girl in plastic and chained to a table. Except Deadgirl isn't quite dead. She moves and breathes and the friends have to decide what to do.

Rickie wants to release her and get out before whomever did this to her returns. JT assures him that no one is returning considering they had to force open a rusted door, and they should keep her. A bound, naked woman no one is looking for seems to be JT's Christmas gift he never got. Especially when he learns that she can't die.

JT and Rickie then go back and forth for most of the movie as Rickie tries to save Deadgirl and JT's soul, and JT can't figure out why his buddy is trying to spoil all of the fun. JT brings Wheeler, another hapless teen, in on the Deadgirl action. Meanwhile Rickie pines for Joann, his first kiss, revolts against his mother's alcoholic boyfriend, avoids Johnny, Joann's jock boyfriend, and struggles to figure out what he should do.

The story is really about the degradation of friendship with the fate of Deadgirl as the impetus. Should she be destroyed, freed, or kept as a flesh and blood blowup toy for the teens.

Deadgirl is a hard film to watch. The teens are annoyingly realistic. I can even swear to knowing JT and Wheeler personally. JT's confusion over Rickie's betrayal is heart wrenching, only tempered by our knowledge of the horrible things he has been doing. But "it's been JT and Rickie, all the way, man." It almost pales the abuse Deadgirl suffers at the hands of JT and Wheeler.

The film keeps Deadgirl's nature ambiguous until the end when Johnny gets bitten and himself becomes a walking dead person, confirming Deadgirl as being a zombie. Plus, some evidence suggests the zombie virus doesn't only spread from bites as JT begins showing subtle signs of deadening.


Deadgirl is a fascinating character drama with depraved zombie bondage sex. It's about the immature objectification of women, as they cleverly keep Rickie's mother and JT's grandmother off screen, only showing us females whom the teens objectify and want to sexually conquer. And it's about friends growing beyond the bounds of their friendship and the panicked attempts to keep it going. It's not for the weak of heart, but it is a masterful addition to the horror lexicon.

Related Trailers

Red Riding Hood - Shiloh Fernandez also starts in Red Riding Hood. Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family's displeasure.



All About Evil - All About Evil
also stars Noah Segan. A mousy librarian inherits her father's beloved but failing old movie house. In order to save the family business she discovers her inner serial killer - and a legion of rabid gore fans - when she starts turning out a series of grisly shorts. What her fans don't realize yet is that the murders in the movies are all too real.



Raving Maniacs - Trent Haaga also wrote the screenplay for Raving Maniacs. A mysterious drug of alien origin makes its way into the ultimate rave in Providence. R.I. But as the rash young revelers ingest the glowing pills, little do they suspect that they're about to undergo a hideous metamorphosis into lustful and savage bloodsuckers.

Horror Movie Review: The Zombie Diaries

The Zombie Diaries

Starring: Russell Jones, Craig Stovin, James Fischer, Sophia Ellis, and Jonnie Hurn

Directed by: Michael Bartlett and Kevin Gates

Written by: Michael Bartlett and Kevin Gates

Production Companies: Bleeding Edge Films and Off World Films

Release Date: October 29, 2006







A mysterious virus begins making its way around the world. People in the know are being tight lipped about it, and some citizens are strongly concerned and others are dismissive. But then the virus turns up in Britain killing the infected and turning them into zombies.

Doing a report on the virus, a small news crew gets caught in the country and what they witness and experience is caught on tape. Then we jump to a month later as a small group scavenge for supplies. Then another jump as we get video footage of a large group surviving a couple of months later. They reconnoiter the area surrounding a farm where they have holed up killing the ever roaming zombies. Eventually the group turns on itself. Then we went back to the first chapter to find out what happened to the documentary crew.

The film had potential and moments of great amateur documentary-style handheld camera events. The accidental shooting of survivors thought to be zombies was particularly poignant. The bound, naked female zombie shows the depths which humanity would fall away from being humane according to the two filmmakers Michael Bartlett and Kevin Bates are concerned making the true monsters of the film the all-too-human survivors.

The shaking handheld camera work helps the low budget feature from having to being too realistic in makeup and effects, which helps. I personally love fake documentary horror. People complain about the shaky camera, but I feel that, when well done, it helps create the horror and tension that might be lost in shooting these low budget films like normal movies. You have to focus harder to see what's going on which leads to a stronger scare.

