Dead Still

I am surprise to see so many good reviews from users, with so low rating of the film.

Believe the rating.

This movie is bad, generally speaking. The story is weak, and there are so many inconsistencies, perhaps for the incompetence of the filmmakers, not really because it was unavoidable. Bad timing, wrong reactions to situations... etc.

Maybe the only thing that was notable was the not-so-bad costumes and the filming locations. But it was at all enough.

Finally , the acting was completely shocking, negligent.

The story of Victorian death photography: wasted.

Plot

Upon the death of his great grandfather, Brandon Davis a wedding photographer inherits an antique camera famous for taking Victorian death photography. After photographing his subjects they start to die from horrible, bizarre deaths.

Cast

Ben "Farscape" Browder and Ray Wise

Verdict

I was frustratingly excited by this, horror, Ben Browder, Ray Wise and the cover looked like my kind of horror! Bring it on I thought. I should have remembered Wise does a lot of terrible films and that outside of Farscape I've not seen Browder in anything enjoyable.

It has the "Killer camera" theme which we've seen several times before, the concept here is tweaked but doesn't deliver anything we've not really seen before.

Browder and Wise phone in their performances, this is a paycheck they did not earn.

The movie itself is oddly boring considering the subject matter, it plods along at an uneven pace, never really gets going, the kills are dreadfully handled and it builds to a weirdly drawn out finale that actually had me cringing.

Dead Still is one to skip over or put on if you have absolutely nothing else available to you and you're already too drunk to care.

Rants

So let's talk about the son, this kid is so alarmingly feminine I struggled to believe they were actually a boy until I Googled it. Don't get me wrong this isn't a dig in anyway shape or form, it was just a bizarre casting choice. Was the kid wearing eye liner? You'll think it's a daughter throughout especially since they're mute in the movie. The actor himself rather unsurprisingly went into one of the vampire teen melodrama things, he certainly comes under the pretty boy category and then some. I wish I was pretty, I like like a shaven potato .

Breakdown

Mostly pretty ugly Cast just don't try Never really gets going Boring Truly awful finale.

I've seen a lot of Horror Movies, and although most aren't even a touch original, I still have no Idea what I was expecting from Dead Still. If you haven't already seen it, spare yourself the 80+ Minutes of your Life you'll never get back. The acting was awkward, and uncomfortable to watch, almost like watching a School play performed by 12 year olds. If that Isn't enough to put you off, the Storyline is probably something you've seen at least a dozen times. The crappy Dialogue also left a bad taste in my mouth. I lost count of how many times I cringed while subjecting myself to this "film". Not only does the whole thing feel forced, almost like the script was a rush Job to try make a few bucks, it actually felt like a chore to sit there and watch it to the end. Sure, I was cheering when the credits rolled, but not for the right reasons.

I was sorely disappointed in this film. It had stylistic potential which it never fully exploited. Ben Browder, Ray Wise and all the children turned in fine performances, but the rest of the cast with speaking lines were stiff, awkward, one dimensional, and sometimes just annoying. One has to wonder if, despite their professional credits, they've ever acted at all. It's somewhat shocking to find them working alongside the likes of skilled actors such as Browder and Wise.

The plot was a tired re-tread of a haunted camera trope, supposed "based on true events". One comes to expect this sort of statement from the Booth Brothers, but we could have done it this time out.

As a result of this, watching Dead Still became something of an endurance sport. Perhaps turning it into a drinking game would have improved the experience.

Not that I thought that Dead Still wouldn't work, in fact the concept was a good one and had the makings of a fun movie at least. It is however a concept that is not much new and there was the worry that Dead Still would do little with it. Actually Dead Still was better than anticipated, it is uneven and one does wish it did more with the concept but it is far from a waste of time. Starting with what was good with Dead Still is that it looks pretty good for a small budget movie, some of the camera work is a little too obvious on occasions but it actually flows and doesn't seem too jerky, and when it is the latter it doesn't feel over-used and actually adds to the scene. It won't win Best Photography any time soon but you shouldn't expect that, this is photography that looks like it was done with some professionalism. The make-up doesn't look too fake, the lighting is never too dark and the sets while not beautiful(though it's not the film for that) are hardly people's basement quality. The music has some eeriness without being too repetitive or predictable, and there is a decent degree of suspense once the movie gets going with some genuinely shocking moments and some extremely graphic and quite creepy death scenes. There are also three good performances, from Ben Browder, Gavin Casalegno and in particular Ray Wise. Browder has the most potentially identifiable role in the movie and brings dignity and gravitas to it, Casalegno's performance is enormously expressive and remarkably mostly with body language doing all the talking and Wise is deliciously evil as a character with no redeeming qualities and is clearly having a whale of a time.

There is however some terrible supporting acting, especially from Eric Ruff who goes so overboard as the Professor that it's painful to watch and feels like it belongs in another movie altogether while Elle Lamont and Carrie Lazar are rather stiff, though nowhere ever near as bad as Ruff. But they are not helped by that all the characters are very one-dimensional with very little character arcs and next to no motivation, and that Dead Still's script is very weak with some stilted dialogue and conversations that don't lead to much. As aforementioned, you do wish they did much more with the storytelling, there are suspenseful moments and some very creepy scenes mainly in the second half but the story does suffer from trying to take on too much and not exploring its ideas enough, especially the entire mirror-world thing that was really underused here. You are constantly asking yourself why the characters are acting the way they are, Brandon's fight never resonates, the storyline with his son has little back-story or motivation and just seems and the movie never explains why the son is mute or why the prophesy is as it is. In conclusion, Dead Still a very uneven movie but at least there were glimpses of effort and that while there was wasted potential it never felt like you regretted watching it. 5/10 Bethany Cox