Dead and Gone

Perhaps I shouldn't be writing a review as I had to turn off after about forty minutes due to the total lack of originality, terrible pacing, and the incredibly poor attempts to copy Japanese horror shock tactics. In addition the acting was largely terrible with the exception of the female lead who was interesting and likable both in appearance and acting style.

I couldn't decide what was more wooden, the cabin or the leading man who I was surprised to find was an experienced UK TV actor (although I'd never seen him in anything) and not a friend of the director who had never acted before. Ironically the character he played was an artist who had a shot at Hollywood stardom and blew it because he "sucked" at acting, I suspect real life will mirror art.

CGI was quite good for such a low budget film however prosthetic effects looked like body parts from shop dummies.

Despite all the negatives the visual style and lighting were particularly good as in places was the editing although the use of Matrix style speed ramping was completely out of place given the nature of the story.

As is becoming the practice with such films I suspect the other rave reviews are from people connected with the production (when will I learn not to believe them). Maybe this is why I'm being so harsh, you people have to stop doing this I simply can't believe anyone with any knowledge of modern horror could give this film a positive review.

(2008) Dead And Gone HORROR

Anybody who crave to see different versions of Kubrick's "The Shining" should be able to like this film to which is a much lower budgeted version. Story shows a previous history that occurred in an isolated cabin in the neck of the woods when a husband shoots and kills his whole family which includes wife and child before shooting himself. Then the film jumps to the present time showing a young Englishman moving in with his wife on a breathing ventilator and in a coma which is later revealed was a result of a botched plastic surgery operation and they both ended up staying in this cabin was because of a poker game that this Brit won and decided to take advantage of it since he hardly has any money left! But before some of the revelations, he's also slowly driven mad by creating other people that don't exist or different character traits on actual people, it's suspected that this was a result of living alone with no one to talk to and that the cabin itself has a lot to blame as well because of a previous incident creating delusional thoughts and the film dwells on this a lot with more unsurprising revelations toward the end. The last five minutes of the film absolutely makes no sense despite being well made.

David Lynch meets Evil Dead 2 with some Deliverance thrown in? Trying to make sense of this film is like trying to find something worthwhile in the last eight years - it isn't going to happen.

If you are looking for typical horror with breasts and gore, it has that, although the gore is more Japanese style with the pumping blood after heads roll. You will, of course, enjoy the display by Gillian Shure (Disturbia) as the Constable.

But what the film really contains is a story of madness. Did Jack (Quentin Jones) bring the madness with him when he took his comatose wife (Kathrine Bates) to a haunted cabin, or did the ghosts of the cabin infect him to the point where he killed and killed again? It may take a couple of watchings to be sure and, even then, I doubt you will be. Good performances by Quentin Jones and Robert Herrick.

Fans will be surprised by the cameos: Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), Marilyn Ghigliotti (Clerks), Zack Ward (Freddy vs. Jason) and Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp).

Watched it on DVD without knowing anything about it, there was no plot synopsis, no rating, nor any comments on IMDb as I inserted this disc on its release date.

Early on it is clear that it is very low budget, I later learned that it was approx. $500,000. The video is of sharp quality but without Hollywoodesque professional lighting. That part might actually please some viewers.

An interesting shamble of actors show up for this one, several B celebrities from various professions who may or may not be known to you. I particularly liked the female law enforcer, mainly because of her looks; but also because of something else in her character. The acting in this film, while unimpressive, is not the problem. The main story is thin and its background story alike, but this isn't the problem either. Many aspects of this movie are found lacking, such as the dialogue, but not lacking enough to make me dislike the film. No, the problems I perceived were about pacing, logic and the lack of ever coming close to being scary. Because that is how I like my horror movies - scary. This one isn't.

I cannot recommend it to anyone in particular, but horror fans like myself will watch this regardless of warnings. So I wish you pleasant viewing. :)

I just finished watching this and I must comment on how well this film worked. I walked into it with no expectations, and walked away feeling like, finally, there's some hope for the horror genre yet. Even with a relatively low budget, the movie had good story, decent acting, gore, and none of the generic cliché moments that plague today's teeny horror films. With a nod or two, some purists will see the links with films such as Amityville Horror, The Shining, Poltergeist, Evil Dead 2 & even the Troma classic Mother's Day. If you are a fan of the brilliant style of horror from the mid 80's, you will not be disappointed in the styling, story, and cinematography of this film.