The Dread
Suffixes are interesting. Dread has one meaning, dreadful another. This movie makes its own contribution to grammar though. The Dread is dreadful.
Director, Michael Spence, had made two movies before Dread so we should rightfully expect more based on his having had relevant experience. Despite a competent slasher intro, the acting is wooden, the action, well, non-existent and the general tone lacklustre.
The best part of the movie takes place during the credits.
I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that the movie is about a sister, Sally Pressmanas as Teri, who starts to have doubts about her brother, Ryan Welsh as Chris,
who is institutionalized in a mental health facility. The action, such as it is, starts when Teri starts visiting Chris.
Oh, and the odd couple who are desperate to have sex in a mental health facility, well, they did provide the obligatory breast shot that is required of this type of film. Otherwise, what was their function?
Sally Pressman has a lot going for her. A successful modelling career, university graduate and trained ballet dancer. How did she end up in this? How did she end up being so bad in this?
Ryan Welsh, well, he has form with this sort of thing.
With all due respect to Days of Our Lives, it was hardly a quality production in the mid-sixties. The Dread, echoes those production values, evident in Days of 1965. The problem is The Dread was made in 2007.
Director Michael Spence co-wrote The Dread with Karen C. O'Malley. What an indictment against the American education system. The dialogue is stilted and lacking in any emotive variation at all. Spence and O'Malley must have seen quality movies in their personal lives. Copy what the successful do!
It takes Pressman 45 minutes to visit her brother. This is when the movie really starts. That's 45 minutes into a 95 minute movie. Oh, and she parks in a disabled car park when she does eventually visit.
Ryan Walshe's character suffers from SRD. I'm not really given to viciousness but, stupid, really dumb, was the first thing which ran through my mind. Other commentators have mentioned The Dread in the context of Halloween. As we in Australia say, they are drawing a damn long bow. There is no real resonance between the two.
Oh, there is a minor character, a female in-patient, the actors name is Chelsea Simeon I think, who wears a onsey, and is quite sweet and engaging. I don't know that investing 95 minutes for a 2 minute walk on is a good return though.
No one deliberately sets out to make a bad production. (Well maybe Mel Brookes in The Producers.) I'm certain that all involved had high hopes for The Dread. Both they and the viewer have had those hopes dashed.
