Deadline

This gory and admirably engrossing Canadian horror is rarely seen and suitably obscure.It tells the story of an accomplished writer of horror scripts,who is plagued by ghastly visions of horror and bloody carnage.His ideas are often outrageous and transgressive.He writes about cannibalistic nuns,satanic goats and murderous children with gasoline.He is constantly fighting with his drug-addicted wife and his three children are neglected.When his small daughter is hanged his life breaks down into nightmarish pieces."Deadline" is about dysfunctional Canadian family and their tortured lives.The film is very gory,but the gore scenes are all shots from various movies Steve did.The acting is great and the atmosphere is sleazy and washed-out."Deadline" hates horror genre,but it works as a grimly effective shocker.8 out of 10 for this obscure horror classic.

This Canadian film is often sold as a horror film but it is actually a twisted drama. Stephen Young stars as Steven Lessey, a successful author and screenwriter who is having a bad case of writer's block. The works he has profited from don't satisfy him now and he is searching for "true horror" to write about. As the film progresses, his personal life begins to unravel alongside a series of hallucinations.

DEADLINE is a mixed bag. Its biggest flaw is that there are no likable characters in the film. Young's character is a jerk and his wife is just as bad. I couldn't care less what happens to these self centered people. Director Mario Azzopardi also makes sure to distance mainstream audiences by filling the scenes from Lessey's head with extremely graphic gore. It is well done but probably sends the audiences looking for a drama running. However, the film does make some interesting statements on the influence of violence in cinema and some of the hallucination scenes are truly haunting. Cindy Hinds, the young girl from Cronenberg's THE BROOD, co-stars as Lessey's daughter.

What a curious and weird Canadian production this turned out to be. About a horror screenwriter on a slow descent into depravity while trying to come up with his next screenplay, all this under pressure of his producer. There isn't much of a story present to carry the film, but other things manage to do this. First off, there are plenty of scenes portraying the kind of fiction our writer writes about. We're talking some graphic scenes of gore & bloodshed here, so be prepared for that. Then it seems this film tries to raise some issues about these topics. Like why write about such extremities? Like a producer that's only interested in having his screenwriter deliver what sells: sex & violence. Soon our writer can't get another coherent scene on paper anymore, and his mind starts deteriorating accordingly. His cynical wife isn't of much help. He starts having violent outbursts. His kids get scared. Then comes alcohol, drugs, women. Not sure what to think of this film, as it all seems so pointless in the end. But it was, uhm, an interesting watch.

This overlooked analysis of a man spiraling into madness is surprisingly brainy, and skillfully realized on meager rations.

A horror novelist's dark fantasy world collides with his personal reality, causing a landslide of hallucinatory dementia within both his family life and his his professional endeavors. A very ominous and disorienting Canadian-made nightmare oozing with abstract, disturbing imagery, DEADLINE also benefits from able performers and edgy directorial flourishes. These refinements, conjoint with a conceptually alluring premise, catapult this film above and beyond most horror menu side-orders. As an extra bonus, the legendary new-wave band ROUGH TRADE makes a welcome appearance, just as they were charting with the single HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL.

7/10...definitely worthy of a rental, if not a purchase.

Make no mistake this is a good horror film. It has some nice chills, good amount of gore and some disturbing moments that will be with you after the film has ended. But Azzopardi has attempted not just the usual horror flick here; he has fashioned an allegorical gem based on the debate over violence in the media using a horror writer and his family as the focus. Azzopardi has also crafted a post modern film which is self-commenting, non-linear, and offers no definitive resolution for all of his characters which can tend to instill an unsatisfying or muddled ending. However, this film should be viewed as ahead of its time in its treatment of the subject matter and original way of presenting it. The style of the film owes much more to the Italian horror masters (Argento, Fulci, etc.) than it does to North American cinema as Azzopardi, made his mark in Canadian cinema. It should also be noted that while the film is allegory, it was apparent to me that Stephen King was the basis for the main character (even his name is Stephen) and pre-dates any self-referential treatment (The Dark Half) from King by almost a decade. In this regard, the film remains highly original in theme and still well worth watching. Bottom Line: good horror film that will evoke Italian cinema but you must be willing to put the pieces together on your own...a thinking person's horror film.