Deadgirl (2008) Movie Review, Trailer, Film Still and Poster

USA 2008
Director: Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel
Cast: Jenny Spain, Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Eric Podnar, Candice Accola, Andrew DiPalma
Rating: R
Release Date: 19 September 2008
Running Time: 1 hour 38 minutes

The Movie Review

Deadgirl film still 1


DEADGIRL
Storyline:
Cast:
Ending:
Overall:

Having a job as a movie reviewer, I have to accept to be smacked, slapped, and piled with any movies, bad, good, worst, awesome, suck 'n take them all. But sometimes after viewing a couple of movies which were big bummers, once I got at least a decent one, the movie became seems so wonderful, and that's what I expected at first from Deadgirl, a decent one at least was enough to make my day. But what I got was beyond expectation, this independent film is powerful and it's beyond decent, it's awesome! So let's see what it offers us.

It's a regular boring day at school, so Ricky (Shiloh Fernandez) and his best friend J.T. (Noah Segan) decide to have some boozing time at an abandoned hospital. At one moment, Ricky shows a little discouragement for the total emptiness of the hospital, so J.T. teases him that he knows about a creepier place down at the tunnels. They go there to have a bit of adventure, but instead of that, they bump into something totally creepy, totally illogical, totally mysterious but also totally hot! The Deadgirl! The psychotic J.T. ambitiously trying to own the deadgirl (Jenny Spain) for his own benefit, while Ricky is in a double shocked condition knowing his best friend's twisted intention. In this condition, secret is merely a term, because rumor is starting to spread about this mysterious being, and soon Ricky and J.T. are into more trouble, since they don't have any single clue about the true origin about their finding. What will J.T. do to deadgirl who is chained to her bed? And what will Rick do about it? Who is Deadgirl really?

Outstanding... Deadgirl is just outstanding, not because of its great capability of delivering good sense of terror, but it is also very emotional, convincingly shocking, and confidently disturbing! It mixes up your emotion, shakes it, throws it on a bowl and then mixes it up again. We as moviegoers would feel emotionally-attached to The Deadgirl, to the story and of course to the mystery. You're gonna feel terrified, sad, repulsed, disgusted, excited, angry, and shocked by the scenes and even chuckle on its sickly comedy. The tension within the drama makes this movie more than just a horror movie with scare-factors, it's a horror movie with a story. And talking about comedy, have you gotta see the scene in the gas station! Hilarious! Accompanied with an easy-listening music soundtrack? Nice pick. The powerful story of the Deadgirl might pop up the old question in your mind, "Who is the evil one?" and "Who is the 'evil' one?". In this horror movie, we are presented with two different sort of evil, which is a rarity.

As outstanding as this movie is, it would be nothing without the daring performance of the lead actress Jenny Spain, in her acting debut, she dared to give it all! Her dedication reminds me a lot of Blythe Auffarth of The Girl Next Door (2007), and apparently the more I think of it, the movie Deadgirl also bears several resemblance to The Girl Next Door, the concept of a young woman 'imprisoned' and then people start to gather to make it even worse day, The Girl Next Door also doesn't shy away from making its audience's hearts pound faster.

Deadgirl daringly mixes up supernatural horror, sci-fi, and even gore, of course nudity is a must in this indie horror film. And I say daring, because most of movies who tried recklessly to combine many elements into one usually ended up failing miserably. Unwatchable mess. But Deadgirl is going so well and even the pace doesn't drag. Some flaws are unfortunately exist, the writers try to make us feel attached with Ricky who's in love with his school friend JoAnn (Candice Accola), but their relationship and their story feel forced, even though, the writer used it as building block for the finale scene. Still, it's a flaw. Besides Candice Accola's acting quality is disappointing if being compared to her colleagues, her crying scene is so forced and oh she sure lessens the tension built up. Very different with Jenny Spain, Noah Segan and Eric Podnar's good performances.

I'm really amazed of this horror movie, it's a gem shines brightly. It has the guts to be different, it has the muscles to rip apart decency and to point out the evil side of a man. Nevertheless sadly..., and I'm very upset about this, it doesn't have enough brains to end it properly and satisfyingly. The end is a big bummer! With the tension going on and the great mystery of Deadgirl's origin, which would cause all these questions popped in your head "Is she this?", "Is she that?" "I bet that she is bla bla bla!", and it turns out that the filmmakers themselves were perhaps confused to end their story. It's like when you're in line at some amusement park waiting to get on a rollercoaster, and just when it's your turn to hop in, suddenly... an announcement shouts "Sorry dude, it's broken!" Duh! Talking about getting emotional without proper ending. It is understandable that probably the filmmakers try to hide a few frames to make the finale shocking, but the truth is for what happen to the protagonists, we could only make assumptions. And just probably Deadgirl relies heavily on the name of "Open Interpretation" just for the excuse to left the audience dangling in a gigantic question mark. Probably.