Trois jours à vivre

DEAD IN 3 DAYS is a vengeful, maniac-on-the-loose film from Austria.

A group of young, beautiful friends are being stalked and killed in nasty fashion after receiving the titular text messages. At first glance, this is a clone of I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. However, look closer, and it is superior to that movie in pacing, which is slower and far more suspenseful. There is also a gloomier atmosphere that adds to the overall creep factor.

The characters are more believable as well. Do they make some "dumb" decisions? Sure, like almost every twenty-something in every slasher film ever made! As for the killer, there's a grim determination about the way in which this person dispatches victims, and while the final revelation may not be too surprising, it is handled in an interesting way. A pleasant surprise...

In 3 Tagen Bist Du Tot (Dead in Three Days) is labeled "Austria's first horror film". A quite passable one, I might add. It probably won't become a milestone within the genre, but if you're looking for real suspense and gore, this movie has plenty to offer.

Like many others, the film features a group of teenagers, more precisely two boys and two girls who have just graduated high school. While they're out celebrating, they all receive the same SMS: "Within 3 days you will be dead". It has to be a (very) bad joke, they think. Until one of them is found dead in the river the following morning...

I was positively surprised by this movie, mainly because the director, Andreas Prochaska (a former collaborator of Michael Haneke) knows how to terrify his audience even if the plot is all too familiar: 75% of the screenplay is shamelessly borrowed from other horror films, some blatantly (I Know What You Did Last Summer, Deep Red), others in a more subtle way (Halloween). There's also stuff from other kinds of flicks (a possible visual The Empire Strikes Back-reference).

Prochaska does, however, count on the surprise factor as well: not all in the script is a deja vu, and he takes advantage of those moments when we don't know what's gonna happen next to scare us witless, with almost sadistic joy (in terms of how off guard we're caught). People get hurt or killed in painful, stomach-churning ways (I had trouble sleeping for a few days after seeing the movie), and some victims are unexpected, too. This guy knows how to do horror, that's for sure. If only he'd been a little nastier with the ending, like Greg McClean did on Wolf Creek.

Overall, this is a decent horror film. Prochaska seems to have found a promising start for his directing career. If he takes better care of the script next time, he might even be able to join the likes of Carpenter and Romero in the genre's Hall of Fame.

In Ebensse, the teenagers Nina (Sabrina Reiter), her boyfriend Martin (Laurence Rupp), Clemens (Michael Steinocher), his girlfriend Alex (Nadja Vogel) and Mona (Julia Rosa Stöckl) are best friends since their childhood. On their high-school graduation day, they all receive the same message in the cellular: "In three days you will be dead!", but they believe is a stupid joke from their weird schoolmate Patrick (Julian Sharp). However, when Martin is found dead in the lake Traunsee, the group realizes that it is not a prank. When Nina is attacked and Patrick is killed trying to save her, they recall a tragic incident from their childhood.

"In 3 Tagen Bist Du Tot" has a tense and promising beginning. The acting of the young and unknown cast is good, but unfortunately the story is weak, actually a rip-off of the franchise "I Know What You did Last Summer" and using the clichés of the genre. In the end, this flick is watchable and forgettable, but entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Morto em 3 Dias" ("Dead in 3 Days")

This Austrian made slasher is nothing more than a rip-off of popular American slasher movies, like "Friday the 13th" or "I know what you did last summer" (this one was clearly a example for this one here). And like "I know what.." it's pretty bad and not really worth a watch, well, maybe if you wanna see how Austrians do it, go for it. For me the only thing really worth mentioning is the landscape, which looks really nice, it's set in a beautiful Austrian village surrounded by mountains, and the FX are pretty good and bloody, but it's just not enough of them. And for me a a Swiss person I also really like the Austrian language. And about the plot, not really worth mentioning, some plot holes here and there.

As mentioned before this movie probably is the first one of its kind to be made in Austria by Austrians artists only. Austria's good times in the movie industry have long been gone and modern Austrian filmmakers concentrate mainly on producing artistic stuff that relies heavily on the actors (mostly due to funding problems). So this film is quite different from what is coming from Austria nowadays but it's not so different from what is coming from Hollywood. That's a new approach and that's OK. In my opinion the movie is better than the average Scary Movie flick. The story is quite straightforward, the ending is adept though not too surprising. The gory scenes come at the times you expect them to come. Sometimes you know what is going to happen before but that's what we call suspense and if it was good enough for Hitchcock it's good enough for everyone. And it works here too! The movie doesn't stay on a high level of tension all the time. It speeds up then slows down then speeds up again several times. Nice flow. The director does a really good job and I especially appreciated the cinematography. Some really nice pictures, good camera positioning. The cutting was good too and makes the movie look more expensive and professional than it was.

The young actors are mostly unknown but mostly talented and add to the overall positive impression the film made on me.

I enjoyed watching the film although it's not a perfect piece of work (therefore my score of 7/10) but judge for yourself. Let's hope there will be more to see from the people who made this movie. I think there is still a lot of potential to explore.