Dead End

Dead End is an excellent example of what you can do on a low budget with a small cast and just a few locations. Mystery and horror are perfect genres to excel under these conditions, and the filmmakers here take full advantage, crafting a wonderfully paranoid, claustrophobic and eerie dream-like atmosphere. The movie is totally character driven, and we spend a lot of time getting to know and care about the main characters. The gore was minimal, but effective, and there is one truly horrifying gore effect (you will know it when you see it).

The plot involves a family of four (plus the daughter's boyfriend) on their way to the mom's relatives for Christmas Eve. The father (Ray Wise) decides to take the "scenic route" and after a near head-on collision with another vehicle in the first few minutes, they pick up a ghostly hitchhiker, and soon after, the horror begins. The family is seemingly trapped on a deserted, heavily forested country road, unable to find their way out... Saying anything more will spoil your enjoyment of the film. Watching the characters react to their steadily worsening situation is a true pleasure, as they convey the film's sense of horror, shock and panic far better than any cheap gore effects or man in a rubber monster suit ever could. As the story progresses, the characters reveal dark secrets about themselves that really add to the fun... things they would not have said were things not looking so grim!

I really loved this movie, up to a point. The ending was predictable, clichéd and a big letdown after spending so much time invested in the characters trying to escape their fate. However, almost everything up to that point was a lot of fun, especially the dialogue, which was FANTASTIC. The main cast was GREAT, especially Ray Wise and the actress who played his daughter. Everyone was great except Steve Valentine, who apparently cannot act any different (or better) than his character on TV's Crossing Jordan. The female doctor at the end wasn't very good, either (I thought it was Shannon Tweed until I read the end credits!). Thankfully, these two don't appear until the end, which kind of sucked anyway (though their rather poor acting didn't help matters, it was ultimately the script's fault).

The minimalist instrumental music is really creepy and worth mentioning.

I give Dead End an "8" out of 10. With a revised ending, it could have easily garnered a "9" or "10." In a sea of brain-dead garbage "B" and grade "Z" horror movies, Dead End stands out at the front of the pack. I wish more low budget horror movies could be this finely crafted and intelligent. This movie is definitely highly recommended viewing for aspiring low budget filmmakers and horror fans.

i don't know what it was about this movie but it scared the living crap out of me. i was thinking about it for weeks. it's weird because this movie has NO GORE and it NEVER SHOWS you anything really abnormal. just small stuff like abandoned baby carriages in the middle of the road. you don't even get to see any dead bodies. but you do see the expression of the people that find the bodies. so if you have a kick ass imagination, watch this movie. i think it's your own imagination and not anything from the movie that will really scare you. but if you'd rather turn your brain off and let the movie do the work for you, don't bother with this one.

I don't understand how people can embarass themselves by writing a review when they obviously either completely missed the point or must have been not paying attention. Or are just plain dim. There are lots of them here, apparently. This movie wasn't perfect, but it was pretty good and it should be a textbook example of how to make a low-budget film. I am just amazed at how much misinterpretation can be applied to something that's so easy to follow. There's not exactly tons of surprises, other than the note at the end, which I think was put ther just to ruin your smugness when you're thinking you've got it all figured out. Well done to all cast and crew, I say. 7.5/10

When this movie started my heart sank a little. It's going to be another of those, "People in car take a wrong turn, encounter one sort of slasher or other." How wrong I was, and what a little gem this film is. True, the occupants of the car do take a wrong turn, Frank Harrington is taking his family and his daughter's boyfriend to spend Christmas with his in-laws, but there this movie parts company with your average gore-fest. This, I believe, is for three reasons. The writers gave the cast great lines to read; the blood content is actually very low for such a film, and finally, it was inspired not to fill the car with swinging teens, but use a mixture of youngsters and, shall we say, more mature citizens. I'll not go into plot lines, but if you're like me, this movie will leave you with a satisfied grin on your face.

Frank Harrington (Ray Wise), wife Laura (Lin Shaye), son Richard (Mick Cain), daughter Marion (Alexandra Holden), and her boyfriend Brad Miller are going to the hated family Christmas hosted by Laura's mother. Frank falls asleep and nearly crashes the car. He had taken a short cut despite 20 years of driving on the same main road. The road is empty and all the clocks stopped at 7:30. They encounter a Lady in White (Amber Smith).

The son is an annoying brat. The father is a control freak. I love Ray Wise and Lin Shaye does a fun crazy. They're not the nicest or quietest family but it's very relatable especially for a Christmas movie. It's a nice Twilight Zone episode. It's obvious what happened after noticing the clocks. I'm willing to let the characters be stupid since no one would actually want to consider the truth of their situation. The father's explanation is both desperate and unrealistic which actually fits him and their situation. This is a very nice ghost story one tells around a campfire.