Customer Reviews

Dread

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

this is one of those movies that after you see it, it stays on your mine. i loved it

You can see many differing opinions of this feature on the Amazon review page. Indeed, the movie DREAD does lack the sophistication of other contemporary chillers like SAW, and the actors will never walk away with an Oscar. But that's not the point I got from this movie.

The story revolves around a trio of college students pursuing a thesis project on a study of fear. One of the group is already emotionally damaged, having seen his parents brutally murdered when he was young. He is plagued by nightmares that drive his interest in his friends' academic endeavor.

Unlike films like HELLRAISER (a celebrated Clive Baker feature), which tend to get so caught up in their own gross-out factor of ghouls bearing meat hooks, nails, and other pointy things that they bore me to tears, the threat in this film is frighteningly real. It is a twisted look at what can happen when someone becomes so immersed in academia that he loses touch with reality.

I find that most college studies tend to have no more merit than some tangible proof that their donated funds have been put to use. College Psychology studies have a very bad history of digging deep into people's psyches--often to terrible effect--providing no more worthwhile result than a documentation that messing with people's heads can be detrimental to the subject's health. It also tends to inflate the organizer's ego and a tendency toward power trips.

Here we have an already unbalanced student, disturbed and distracted by his personal horror, becoming dangerously obsessed with the study, to the point of flying into a violent rage when it is referred to as nothing more than a "class project".

The end result is chilling and unnerving, as the obsessed student spirals into depraved psychosis, advancing his study of fear into its application, to the point of torture and worse.

No, DREAD will never be put alongside the most famous horror films of our day, but it drives home with frightening clarity that the worst monster is not a vampire or a zombie. The worst monster is all too often man.

Dread was a very interesting and brutally depicted film about peoples fears.
The acting was Perfection and the lighting and gore effects were really well done.
"Jackson Rathbone" of Twilight and New moon fame is a reason lots of people will buy or watch this film but the story and execution is what will draw you in...
It starts out with a bang when we get to see a family being murdered by a maniac with an axe.
That is somewhat the back story or basis for the plot.
"Quaid" sees his mother and father hacked to death by a maniac when he was a kid and now has terrible nightmares about the incident and has yet to confront his fear.
Quaid now wants to have people, as he puts it "conquer the beast" by confronting their fears by doing a study on dread or fear. he meets Rathbone's character and ropes he and another female student into using it for their Theseus,this is where the strangeness begins.There is also a great character named "Abby" with a huge black purplish birth mark covering half her face and body.Her presence and part in the storyline alone raises the bar on this already good film.
the middle of the movie was a bit slow but then it picked up again.
It's quite intense and disturbing,the images of blood and gore aren't abundant but there are a couple of really good ones.One scene was so hard to watch that I wanted to look away and gag,but I didn't.Overall a really good entry into this years crop of Horror Fest films.I would have to say the best of the lot ,this year..

'Dread' is a fantastic adaptation of one of the better offerings in Clive Barker's 'Books of Blood'. Although DiBlasi's use of blood/gore/nudity (axe-murders, eviscerated strippers) will please fans of the generic stalk-and-slash genre of horrors, it is the subtle psychological nastiness that really breaks through and leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Dread is a creeper; it twists and shocks in all the right places.

Jackson Rathbone really shines as the troubled, misguided Stephen Grace (good luck kicking the cursed 'Twilight' label) and Shaun Evans is suitably creepy as the disturbed Quaid. But it is the introduction of Abby, a beautiful young woman whose dread is unique yet painfully conceivable(stemming from a 'disfiguring' birthmark covering half of her body), that brings the whole premise to life and makes you give a damn about the figures on screen. DiBlasi has beautifully worked the original thirty-page story into something larger and far more universal, making 'Dread' a compelling, unpleasant film that is uncomfortable to watch, mainly because the traumatic resonance will hit home and refuse to be left in the cinema seat or DVD box. Barker purists may not approve of DiBlasi's changes but this film will stick in your head. And if it affects you as much as it did me, you will never want to eat steak again.

The After Dark Horrorfest IV has really been disappointing this year. DREAD is certainly gory and at times downright disgusting, but in spite of all its moralizing about our hidden fears and "facing the beast", it's ultimately a victim of its own self-indulgence.
TWILIGHT's Jackson Rathbone does give a good performance, probably outshining most of his more well known TWILIGHTERS and Shaun Davis is frightening as the demented Quade; all the acting is good, but lost in the movie's self explosive script. Few Clive Barker transitions to screen have impressed me and this one is no different. I may avoid Horrorfest V if this year's crop is any indication.

Ok How many people read the short story from Clive Barker? Well I can tell you straight up the differences as I've just finished reading the story. There's no girl with a huge birthmark in it, no third unknown character that gets his eardrums exploded and a few other descrepancies oh and the psychopath actually gets what's coming to him.
This movie is nothing like the short story expect it's got Clive's name on it. Otherwise seriously read the short story. I found it a lot better then this movie.

i am happy with amazon.com, merchandise arrived on time and in perfect unopened condition. the movie was not really a scary movie as i thought, instead it is more of a phsyco-thriller, but still over all it kept my interest and i liked it, i'd definitely watch it again.