Dead Girl [DVD] [2008]

Rickie and JT and are two high school outsiders. From under-privileged backgrounds they know they are not destined for great things but that doesn't stop Rickie dreaming of Joanne Wheeler the popular girl he shared an innocent kiss with many years earlier. His advances are later shunned in favour of Johnny, a school jock from the right side of the tracks.

Skipping class, Rickie and JT take a few cans and break into the old "nuthouse", an abandoned asylum on the outskirts of town. Chased by an angry stray dog, it is in the basement they discover "dead girl". She is dead and alive, kind of zombified and inexplicably chained to a bed, which is just as well given her penchant for biting anything and anyone that comes close. Rickie wants out but JT, he of the more adventurous mind, has uses for her and soon makes the basement his own amusement park along with their grungy friend Wheeler. "Good" things don't stay secret for long and soon Johnny finds out about the girl and is egged on by Rickie to take a piece of the action. Not a good move...

Let's be honest, this film is in bad taste but it has a provocative story, some half-decent acting, some excellent humour (the petrol station) a grungy but rocking soundtrack and it works. It's not a total "gross-out", and it had me captivated from the outset. Despite the dead girl and the blood, it is a love story. It's about Rickie wanting what he can't have, or what he's told he can't....

Noah Segan reminds me of a young Christian Slater or even Christian Bale in American Psycho as the charismatic but deranged JT. He has nothing to lose and acts accordingly. Shiloh Fernandez underplays Rickie, the smarter and more sensitive of the two very well. It's not totally played for shocks, but there are enough of those for viewers who like to watch films through their hands. A tight cast and a well-placed plot make this a far better movie than I was ever expecting.

Dead Girl was never going to be an easy watch but I knew what I was letting myself in for after reading the blurb on the back of the film case. I've never been one to shy away from controversial films and have over the years seen the best and worst of what has been made and this film sits somewhere in the middle in terms of just how unsettling it actually was. Rape is always a controversial subject matter to tackle on film but combining it with horror themes of the apparent undead seemed to magnify just how horrific the assaults actually were. If the film had any sort of message contained in its narrative it would be that monsters can take any form, here the monster is clearly JT and his need to satisfy his sexual urges, he uses and abuses the girl without any consideration for her own situation, he isn't sympathetic or even curious as to why she is there or how long she has been abandoned for he simply sees her as something to screw. Rickie on the other hand is the more sympathetic of the two but even so has his own issues that make him a rather flawed character, he refuses to touch the girl and knows that JT is doing wrong and whilst he does make a half hearted attempt to free her he never commits to doing the right thing. Instead he allows JT to hold influence over him and in doing so makes him complicit.

The early parts of the film manage to build and maintain a great deal of tension as you never know quite what is going to happen next, for much of the opening sections the girl is JT and Rickie's dark secret, no one knows about her but them and JT exploits his influence over his friend. As the film progresses though more characters find out about the girl and this is where the film, for me, went a little off the rails. The more people that find out about DeadGirl the more ridiculous the film becomes as we are expected to believe that any teenage boy with raging hormones would choose to rape rather than help the girl, whilst I didn't get the impression the film was particularly 'anti-men' it certainly could be accused of being so and for me it should have been restricted to just the two main characters and their conflicting beliefs rather than bringing in other characters and expecting them to share the secret.

It's a difficult film to admire in all honesty and although bloody in places it isn't a mainstream horror, the film makers are deliberately vague in explaining who the girl is and why she is where she is so anyone looking for clear cut answers will be disappointed. The pacing is often times slow and the narrative seems to wander off in random directions and I often got the feeling that the film was trying to be more 'art house' than horror/drama. Acting wise all of the lead characters are good, both JT and Rickie are strongly portrayed and believable, JT is by far the darker of the two and Noah Segan does play the part well. The girl played by Jenny Spain doesn't have much to do for the majority of the film, she never speaks only grunts and always appears naked, she isn't the focus of the film though even though she is the titular character its the people around her who we follow, even in her somewhat limited role Spain does remain in character throughout and does give an outstanding performance.

Whilst the mid section of the film does seem to wander and loose focus by the time it comes to the end it manages to pack quite a punch with a visually shocking conclusion. The make up effects at the end are particularly good and look very realistic and a nice twisted ending should satisfy those with a sick sense of humour. The ending is worth waiting for and although I did lose interest in the film in places I did like the ending so it made the overall commitment to the film worthwhile.

It isn't a film for the faint-hearted and many will be appalled at what takes place so hopefully my review will serve as a warning that it does deal with some very heavy issues. For me it was a curious film and whilst I wouldn't say I 'enjoyed' it I did like the ending and the characterisations. 3 stars as a rating seems fair, thanks for reading my review.

The coming-of-age film is a genre that spans generations, that each era has it's own version of. Anything from oh, say "The Yearling" to "Trainspotting" qualifies regardless of barefoot-in-the-Ozarks or druggie-pouting respectively. Now, hold on to your Twitter Account folks, as we have a new one to add to that much vaunted list! We live in a world of violent teenagers, bad horror remakes and Economic crisis, so what would best sum this all up? "Deadgirl" tries, and although falters a bit with the execution, does quite a good job (actually).

Typical "outsider" templates JT and Rickie find solace in hanging around an old, disused Asylum when bored and out-of-sorts, and there one day they come across a naked, seemingly alive but unresponsive girl chained to a table in one of it's darkest recesses. JT fulfills his sickest fantasies on the girl (which I won't go into) and no matter what they do to her, she doesn't die - which in turn allows the sickos to invite in more losers to do what they wish, kind of like "Risky Business" as filtered through the mind of Stuart Gordon, perhaps. But, as you can no doubt figure out yourselves, there is a downside to this male bonding; she's a Zombie. Shock! Horror! Comatose just doesn't cut it.

It plays well on our societies apparent march towards the Cult of Dehumanization and all the questions that it implies; and, in the light of a current taste for teenagers-are-scum horror (See "Eden Lake" for clarification) no bases are left untouched when it comes to voyeurism and crass Daily Mail tut-tutting. However, the film does make us think about the limits of what people will do before they accept they've "gone too far" (and the Hubris that goes along with it). So, highly recommended, with a loss of stars for a crummy production look and slightly rotten acting. Better than the usual Slasher fare, let's leave it at that.