Freakdog

A group of potential doctors are caught doing drugs by a local man with a stuttering problem. In order to cover their butts and keep their scholarships, they invite the man to join them, sending him into a coma after the drugs hit him the wrong way. When one of the potential doctors (Arielle Kebbel) tries to help him, unexpected consequences emerge.

Reviews on this film have been generally negative, with some people saying it is "as bad as 'Shrooms'" (the director's other notable movie). I don't see where these people are coming from. Sure, there are some bad things about this film... for one, the story drags a bit at times, and one character more or less repeats his same speech every five minutes he shows up. We also have the familiar story, which is not unlike "I Know What You Did Last Summer" or any number of other films.

But I thought the visuals were well done, the action was intense, and the casting was for the most part excellent. The ladies were well-cast beyond a doubt. MyAnna Buring as Shelby was a good move, as she's not only gorgeous but has the horror veteran status ("The Descent", "The Omen"). Putting Arielle Kebbel in the lead was brilliant. I've had my eye on her since "American Pie" Band Camp", where I noticed that despite the juvenile film, she really stood out. I expect her to break into the big time any day now.

I also have to give the film credit for trying to tie in actual science to a paranormal theme. Far too many films will introduce supernatural elements with no attempt to explain them. Here, we have a psychic theme tied to a little-known part of the brain called the angular gyrus. According to Wikipedia, "experiments have demonstrated the possibility that stimulation of the angular gyrus is the cause of out-of-body experiences. Stimulation of the angular gyrus in one experiment caused a woman to perceive a phantom existence behind her. Another such experiment gave the test subject the sensation of being on the ceiling. This is attributed to a discrepancy in the actual position of the body, and the mind's perceived location of the body." So, there's at least some level of truth to what the film shows.

I enjoyed this movie, and I won't lie about it. I'm not going to say it's "the film of the year" or any of those bold claims that movie reviewers make all the time, because that's just simply not going to be true. But it's well worth seeing if you have a steady intake of horror flicks. Of the films I've seen recently, it was among the better ones. And Arielle Kebbel... I mean, she just sells a film, doesn't she?

In FREAKDOG (aka: RED MIST) a group of med students decide to mix narcotics and alcohol for a night of utter blotto-ness. Unfortunately, their shenanigans are witnessed by Kevin who records their antics on his cellphone.

Not wanting their future careers ruined, the quick-thinking students decide to get Kevin wasted so they can destroy the evidence. Things don't go exactly as planned.

If you enjoy paranormal horror-revenge movies with possession and lots of gory deaths, then this will take you to Nirvana! There's even some mad science tossed in for extra joy!

This film gets bonus points for originality and its novel approach...

Having seen the Northern Ireland premier of this home-grown horror film at QFT in Belfast, I can now share my disappointment in its complete lack of features that would lead me to recommend it. 'Freakdog' tells the somewhat original tale of a comatose man's control over a group of friends, leading them to commit unspeakable acts. Unfortunately, it fails on almost every level; a complete non-starter as a horror film and totally incoherent as a thriller.

The opening portion of the film is simply dull; a chance for the screenwriter's occasionally competent dialogue to be ruined by an ill-conceived cast. The character development is so lacking that all human aspect of the story is played entirely in cliché, and the standard of acting is poor even for a low-budget independent feature.

Of course, the purpose of this film is obviously to provide either shocks or genuine, disturbing scares. It delivers neither. The film is utterly inept as a horror, offering nothing but a series of mild gore scenes to fans of the genre. Essentially, this film is mixture of poor acting, dull cinematography and a script that, despite a few good pieces of dialogue, is both confusing and simplistic in equal measure. However, the production team must be commended for successfully shooting a U.S-set film in Belfast, which is carried of convincingly.

Overall, 'Freakdog' is a poor effort when pitched against either major Hollywood horror films or the usual B-movie fare. It fails to deliver the necessary scares and constantly suffers from poor acting and a ludicrous storyline. I really cannot recommend this film, which is a real shame as I was hoping it would deliver so much more.

After inadvertently putting a young man into a coma, a doctor tries to resuscitate him with a powerful new drug being tested at the hospital only for his murderous spirit to possess passers-by and kill them one-by-one for putting him there.

This one managed to be quite enjoyable even if nothing really sticks out afterward. The fact that this is based so much on a familiar, over-done plot-point of having the perpetrator seek revenge by body-hopping from one person to another going after the ones who placed him there is a tired, overdone cliché that really seems quite ludicrous the way it's presented here as being done through the tell-tale sign of a bloody nose after-the-fact, which manages to feel quite lame and ludicrous as yo be the overall source of the possession it really feels quite shorthanded. Though it does manage to have a rather credible back-story in the attempt to tie it in with the out-of-body experience from the experimental drug treatment, the fact that it's never explicitly stated how it's possible to do that makes for a really lame-duck explanation. As well, there's very little thought put into the film's final twist in terms of connecting it to explaining how the various crimes were committed, as this one manages to attempt something interesting in the final minutes only to undermine everything that's happened beforehand with the story to wrap everything up in how it played out, so in the end re-writes itself out of it's original storyline and produces a huge gap in logic rather easily. That said, there's still some good stuff here in the brutal deaths doled out which are quite fun and enjoyable in how shocking and nasty they get, as well as the concept of how it does these acts come about. Though it goes for mere shock value instead of playing about with suspense in these cases, it does work on the brutality stakes more than the actual scare factor. As well, the final matter of dealing with the body is quite ingenious and really unique, looking for a new way to actually deal with the threat that's never been done before and manage to work itself into the story rather nicely, in spite of the problems it perceived into the storyline. These made the film watchable and enjoyable, but it does have a few problems.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Brief Nudity and heavy drug use.

It's been a while since I liked a horror movie as much as this one. Much credit goes to Arielle Kebbel who is a great actress and looks even better. The director also knows how to film her.

A bunch of medical students go partying. A freaky loner (Kenneth) who may work at the morgue and who has a crush on Cathering (Kebbel) shows up and films their drinking and drug shenanigans. That could get them in serious trouble. So they decide to get him drunk, drugged. But he's also an epileptic who gets seizures with strobe lights. Once he goes into a seizure and starts choking, the group debates whether to help him or rather save their careers. Arguing against helping him is a bastard named Sean. They decide to dump him in front of a hospital.

It turns out that till he gets help, Kenneth's brain has already suffered enough oxygen deprivation to put him in a coma. Cathering, feeling guilty does research and actually medicates him with trial meds to help him. But something strange happens. People suddenly start killing the group of students one by one and yet remember nothing. It's as if they are possessed and it may be Kenneth who thanks to the trial meds gained some type of power.

Horror movies set in hospitals and with medical students always have a lot of potential. Many turn out disappointing. Red Mist on the other hand turned out great. The kills are gory and violent, there's a bit of nudity, the story is very good, the cast looks good and does a great job. Apparently this movie was filmed in Ireland although you can't tell, there are no outdoor scenes. Not sure what the purpose is to film this elsewhere when they don't take advantage of the setting. Overall, a highly recommended horror movie.

Even the extras are worth seeing as Kebbel actually takes part in most of them and shows herself to be a very fun girl.