Customer Reviews

DEADLY END

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hurricane fences. Lawns gone fallow. Abandoned cars. Rubbish strewn vacant lots. Boxes full of cheap trinkets. Street after street of identical tract homes. Wood paneling. Indifferent receptionists. Retirees waiting to die. Irritable neighbors. Unpainted drywall. Flickering fluorescent lights. Cheap linoleum floors. Nothing on TV ...

Deadly End, when it went under the name of Neighborhood Watch while on the film festival circuit generated an intriguing buzz. Some found it the most disturbing film, ever. Still other viewers likened it to the works of David Lynch. There were even audience members who actively disliked the film, calling it "tedious and unwatchable."

The story is no great shakes. Bob (Jack Huston) is a young British yuppie out to carve a niche for himself in corporate America who lands a job in Nowheresville, California. His cheerful American bride Wendi (Pell James) is along for the ride, and blinded by new and exciting possibilities, the couple moves into a distressed suburban hellhole. The people in the surrounding area appear to be less than ideal. The elderly couple across the way seems to be in the final stages of dementia, and their overly enthusiastic next-door neighbor Adrien (reliable character actor Nick Searcy) showers the newlyweds with booby-trapped gifts. Flower arrangements composed of sprigs of poison oak and chocolates laced with horse laxatives send our lovebirds to the hospital emergency room, and a war of wills ensues.

Deadly End has several implausibility issues. The police force in the film waives away the many complaints filed against Adrien due to his father being the mayor, in spite of all the ensuing mayhem. Our couple seems more than a bit naïve as well. It's perplexing why they just don't flee the area and check into a local Motel 6.

What Deadly End has going for it in spades is a suffocating, soul-crushing atmosphere of ennui and despair. One doesn't need a haunted house, an isolated stretch of countryside or threatening urban setting as a setting of horror; one only has to look at the long stretches of housing thrown up overnight to accommodate an influx of ready labor that has fallen into ruin just as quickly. Deadly End makes many pointed observations about the American ideal of home and safety, and just how fragile popular hopes and expectations can be dashed against broken concrete sidewalks.

Deadly End has a slow, leisurely pace - but be forewarned that the ending is just as graphic and gross as anything Takashi Miike can dish out. It's not a film for the squeamish, and is definitely not for children. While Deadly End can be recommended as a solid rental over the dross of countless other horror titles vying for shelf space at the local Blockbuster, this reviewer suspects its cult appeal will be limited to those who can appreciate its depiction of a surreal, hellish landscape that can be readily viewed out of any back window.

First of all, I rented this just because I didn't see anything else that looked interesting and I was in a hurry. Also, I watched it alone due to an aversion to violence on the part of my viewing partner. I'm glad I watched it alone so no one could see me cringing like a little girl. The special effects at the end of this film were simply awesome. I was astonished and repulsed by what I was seeing and it was great. This is not your typical teen slasher movie. This had some real horror to the point of being downright scary. It didn't hurt to have terrific performances by the entire cast and that goes right down to the attendees of the neighborhood watch meeting. The little old lady who wanted desserts was great in her role. This film is not for everyone, but if you like some gore and some terror without any explicit sex, this might be for you. I was kind of disapointed at one thing though. I thought the woman at Zeecor would have more of a role in the film. She was good in her part, but I thought for sure she was going to seduce someone. There's not a lot of action in this film or any over the top cheap scares, just a solid effort of building to a fine and gruesome climax.

I was at the New York City Horror Film Festival to support my short film "Newlybleds" and while there had the chance to see this film screened under its original title "Neighborhood Watch." Let me just say that it made a very lasting impression. I squirmed in my seat and laughed out loud to hold back the horror as the strikingly authentic gore was unleashed time and time again.

One guy even fainted in the middle of the movie and had to be carried out.

Anyway, gore aside...the acting is great and the actors are first rate for a film that had such a limited budget.

My favorite memory is as the credits rolled and the lights came up, my friend looked over at me and said "That was the most disturbing film I have ever seen." Little did we know the producer for the "Deadly End" was sitting behind us and laughed saying "You just made my night."

Take a chance. Bring a vomit bag. This film will make your night.

