Review of Deadgirl (2008) by Stephen D — 02 Mar 2010

During a fire drill, high school friends Ricky & JT decide to skip school & head to the old abandoned sanitarium near town for some beer and fun. While exploring, they find themselves down in the basement and discover something incredibly strange: a live naked woman strapped to a table. And even stranger, they discover that this woman cannot die. JT then proceeds to think about all the things they could do with her, while Ricky is unsure of the whole situation.

Well it's certainly original, I can give it that. The plot is easily the strangest I've read; far-and-away from average horror/drama films despite being quite simple and creepy from the get-go, if in a different fashion than usual. The acting was surprisingly decent, and the performances from Shiloh Fernandez & Noah Segan were actually quite drawing with Fernandez as the well-meaning teen struggling to stay that way against Segan's character slowly descending into obsession and madness. As a matter of fact the entire (all indy) cast really pulls off the typical 'high school kids' act, which adds what little credibility there is to the movie. But that credibility is all but stripped away by the strange behavior of the characters. The directing was fine, really helping us get into the characters and bring out the events as 'naturally' as possible while adding a bit of dark comedy to the mix. The premise sounds like something from a demented game of 'what-if' scenarios and really feels that way as it wraps around the other elements of the movie. I'll just come out and say it: it's gross. It's disgusting, audacious, and horrifying. It knows it, and it uses it to become an effective if somewhat scarring exercise in human behavior, zero-ing in on male sexuality combined with teen angst. And these things really are presented fairly well, coming from someone who was looking left and right for symbolism and ended up having it presented to me. The pacing to the film is fine, slowing down a bit around the middle and letting us writhe in the discomfort. But it really pulls out all the stops for the finale, which continues the dark and terrible tone of the film as if it were a message about downright the evils of the human race. The film does stay strangely compelling for as long as it can, but there are too many plotholes to count. Overall the performances, directing, script, plot, and progression were all equally interesting. But despite its deep and effective message that it ultimately produces, the means to get there were simply too tasteless, too dark, and downright uncomfortable for the average audience, or just about anyone. That added to the somewhat unbelievable characters and more holes than a wheel of Swiss cheese ultimately sink the film. A well-presented and interesting message, but it's not really worth it. So I give "Deadgirl" 4 bites out of 10.