Dreamkiller

I saw the movie yesterday at the Beverly Center and had a pleasure of meeting the filmmakers for the Q&A session afterwards (I was told they will be there every weekend thorough their release and I highly recommend it).

This is not a big budget movie, which I expected was made for under $5 million, but I was stunned when the director answered the question "What was the budget?" by, we shot the whole film for around $50K. $50K?

For anyone that has ever been involved in any kind of production (like myself) will be hard to believe that this movie was shot for so little budget. Most short films are shot for more so I suspect that this might be their publicity stunt.

But regardless of the budget I feel that the movie gives something completely new and original and it kept me in the seat. I was entertained thorough and the movie grabbed me from the very beginning.

I would not compare it to "Shutter Island", in terms of budget it would not be fair even if this movie was made for $20 million, but in terms of the story and execution this movie can stand tall.

I went to The Beverly Center to see "Hurt Locker" when I was stopped by a team of young people promoting a new thriller "Dreamkiller", an independently produced psychological thriller.

I was intrigued by the poster (particularly the fear of failure) and they gave me a hard sale so I gave it a shot. This is not a big budget movie and it felt a bit slow in the beginning but about 10 min. in, the story became very intriguing and unpredictable and once it grabbed me I had to watch it 'till the end. In short, I was entertained.

On my way out I saw a group of people near a table in the lobby next to the Dreamkiller poster. I approached them and told the young girl (who happened to be the director) that I enjoyed the movie. We spoke for a while and I learned that the movie was allegedly made for much less than I imagined.

When she told me the actual number I couldn't hide my disbelief. This is NOT a Blair Which or such a movie with shaky camera and available light but a real production so I told her that I don't think that would be possible to which she responded "we didn't know it was impossible so we did it".

By the time I got home the general theme and questions that the movie arose started to nip at me. Even more so now, related to the people behind it.

I always aspired to create a feature film. I wrote my screenplay over 40 years ago and had been working on putting it together ever since. I got close a few times but it never truly came together, mainly due to the lack of financing. A few times I had almost enough money but was afraid to do it and needed more. And now, after all these years I look at these kids and wonder…

I get it. "Dreamkiller"! My fear killed my dream. Or did it, maybe it's not too late. Maybe I'll send my script to them. With the money I had available they would have made three movies.

This movie has nothing to envy to big budget movies. I give it a 10 because anyone can make a movie with money, but very few with talent and will.

Congratulations to anybody who manages to actually finish a movie and even get it into a theater. that's no small feat by any means. A grand undertaking failing though on some levels: way too many characters - and all quite one-dimensional. I couldn't bond with any character and definitely not the lead. The story starts with a more or less clear cut premise but at the end is so utterly confusing and non-sensical, it'd be better the movie would have ended 30 minutes earlier. The movie is called a 'psychological thriller' - I don't know where this genre comes from really, but 'Dreamkiller' is more a horror/slasher/suspense movie. Psychology is the ingredient that is actually missing here. I doubt that the film's budget wasn't more than 50k as someone here mentioned. There's quite some production value on the screen. BUt don't look for any kind of sophisticated lighting, that's not there or was not in the budget. The colors are murky, the resolution is rather low, i suppose shot with a rather lowly video camera - nevertheless well done. 35mm was surely not in the budget and better a film is made and finished even with mediocre tools than just dreamed about and shot in vista-vision.

All in all I was sitting a bit on needles and hoped that the film would end sooner than what it did. I kinda has a lot of the right ingredients but not so great acting (with some exceptions) and a confusing story makes the film hard to recommend. The next one of this - so it seems - first time director, will surely be on another level. Doing it is the only film school worth visiting, and she'd done it !

Well, 4 out of 5 reviews already gave the film 10 stars... calling it a near perfect film... way better than "Shutter Island"... full of twists and turns... with acting performances larger than life... displaying a strong script through brilliant directing skills.

In a nutshell: go see this movie before you die, it'll give you the meaning of life.

With this kind of friends, the filmmakers don't need enemies. No honest perspective whatsoever, no clear artistic judgment, no clear criticism, only blind loyalty... or several alias-users, giving a hyper-positive new review every other day.

5 reviews, all written by "virgin" users in rapid-fire, one of them calling himself an ardent film buff... with no other "reviews" under his belt.

Still wondering who wrote those marvelous pieces?

When I saw this movie, I had no idea who anyone in it was or what it was going to be about. I was VERY pleasantly surprised. First of all, it's an incredibly suspenseful thriller that surpasses the over hyped Shutter Island and, I don't want to give anything away but there are some similarities in the plot. The difference is, Shutter Island shifts around in so many dizzying directions you lose focus, while Dreamkiller is intriguing while remaining believable which makes so much of a better impact as a film. The main actor, Dario Deak seems as if he is new. I haven't seen him in anything before, but he was very good and kinda hot too! I highly recommend this film. Search it out!