Dead and Gone

On paper "Dead and Gone" truly sounded like an entertaining and potentially imaginative new zero-budgeted little horror flick. The basic plot description is original, the remote forestry settings are marvelous (with echoes of "The Evil Dead" and David Lynch's "Twin Peaks") and the trailer clearly indicated a mixture of black comedy, splatter and psychedelic plot twists. Unfortunately, however, the finished product is an utter mess of a film that turned out boring and ridicule instead of inventive and compelling. It's difficult to point out what exactly went wrong here, but debuting writer Harry Shannon and inexperienced director Yossi Sasson obviously lost their grip on the screenplay right from the beginning. The intended effect of 'is all this happening for real or just occurring inside the protagonist's mentally unstable mind' is never reached and Quinten Jones' performance is far too weak for anyone to care about his gradual descent into madness. He depicts a lowlife actor married to a much older wife who's in a permanent state of coma following a plastic surgery gone awry. The wife's family refused to include Jack in the testament, so he saw no other option than to kidnap her body and hide in a secluded mountain cottage. This happens to be the same cottage where an entire family was brutally slain nearly forty years ago and, on top of that, the closest neighbors are either homosexually perverted delivery boys or desperate sex-craving female deputies. As Jack slowly loses his mind, his wife awakes from her coma and mocks him. Eventually he has no other choice than to pull the plug on her, but the mean-spirited shrew keeps coming back in further evolved states of decay. "Dead and Gone" is primarily a very boring film! The story repeatedly follows Jack's irrelevant and pointless daily routines of running through the woods, draw hideous designs on his porch, chop wood and bicker with his chain-smoking dead wife. The cottage's sinister past is hardly even referred to anymore after the opening credits and Jack's interactions with the deranged locals seemingly just serve as time-filling footage. There are so many other interesting aspects that remain unprocessed, like Jack's liaison with the family attorney or the bizarre war traumas of sexy deputy Kate. "Dead and Gone" features nothing even remotely resembling an horrific atmosphere or nightmarish imagery. Usually, low-budgeted independent horror flicks like this have to rely on grainy cinematography and/or deeply perverted insinuations, but this movie looks and feels as it was made by freshly graduated film students who wanted to do everything nicely by the book. The make-up effects are often downright pathetic and evoke laughter instead of frights. If this was meant as homage to the original "The Evil Dead", then Sam Raimi definitely shouldn't feel honored. The acting performances are miserable, with the one notable exception of Felissa Rose as Jack's attorney. Fans of nonsensical Z-grade horror smut will certainly recognize her odd face, as she was the one and only Angela from "Sleepaway Camp" in 1983.

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. :)

(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.

Although this movie has a lot of negative reviews, it's a good film in my view.. Don't go to the theaters as u may turn disappointed, but if u r bored and have no job left, then go for this movie in D V D ONLY.. It is really a good film. U may also see that the characters are not acting well.. They seem to perform artificial acting.. But one to say the movie really contains enough bloody scenes which may not be suitable for kids.. This crew is really a worst selection. If the artists were selected in a proper manner, i assure you that many would like this film. The film's plot is really nice and the way the director takes a twist after nearly 10 minutes (I guess..) is a wholesome entertainer. The way the story was presented to the viewers was very good.. So i am sure that after reading my review you would be in a position to take a suitable decision whether to watch this film or not.

This sucked, big time.

Sock puppeteering is not acceptable in art. In other words, don't toot your own horn pretending to not be associated with, and in this case, the hack-write of this piece of trash.

This film was forced, the acting dry.

Done by people who just want to build up a resume.

Why build a resume of junk? Just to have a sheet of paper to point to? Or a page on IMDb? I love B films and never take them seriously, but trying to tell people to not take it too seriously after all the bad reviews is as transparent as the plot and story.

Stick to for-the-love internet zines. That way all your buddies can pat you on the back and make you feel like you have talent.