Clive Barkers Dread

I actually have to get some Clive Barker books and read some of his stories. This is again one of the adaptations of one his stories and it's a pretty decent effort. The idea behind the story/movie is pretty great and has to do with human behavior/fear. While other movies might have exploited the "torture" part of that more, this movie is more subtle.

Of course you could see this as a bad thing, but I quite liked the movie. Even/despite characters, that are all more or less not likable. You are not really rooting for one of the characters that much, they are all human, with flaws (some psychological, some physiological). The good thing is, that the movie does stir away from the books ending. Some saw it as something bad, but I like when the movie takes a chance (and succeeds in my opinion)!

Having watched around 600 horror and thriller movies over the course of the last 20 years. I have rarely come across a horror flick that has the intellectual prowess of "Dread". This is a very well done adaptation of Barkers short story, and has kept the dark and ominous feel of the original.

The cinematography is masterfully done while keeping an almost home movie feel. The flickering lights and dark sets lend an eerily dreamlike feel to the bulk of the movie so that when the brighter scenes appear the contrast is quite stark.To say this movie is disturbing would be an understatement. The decent into madness depicted here is powerfully dramatic and quite intense. Not only is there violence, gore, and blood, but a realistic view of trauma inflicted psychosis becoming complete madness.

The bottom line is this. The ability to suspend disbelief is the cornerstone of any good story and this one delivers in buckets.

Taking a glance at the cover in the video store, I almost arrogantly assumed it would be a terrible slasher flick, due to it's title and the lack of pictures, and also due to the fact that it went out of it's way to mention that Jackson Rathbone, "Star of the Twilight Saga", was in this film. I felt a little uncomfortable until I glanced a bit longer and noticed that it was "From the mind of Clive Barker". But alas, this is a review of it's content and not it's cover.

I'm glad I did pick it up however because it turned out to be a decent psychological thriller, more so than it was a horror film. The characters are convincing, in particular Quaid, the protagonist bad guy, who we feel isn't all right from the very beginning of the film. I feel as if I was led to question whether the motives of Quaid were inherently bad or environmental, due to a childhood of significant psychological torment. When an audience is opened up to the possibility of these influences, immediately it changes from a horror film to an intellectual psychological thriller, that borders existential exploration of the human psyche. I couldn't help but feel as if some scenes of the film kind of reminded me of Fight Club, as Quaid attempted to groom Stephen in to his mode of thinking, but unlike Fight Club, this was unsuccessful and we saw the further polarisation of the characters involved in the college project from Quaid.

All in all, Dread is a film which won't cater to your grisly, sleazy gore driven desires, mostly due to the fact that a lot of the gore is paced out through the film and used tactically in order to keep it relative to the conceptual element of the film, and also to keep the suspense. For those who enjoy psychological thrillers, college sociopathic sadists and existentially driven plots, will enjoy Dread. Fans of Clive Barker can rest assured that Anthony DiBlasi has effectively captured Clive Barker's depiction of the story and doesn't buck to the sleazy needs of Hollywood gore and torture-without-reason films (Saw) and manages to effectively convey the terror, torment and disorientation of Dread.

Based on the Clive Barker short story, Dread, which made its world premiere at the 2009 edition of Montreal's Fantasia film festival, is remarkable on two fronts: Barker's striking departure from his traditional macabre story lines, and Anthony DiBlasi's impressive directorial debut.

The story unfolds with two college students, Steve (Twilight's Jackson Rathbone) and Quaid (Shaun Evans), agreeing to work together to create a documentary of people's innermost fears. The two put out a call for candidates and document their interviews on video.

An expert manipulator, Quaid is able to coax these troubled souls into revealing their innermost demons; deeply personal revelations they would otherwise never dream of discussing in public, much less on camera. Meanwhile Quaid harbors deep seated psychological scars of his own, having been a childhood survivor of the brutal home invasion axe slaying of his parents at the hands of a mysterious psycho.

Espousing the belief that by confronting one's ultimate fear an individual will either overcome their phobia or be consumed by it, Quaid convinces the more demure Steve, and friends Cheryl and Abby to participate in the study. Unknown to everyone involved, however, is Quaid's desire to take things to the next level, progressing beyond mere interviews to the actual physical and psychological nightmare of tackling their fears head on.

DiBlasi displays a remarkably talented hand at spinning a yarn that incorporates introspective, character-driven drama and some spectacularly jolting and emotionally moving sequences. While deviating out of necessity from the plot structure of Barker's original story, which didn't provide much "meat" for a feature length film, Barker equally deserves kudos for providing DiBlasi with a twisted tale that is firmly rooted in the real world, where human cruelty is infinitely more tangible and terrifying than anything the supernatural can invoke.

Led by Rathbone and Evans, the young cast turns in uniformly strong, nuanced and intensely emotional performances not typically found in this genre. Among the standouts is Hanne Steen, who plays Cheryl, a friend infatuated with Steve who bears the curse of a disfiguring skin pigmentation that covers a third of her face and body. Steen deftly manages to convey her character's sensitivity and long held pain in a manner that the viewer can readily attune to, earmarking her as a future talent to watch.

As debuts go DiBlasi's Dread is as solid, slick, engaging and thought provoking as it is terrifying, making this a must see, not merely for fans of the genre, but anyone with untold skeletons in their closet.

This movie was a real positive surprise. It felt both original and well done. Simply a real good movie to watch.

It's perhaps hard to place this movie in any particular genre. Psychological-horror would be the best way to describe this movie. It plays on the deep rooted fears of people but please don't expect from this movie to give you plenty of scare moments, or anything of that sort. It's not really an horror in the classic most common sense of the word. The drama plays an important part as well, which only strengthens the movie its psychological-horror aspects. In that regard alone this movie already works out as an original and interesting one.

But above all things, it's also a really well done film. It has a good build up and narrative, some fine actors and the movie has a good look over it as well. It's not a big budget movie that had a big cinematic release anywhere but you can't really tell that, judging by the movie its looks or just overall greatness. Actually hard to believe that this was the first ever movie for director Anthony DiBlasi, who was also rumored to direct the new Hellraiser movie for a while. He would had certainly been capable of it and he had worked with Clive Barker, the creator of the Hellraiser franchise, before, which was on this movie actually, that got based on a short story by Clive Barker. His approach of the horror and more serious story aspects, which he shows that he is capable off with this movie, would had been great for a new Hellraiser movie.

The movie has a story that steadily but slowly progresses. Yet the movie becomes never a boring or dragging one because it is capable of getting you involved with the characters and their stories. It's a real intriguing movie to watch and because it's being so original, you also can't really predict all the time what is going to happen next in it. No, not everything works convincing or works out as strong and effective as it could had but still this movie feels like a breath a fresh air and is perfectly watchable.

A nice, original, well done little film.

7/10

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