| Author | Message | ||
     Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.142 |
Anyone seen this? Craig? 'Deadgirl' (2009) By Mark H. Harris, About.com See More About: * deadgirl * zombies * sexual abuse * shiloh fernandez "'Deadgirl' movie poster."© Dark Sky Films Synopsis: Two teenage boys vandalizing an abandoned insane asylum discover the nude, dead body of young woman tied up in the basement. However, when the girl turns out not to be quite so dead, the boys engage in a battle of wills as they determine what to do with her. Cast: Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Candice Accola, Michael Bowen, Eric Podnar, Jenny Spain, Andrew DiPalma, Nolan Gerard Funk Director: Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel Studio: Dark Sky Pictures MPAA Rating: R Running Time: 101 minutes Release Date: July 24, 2009 | ||
| Craig (Craig) Username: Craig Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 75.5.11.182 |
Not heard of it, Frank... | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
A real shocker, apparently quite disturbing. I've only read about it so far. Trailer is here: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/07/01/deadgirl-trailer/ | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
Along similar lines: another indie fave finally gets to US theaters. I've been hearing about this one since 2007: http://www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/paranormalactivity/ | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Just ordered Deadgirl - looks amazing. Will you guys please stop spending my money? | ||
| Mick Curtis (Mick) Username: Mick Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.179.199.197 |
Just ordered Deadgirl Moi aussi... | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.142 |
The film company should pay me a commission. | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Frank, do you have a website/blog? If so, mate, reply here & I'll link it from my site.  | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.142 |
Steve - Not yet, mate. I decided when I sold 30 stories I'd get one sorted. So, ten more stories to go ): | ||
| Steve Jensen (Stevej) Username: Stevej Registered: 07-2009 Posted From: 82.0.77.233 |
Blimey, 20 sales(!) Well done, chief. Even when I give fiction away for free, people still ask for their money back...   | ||
| Frank (Frank) Username: Frank Registered: 09-2008 Posted From: 213.158.199.142 |
Cheers, boss. I like the chief bit. I think it suits me I should amend that. I have yet to see some of them published or have yet to be paid. But I do it because I'm pretty much lost without it. | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 98.220.97.79 |
Just saw this one. A bit sloppy with the plot, but it has some nice moments. It's not as violent or as disturbing as its reputation suggests, but it certainly has its ethical quandaries. I liked it, but I think it could have used a rewrite or two. I was very pleased the filmmakers didn't feel the need to explain everything away, though. Zed, you seen it yet? What did you think? | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.240.106 |
Chris - yes, I saw it last week. My feelings are much the same as your own. It was a tad sloppy, but had some moments of genuine horror. I'm still not sure if it was mysoginistic or not, you know. A better director could've nailed this down, but I felt that was a particular weakness, and made me feel uneasy about what I was watching. | ||
| Kate (Kathleen) Username: Kathleen Registered: 09-2009 Posted From: 76.238.190.27 |
I posted my own review of it back in June. Here's what I wrote: Is it necrophilia if she's UN-dead? Anyone seen deadgirl? I got the DVD yesterday. I'd seen the trailer way back when and it seemed very much my kind of setup: two boys are exploring a derelict hospital and they find a naked dead (or is she?) girl chained to a bed in the basement. "We could keep her," one boy says wistfully. Well, it certainly had some of the promised "unforgettable" imagery (alas!) and a couple of decent startles, but ultimately it seemed like a weird and unworthy marriage of River's Edge and I Spit On Your Grave. Characterisation? Um, none, really. The writer said that the two boys represent opposite facets of his personality - ego and id, to cut to the chase. Beyond that I had trouble telling them apart. Add to that the fact that the actors seemed to be ad-libbing most of the time. I'm not put off by bad language, but literally every other word out of every actor's mouth was some variation of fuck. As in: "Fuck, man, you stupid fuckin' fuck, you are dis-invited from my fuckin' basement, man!" Wow. Scintillating. Then there's the slightly thick kid who gets in on the action later and brags about their exploits to the footballer who's just beaten him and the protagonist up (for "lookin' at my fuckin' girlfriend, man!"). Of course, the sport boy and his pal demand to be shown this girl and what happens next would have been wildly implausible if I hadn't already given up on the film making any kind of sense. Apparently, every single teenage male is a potential necrophile rapist. I'm not sure what the point of this film is, but I found it pretty nasty and repellent. And I have a strong stomach for such things. One thing I found weirdly unsettling was the fact that the "making of" featurette has interviews with all the main actors - EXCEPT the "deadgirl" herself. I'm not sure why that bothered me. But it did. Good heavens, could it be that even I have limits?  | ||
| Chris_morris (Chris_morris) Username: Chris_morris Registered: 04-2008 Posted From: 12.165.240.116 |
>> I'm still not sure if it was mysoginistic or not I know what you mean. Is a story misogynistic if it's so very aware of its own misogyny? DEADGIRL wallows in misogyny; almost all its power comes from the shock of blunt-force misogyny. By the end of the film, it's clear that Rickie, the protagonist, has been caught up in a struggle with his own misogynistic tendencies. But in a way the film is redeemed by allegory: by implying our culture is struggling with these same misogynistic tendencies, the film becomes the messenger, not the message, and lets itself off the hook. In the way, then, the filmmakers want to titillate the audience and then make them feel bad about succumbing to the titillation. This strategy reminds me (somewhat) of Haneke's in FUNNY GAMES. However, the film has many flaws. The characters' motivations are often clumsy and contrived -- that is, the characters often do things solely in order to advance the plot. Characters aren't always clearly delineated from each other. The dialogue is often weak and unconvincing. In my view these are the film's main flaws. By the end these problems bothered me more than the misogyny. | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 213.219.8.243 |
Some insightful comments here... |