Deadgirl (USA. 2008)

Deadgirl is currently living in a black void. There’s no trailer, no reviews, and only two abstract posters floating around on the inter-web. The only thing I knew about it going in was that the story dealt with two male teenage best friends who find the naked body of a recently deceased young woman in an insane asylum. The film is billed as a creepy coming of age drama along the lines of "STAND BY ME". It was written by Troma alumni Trent Hagga (Star of Terror Firmer) and was directed by newcomers Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harell. None of that gave me any faith. Where's the interest? What are two horny young men and an unresisting naked woman going to do? Play Monopoly? Is this really going to go into the direction I *shudder* think it’s going to go?

It does. There’s nudity, brutal violence and a lot of of uncomfortable humping going on. It just doesn’t go far enough with the concept. It’s disturbing and disgusting (Someone behind me uttered “I think I’m going to puke”) but it never goes that extra mile to really carve its niche as a remarkable cult film. The gore is rushed, the scares are of the “JUMP CUT! BOO! ” variety and most important of all, I didn't care at all about the characters. The two best friends Rickie’s (Shiloh Fernandez) and JT’s (Noah Segan) acting goes from slightly compelling to absolutely unwatchable, but even then they were never anything more then dicks. I can understand that the creative team wanted to show us 'real kids' but that dosen't make it interesting. Maybe if I was emphatic toward their plightm the story would have worked, but even then, the climax still arives before the story ends. There’s nothing else to reveal or shock. It just hobbles along until it the fade to black. I personally think that the film would have worked a lot better as an episode of “Masters of Horror” instead of gasping it's way through a feature length film. On the positive side of things, The Dead Girl herself (Jenny Spain) does an amazing job in a role that takes guts (Literally and metaphorically) but even then she's still a naked one trick pony. The most successful element of the entire production is the pounds of brutal makeup she’s forced to wear.

I realized quickly why Dead-Girl didn’t have a trailer yet. There’s nothing to show. This is the kind of film you see once and never feel compelled to see again. It was entertaining the first time, you may recommend it to your friends based solely on “The crazy concept!” but you won't really feel the need to ever see it again.