Here's a scenario from Deadly End that should tell you right away if this is the type of movie you really want to watch or not... a man uses his finger to have sex with an open wound on his stomach while repeatedly stabbing himself in the privates with a syringe(which of course brings him great pleasure). I CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP PEOPLE! Deadly End tells the tale of Wendy and Bob Peterson and their neighbor from Hell, Adrian Trumbull. Adrian welcomes them to the neighborhood with all sorts of devious tricks(that oddly enough would have fit just as well in a Home Alone movie) such as a boquet of poison oak and chocolates filled with laxitives(!?). Things get much darker and bring far more serious consequences when the Petersons confront him about his recent "gifts"... hijinx ensue! Deadly End is a pretty methodical horror/thriller that every once in awhile tosses in a moment of complete over the top madness like the one mentioned at the top of the review. The end result is a mixed bag that does more right due to solid performances(including Nick Searcy giving an inspired performance as Trumbull) and a finale that should churn the stomach of even the most hardened horror fans(and done with some of the best low budget effects I've ever seen). One major knock on the film would have to be the near constant need for suspension of disbelief... don't get me wrong, in horror movies this isn't uncommon(or really movies in general) but in a film like this that plans to deliver much of it's impact by making the viewer feel like "this could happen anywhere,maybe even to me," a few less moments of unbelievability wouldn't have hurt. Although the movie is basically just a sleazy, low budget version of the 1990 thriller Pacific Heights(starring Michael Keaton, Melanie Griffith and Mathew Modine) it's far from the worst direct-to-DVD fear flick on the shelf(in fact it's one of the better). Highly recommended for those into the more morbid and extreme horror(and you know who you are LOL!), all else should read the opening statement at the top of the review again before searching this out.

.......especially when that neighbor wears filthy and soiled clothing-has running boils and zits on one side of his face and acts neighborly in a creepy sort of way-but his idea of neighborly is to lace the chocolates with laxatives. And when the young couple refuse his next gift of home-made preserves all hell breaks loose and he begins to poison their water.

There is also another scene involving a bouquet of poison oak-but the real horror behind this movie is the paranoia of not knowing what kind of sicko could be living across the street in an otherwise quiet neighborhood. he also terrorizes a senior citizen couple and causes that wife to have a stroke. She is hooked up to a ventilator and Adrien the monster sabotages the couples electricity and the wife dies.

The final scene is the grossout and will not be revealed here but one good thing is the husband of the stroke victim gets his revenge and boy does he ever.

Finally a horror film that isn't the usual slice and dice-but is cringe-worthy seeing the young couple graphically feeling the full effects of the laxative-laced chocolates and then slowly wasting away from being poisoned.

Good rental but not for the overly sensitive or squeamish.

Deadly End was so disturbing it was hard to watch at times..It has great Character development and thats why you will be so disturbed by what is happening to this young married couple that move into the wrong neighborhood
inhabited by a sick twisted man that obviously has nothing better to do than castrate himself,eat scabs,stick his fingers inside holes he has made in his stomach and stick needles in his remaining genitals"for sexual pleasure"and think of ways to terrorize his neighbors by poisioning them in various cleverly thought out ways,cutting off electricity so an elderly woman cant breath because she's on a ventilator,delighting in the fact that he made a couple have Diarrhea so bad they cant even make to the the bathroom before it blows.. and then again there's always the freindly neighborhood surgery center"in his HOUSE" that he provides for the incapacitated.
Oh yes..all this and more in this movie..need I say more?
I dont think so.

This movie was actually named Neighborhood Watch when I saw it at the NYC Horror Film Festival 3 years ago. The special effects are really good. Almost all of the audience gasped and could not believe what they were seeing. I waited for this movie to appear on the big screen or on DVD, but nothing until 3 years later. Enjoy it and become disturbed.

Will give you nightmares. Nick Searcy stars and demonstrates his seasoned acting talent. Horror fans, don't miss it.

This may be the most disturbing film of all time. Disturbing because film making has come to this. Possibly the worst film I have ever seen. Anyone involved with this movie should be banned permantely from being in front of, behind of, or around a camera. They shouldn"t even be allowed to sell cameras. This movie could be used instead of waterboarding.

I'm not sure who to recommend this movie to, but horror aficianados and lovers of something a bit bizarre might find this appealing. Bob and Wendi Peterson move into a sort of suburban hell, as Wendi keeps house, and Bob starts work at a company best described as a parallel universe. There are no characters even on the outskirts of normal. The neighborhood could be be described as postapocalyptic, or something left over from the set of "Neighbors."

The Petersons soon meet their infamous neighbor, Adrian Trumbull, whose sole pasttime seems to be terrorizing local residents. He feels insulted by the Petersons, and makes every effort to show his disdain by doing things like laxatives in chocolate (much more gross than it sounds) and a mix of chemicals in the water supply. The authorities, of course, are of no help, and the other neighbors are too incompetent to offer much in the way of assistance. The bitter dispute is very unseemly, and offers a great deal of disturbing and memorable imagery.

Oddly enough, the acting is generally substandard. The budget was probably less than your monthly income. And the camera work is just less than competent. But the Adrian Trumbull character is so blatantly warped and well played, that it is difficult to turn away, even when you cringe from some of his actions. You do have to suspend disbelief on more than one occasion, and remember the movie is meant for affect only and not intelligent discourse. From that standpoint, it works quite well.