A winner? Well yes, because chances that you'll ever stumble upon a horror film worse than this are slim or even next to none! Sometimes the title summarizes everything quite accurately, right? "Dismal" is a downright dreadful and almost pitiably amateurish fan-boy effort without any redeeming qualities whatsoever. The plot is derivative of approximately three dozen of other (and much better) films, the attempts to insert tongue-in-cheek humor and genre references are miserable, the acting and directing are utterly incompetent and the make-up & gore effects easily rank among the lousiest I've ever witnessed. Once again, a group of dim-witted college students venture into an unlikely backwoods domain, a swamp this time, hoping this will help them obtain better grades and a recommendation from their teacher. But, big surprise, the only thing they face is a cannibalistic and mentally deranged pair of brothers. Bo Buckley's script is dull, predictable and uninspired, whereas certain basic elements (like tension-building, character development or creativity) aren't even attempted at. The use of computer-generated effects in slasher films is already a bad idea to begin with, but some of the trash shown in "Dismal" is beyond embarrassing. The girl falling face-down in a bear trap, or another girl getting cut in half by a cable cord, are just two examples of the poorest and least convincing slasher-deaths in history. "Dismal" only deserves a rating 1/10, but I'm generously giving it a 2 because I like the images of the fake giant crocodile and because the three lead girls are attractive (especially the petite blonde). If they were ever hoping to build a career in the film industry, they surely auditioned for the wrong movie.