But where their plot for the story is effective, Bartlett and Gates's execution of the fake documentary ruins the effect. The realistic feel of the shaky handheld camera gets ruin by what I would call two glaring mistakes. First, realism includes a plausible reason for actions and little attempt was made, after the first chapter, for why someone was running around with a camera recording things. Even the first chapter didn't explain why so much film was being shot. In The Blair Witch Project, they were students so they were wasteful and then wanted proof of what they were seeing. 86 minutes of film made sense. In Cloverfield they said a few times how they needed to document what was going on. But in The Zombie Diaries, little justification was given for the use of the video camera. It doesn't even fit with the characters we saw. Survivors concerned about zombie blood being tracked in on boots would more likely being telling the camera guy to put the damn camera down and shoot zombies when things got out of control.

But the handheld camera effect loses its punch when you hear the movie score. The other fake horror documentaries did not have a movie score. The lack of music helps make the movie feel real while the musical score makes it feel like you are watching a poorly filmed movie.

On top of that, the nonsequential order of the scenes, coupled with the scratchy and shaky film shots and poor character display makes it hard to tell exactly who you are looking at. I think the three chapters are connected and that the camera used in all three are the same camera, but I'm not certain because it was difficult to tell who was whom. Without clear connections, the three chapters seem disjointed.

Related Trailers

The Sickhouse - Jonnie Hurn has a brief role in The Sickhouse. Archaeologist Anna (Gina Philips) is thrilled to excavate the site of a 17th-century plague hospital. But when her dig unleashes the spirit of a murderous doctor, she'll have to do all she can to thwart the hospital's dormant evil secrets from springing to life. Trapped inside the hospital with four trespassing teens, Anna must find a way out before history repeats itself. Who will become the next patient?



Hellbride - James Fisher also stars in Hellbride. When Nicole's (Rebecca Herod) boyfriend, Lee (James Fisher), proposes to her, she's in heaven -- until she puts on the ring. Then, she's in hell as visions of hideous creatures begin to haunt her and the ring itself becomes stuck. Such is the curse of the antique band that Lee unwittingly purchased, its original owner having been jilted at the altar. Now, the couple must unravel the mystery of the ring and shed its spell before it destroys them.

Horror Movie Review: Triangle

Triangle

Starring: Melissa George, Michael Dorman, and Liam Hemsworth

Directed by: Christopher Smith

Written by: Christopher Smith

Release Date: August 27, 2009

When I saw the trailer for Triangle, I knew I had to see it because in 2009 I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and I wrote about some kids getting stuck in the Bermuda Triangle. In Triangle, there is no direct reference to the Bermuda Triangle, but writer/director Christopher Smith has said early versions of the story were clearly set in the Bermuda Triangle despite the lack of reference in the movie. So for comparison sake, I had to check it out.

Jess (Melissa George) is a single mother trying to raise an autistic child. Her friend and possible romantic interest Greg (Michael Dorman) convinces her take take some time for herself and join him and his friends on his boat, the Triangle.

But when a storm system rolls in suddenly and capsizes the boat, Jess's small vacation starts giving her more stress. But a cruise ship comes coasting by and the survivors are able to climb on board. The boat seems abandoned and Jess seems oddly familiar with it. But then when they start getting killed off, Jess has to find a way to survive. But flashes of deja vu start to make Jess question what is really going on.


Triangle is a good old mind twist. Melissa George does a fine job leading the cast and Michael Dorman and Liam Hemsworth as Greg's assistant Victor do an okay job as well.

Triangle isn't about gore or shocks or even scaring us, but in challenging us to figure out what is going on. Even at the end when we see how some things are connected, we're still left wondering what exactly is going on.

Christopher Smith included some allusions to another mind twisting horror story, The Shining. An ax, a bloody message on a mirror, the maze like ship and its corridors, as an homage to the story.

Triangle is a fun watch to sit out and talk with others about what we saw, or to just mull over in your head, but it'll make you think...be warned.

Related Trailers

Turistas - Melissa George takes another fatal vacation as Pru in Turistas. In this gripping thriller from director John Stockwell (Blue Crush), a backpacking trip in Brazil turns dangerous for Alex (Josh Duhamel), Pru (Melissa George) and four of their college pals when they find themselves held captive by a radical military gang. The terrified friends fear they may never make it home alive when their captors prove that they'll do anything it takes to complete their ruthless mission.

Daybreakers - Michael Dorman also appears in Daybreakers. In the year 2019, a plague has transformed most every human into a vampire. Faced with a dwindling blood supply, the fractured dominant race plots their survival; meanwhile, a researcher works with a covert band of vamps on a way to save humankind.

Knowing - Liam Hemsworth also appears in Knowing. A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.

Creep - Writer/Director Christopher Smith also wrote and directed Creep. Trapped in a London subway station, a woman who's being pursued by a potential attacker heads into the unknown labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city's streets.