Fall Down Dead

I hadn't even heard about this 2007 movie titled "Fall Down Dead" before now in 2020, when I stumbled upon it by sheer luck. The title initially was the thing that caught my attention, and seeing it being a horror movie, of course I would find myself sitting down to watch it.

Then I saw that the movie had Dominique Swain, Udo Kier and David Carradine on the cast list, so I thought it would actually have a possibility of being an interesting movie. So I must admit that my hopes were up for writer Roy Sallows and director Jon Keeyes' movie.

However, the title "Fall Down Dead" actually depicts pretty much what the movie does. The storyline was only vaguely interesting, but it was quickly losing its momentum as the plot unfolded on the screen. In fact, I managed to endure 1 hour of the movie before turning it off out of complete and utter boredom.

"Fall Down Dead" is a slow paced movie, and it feels even slower because of the rather pointless and very boring plot that the movie had.

My rating of "Fall Down Dead" lands on a mere, but generous, three out of ten stars. This movie was hardly worth the effort, and it was a swing and a miss for the likes of Dominique Swain, Udo Kier and David Carradine.

I can't believe David Carradine agreed to participate on this movie. It is the worst thing I've watched since somebody lent me "Today you Die" with fat,out of shape Steven Seagal. The beginning is catchy but, after the first 10 minutes there is no mystery what so ever. The cops are very pathetic and the killer is not a believable character. It looks like if at the end the makers of the film were trying to add something interesting and dramatic but, instead added more flaws to the whole production. It is a slow pace movie. I'm sure that the original idea was good but the producers couldn't find the way to make it leave a nice impression on the audience. I was so annoyed by the fact that I had wasted my time watching this movie that I joined this website so, I could let it out.

A killer is after some people in a building while the power is out. That's it. Nothing much else happens. David Carradine's character is obnoxious. The other actors do their best, but everybody has to act like the killer is some invincible threat, and act really dumb. And they do their best to stretch this out to 90 minutes, but the script is very thin. Might have worked as a TV episode? But it's a pretty weak movie.

I saw this movie today and I am really shocked. this is one of those films that you can't understand how anybody didn't stand and say "hey wait a minute! this is crappy, we can't show this to people". maybe i'm a little bit exaggerating the situation, but maybe i'm not. the story is bad but not the worst. I can consider it OK. screenplay is really bad. acting is so poor that it is difficult for me to find the right word in English (which is not my native language) to describe it. even Udo Kier is bad in this one. during the whole movie, I was all like "what are they doing man? why would a cop do that?!". yep, the film doesn't make sense at all. and I have a few words about audio effects. it's not cool man, it sure is not cool. it is even unethical to use thrilling voices this much. two or three times in the movie, you hear increasing and disturbing voices and it turns out that there was no voice at all. it was just... not the killer. not a rat. not a machine. not the air floating through the corridors. it was just nothing. just an effect right there, occurring in the theater. I think there is a misunderstanding. producers of this film really misunderstood the thrillers they've seen so far.

p.s.: Hitchcock reference was annoying. i am offended as an admirer of Hitchcock's work.

Fall Down Dead (2007)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Silly horror film about a young woman (Dominique Swain) who witnesses The Picasso Killer (Udo Kier) who has been stalking the city. She's able to get away and call police but there's a rolling blackout sweeping the city so she must stay inside a locked building with a group of other people and of course the killer gets in trying to get rid of them all. FALL DOWN DEAD is yet another in a seemingly endless string of slasher pictures where you get the feeling of deja vu from start to finish. I will say that director Jon Keeyes manages to make the film look very professional and I thought he handled the opening sequence quite well but when you're dealing with a routine screenplay that gives you everything you'd expect and in the order that you'd expect it, there's really nothing anyone could do. The screenplay pretty much goes from A to Z just like you'd expect it to. You know who's going to live. You know who's going to die. You know various twists that's going to happen in the story. You know pretty much everything including how a victim is going to escape the killer and reach her car only to have it not start. It's really too bad that the screenplay goes for the routine and cliché moments from start to finish because I think a rewrite could have made for a better result. Another problem is the story itself, which never really makes too much sense. The police inside this building want to protect the Swain character because she can identify the killer. However, instead of leaving the building and taking her somewhere they decide to just wait around inside the building with the killer instead of leaving and getting her to safety. The excuse given is that the cops want to call a police squad in but after the first two or three people get slaughtered it looks like they'd just leave. Another annoying thing is various scenes that just make you want to jump through the screen and punch the characters. Everyone is fighting for their lives yet it seems each one of them has time to stop what they're doing, talk about marriage, their past and their plans for the future. These moments are just so annoying that you really wonder why no one in the production stood up and asked what was going on. Performances are decent at best with Swain certainly doing the best work here. Kier is also effective in his part as that great voice does wonders. David Carradine appears in one of his many 15-minute cameos that he got after KILL BILL. Even he is featured in a rather stupid sequence where Swain in banging on the office door and screaming for her life. They have her playing terror, the music is that pure thriller mode and yet they have Carradine playing the scene for laughs. It just doesn't add up but then again not much does in this film.