Deadline

Brittany Murphy is Alice, a writer in her early 30's who moves into a spooky old Victorian mansion in order to be alone to work on her book as well as distance herself from a traumatic nervous breakdown. But no sooner is Alice settling in, that the house is getting the worst of her imagination courtesy of strange noises and nightmares. Now Alice, already in a fragile mental state, must deal with that as well as an ex who recently got out of prison.

I found myself enjoying this film much more than I thought that I would've, thanks in no small part to a nice atmospheric soundtrack as well as a surprisingly adequate subdued performance by Murphy. All of this is almost (but not quite) enough to make up for a pretty clichéd and heavily predictable storyline. The late Britt does the most with what little she's given.

My Grade: C

Deadline is written and directed by Sean McConville. It stars Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch and Marc Blucas. Music is by Carlos José Alvarez and cinematography by Ross Richardson.

Recovering from a psychological breakdown and required to finish a screenplay for a deadline, writer Alice Evans (Murphy) retreats to a remote Victorian house. Once there, though, mysterious goings on begin to accompany her. Undetered, Alice begins to unravel the terrible secrets of the house. But at what cost?

One of the last films made by Brittany Murphy before her sad and untimely death, Deadline (poor title) is mostly friendless in the world of the haunted house sub-genre. Yet in spite of its flaws and tired old set up of premise, it's hardly one of the worst of its kind. It's all very low key and thriving on moody mystery atmosphere, both things which are aided by better than average music scoring and photography. Performances by the cast, in what is purely a six character piece, are very committed, managing to make the thin script more palatable. There's a couple of jolts placed within, while the scenes involving Birch and a clearly unhinged Blucas are genuinely creepy.

Its reputation tells us that it's just too low key for some, and for sure it brings nothing new at all to a well populated formula. While the outcome is infuriating and has proved to be unforgivable for many a sub-genre fan. But with expectations set at low this rounds out as a decent enough time filler for those who like atmosphere laden haunted house pictures. 6/10

A writer Alice (Brittany Murphy) gets dropped off by a friend at a spooky Victorian house, to be alone for a week to write. Her friend drives off leaving Alice alone to explore the house and as she does she finds mini video cassettes of the former residents, a young couple, going about their daily lives. The rest of the movie jumps between the present, the author in the house, and the past, what is happening to the couple's lives by watching the tapes. Even with the dual story line there is no character development, at all. There isn't a reason to even care about what happens to them. You don't know what their goals or hopes are, or their past. Except in a the simplest of references. Like: "He had a history of depression". So when the movie jumps between past and present you don't even want to even bother to try to and figure it out. And Brittany Murphy has the complete inability to keep her mouth closed. As in, lips together, so it looks like she is gasping for air like a fish out of water. She wanders through the entire movie with eyes bugged out and lips apart, brow furrowed (not literally of course with the advent of Botox) and saying nothing because this takes place in an empty house there really isn't a lot of dialogue. I am wondering what the point of this movie was. I really am. No conflict, mute fish-like characters, no plot really or story...hmm. I gave it a 4 because the camera work and production was decent and the bad acting was due to a sophomoric script. This isn't even a good rainy day desperation I will watch this, because nothing is on cable type movie. And Thora Birch was in this so I mistakenly thought it would improve. There is a last gasp at the end to try to scare you but seriously. After an hour and 10 minutes of nothing it is kind of hard to recover. And these movies with the tired plot line of people who are mentally ill and/or on medication is so old. EVERYONE IS ON MEDICATION. Statistically 50% of the US is, so why this should be significant to any plot is beyond me. In short, watch this only if you run out of Ambien.

The first thing I noticed about this movie was it's soundtrack. It's barely there. I mean it's there but it's so quiet you don't realize that you've been listening to it until it blasts out for a sec or two & then goes back to lurking just below the radar. It adds to the sense of dread that permeates this movie. Brittany Murphy doesn't look well at all in this movie & I hope that's because of the needs of the character & not because she was sick. She is effective though. So is Thora Birch in her part. I can't say much more about it without ruining it but I will say it might be a ghost story or a Psychological thriller. That is up to the viewer. I have my opinion but I'm not going to bore you with that. You know what they say about opinions don't you? Oh, by the way this is one of the quietest movies I've ever seen. Ever. It adds to the atmosphere greatly. Give it a shot, you might be surprised....

I'm certain that somewhere in Los Angeles there's a machine that is able to combine random genre clichés and churn out screenplays and storyboards for studios. For a few extra bucks, it will even make casting suggestions. 'Deadline' is a result.

Spending a few nights alone in an abandoned Victorian mansion must be high on most people's list of things not to do. Not so Alice, who jumps at the chance to shut herself away in the spooky old house in order to finish a long-overdue manuscript. Even doors opening on their own, screams in the night, and an abusive boyfriend fresh out of prison can't convince her to seek someplace a little closer to civilization. Hell, she can't even turn a light on when walking around at night. Taking such an implausible scenario as its starting point doesn't bode well, and it can only go downhill from there. Possessing all the scares of an episode of 'The Ghost Whisperer', the complete lack of creativity or originality is depressing.