Product Details

• Actors: Jackson Rathbone, Hanne Steen, Laura Donnelly, Jonathan Readwin, Shaun Evans
• Directors: Anthony DiBlasi
• Writers: Anthony DiBlasi, Clive Barker
• Producers: Anthony DiBlasi, Adrian Politowski, Charlotte Walls, Clive Barker, Jeremy Burdek
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: March 23, 2010
• Run Time: 108 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00344EAI2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #68,785 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Dread" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

DREAD - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Easily the darkest of 2010's Afterdark Horrorfest - with a more controlled final act, it could have been the best., March 29, 2010

By 

Steve Forsyth "sforsythnoe" (Denton, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dread (DVD)

The last of 2010's Afterdark Horrorfest films was also the one I was most anticipating - the trailer made it seem awfully dark - and to be sure, of the eight, this is easily the most disturbing in terms of where it goes.

The concept is that three college students embark on a study of fear, or "dread," which means interviewing people about their fears and how they came by them. Each person conveniently has a dark story in their past (perhaps I lived a sheltered life - my scariest moment was falling off my bike and getting stiches).

The leader of the group, Quaid, seems to have a personal interest in the study, and begins to take things further and further until he first alienates his partners, and then turns quite nasty toward them and some of the interviewees. The final third of the film shows some very disturbing moments indeed as he attempts to plumb the depths of people's personal fears.

I will say up front that, of the eight films, DREAD features the best performances, across the board - and it helps that the writing is also top notch. Unlike THE FINAL's laughable attempt at pathos, or KILL THEORY's outlandish plot, DREAD manages to explore similar tones and territory, yet remain grounded in plausibility and intelligence.

The problem I have with the film, however, is while it features many great scenes and ideas, the final combined piece doesn't quite hit the mark as well as it could have. Frankly, I think this is one of the few Afterdark films that really should have been longer - possibly a full 120 minutes. I think it would have been nicer to pace Quaid's descent into madness throughout the film, as well as the extreme reactions his victims took - rather than having all these things happen at once in the final twenty minutes. After a slow 55 minutes, the final third of the film flies by and, as a result, threatens to fly off the hinges - motivations get weaker and weaker as characters stop really thinking and talking, and simply start reacting.

Also, the final denoument between the male leads seemed a bit contrived for the sake of shock. It's almost as if the writers just ran out of places to go, so they went for the now-typical dark ending.

Overall, this is definitely one of the more notable entries in the year's festival - with a little more control over the final third, I might have placed it at the top. Either way, the actors in the film should be very proud of the work that is on display here.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dreadful, and that's a good thing, November 5, 2010

By 

Michael J. Tresca "Talien" (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dread (DVD)

I'm kind of sorry I saw Dread.

Mind you, this isn't a bad thing. Dread is nasty. Not in the way Autopsy or Wrong Turn 2 is nasty - it's awful in that you witness things you wished you hadn't and then have difficulty forgetting them.

Dread also has the pedigree of being yet another short story from Clive Barker's Book of Blood series. The guy has talent, I'll give him that.

Dread is deceptive in its presentation. It has a pretty-boy lead that you want to punch in the face (Jackson Rathbone), a blonde smirking psychopath that you love to hate (Shaun Evans), and a messy goth girl who is conflicted (Hanne Steen). It's easy to dismiss everyone as being a self-absorbed jerk that deserves whatever happens to them. And what happens to them is a social experiment in divulging students' worst fears - fears that ultimately reveal the trio's dark secrets.

By the second half of the film we have a host of willing dupes who have shared their secret terrors a little too openly. Writer and director Anthony DiBlasi knows all about the Facebook generation and shows how they exchange privacy for vulnerability. In the hands of a psychopath like Quaid (Evans) this is a very, very bad idea.

After the moping and the blue lens and the Generation Now rock music, Dread finally gets down to business. Quaid, who witnessed his parents murdered by a serial killer, has some issues to work out and he prefers to use people as his therapy. He mentally tortures everyone: the vegetarian abused by her father, the pretty boy who lost his brother to a car accident, the hot chick with birth marks all over her body, and the kid terrified of going deaf. No one is safe.

Mental torture on screen is a tricky thing, but DiBlasi handles it with aplomb, tearing away layer after layer until he gets to the raw core of Quaid's victims. You're bound to identify with one of them, and that's when Dread hits a nerve.

SPOILERS: By far the best scene is the fear of deafness. This is a fear that can be viscerally experienced through cinematography. The victim, reduced to begging for his mother, is heart-wrenching. It is topped only by the slow erosion of the vegetarian's will as she is left with nothing but a rotting piece of meat as a meal. Time lapse photography tells the story.

Dread builds its namesake slowly, deliberately, and meticulously. Its only at the gut punch ending do we comprehend that the pace was intentional, the irritating navel-gazing a necessity, the self-absorption a critical part of how the victims are torn screaming out of their little bubbles of sanity. Dread isn't perfect, but it's dreadful enough to earn a proud place next to any of Barker's supernaturally-themed works.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly Good Psychological Horror Movie, February 25, 2010

By 

Compay (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dread (DVD)

I watch plenty of movies that never make it to theaters and go straight to DVD, so I was surprised at the quality of Dread. Amazon mentions that Clive Barker (Hellraiser, Candyman) produced this film, but fails to mention that it's based on a story that he wrote in 1984.

What I appreciated most about the movie was the production. The visuals are great, the colors are terrific, and the lighting is excellent. Director Anthony Diblasi had worked with Clive Barker before as a producer for his movies, but this was actually his first time behind the lens. As his directorial debut, I just have to say that Diblasi did a brilliant job, I can't wait to see what he cooks up next.

The film's cast does a good job, though the dialogue isn't particularly special. The concept isn't very original, which is what cost the review a star. The film doesn't really pick up steam until the last 30 minutes, and that's really when the blood starts flowing. One hardcore scene even tempted me to look away in disgust, which I appreciate so much more than other new horror flicks that only assume lots of blood will do the same trick (it doesn't).

This isn't Saw or Hellraiser, and though Clive's story was original back in 1984, the concept could have been better as far as movies go. Otherwise, I would absolutely recommend this movie to anyone who enjoy horror movies with a bit of psychological thriller mixed in.