Dead Awake

"Dead Awake" is one of the strangest movies I have seen in quite some time. Obviously, it was inspired by "The Sixth Sense", though the mystery angle has been increased, as well as with its strangeness. It's directed in a really bizarre way, in an anonymous style (and with anonymous locations) that for the longest time made me think the movie was shot in a foreign country and the filmmakers were trying hard to disguise things. Stranger, however, is the screenplay. While the big questions the movie brings up are eventually answered, there are several minor questions that remained unanswered, like the mysterious policeman character at the beginning as well as the status of Nick Stahl's character at the end of the movie. While the movie is offbeat enough to make its ninety-two minutes never boring, in the end I feel most viewers will be unsatisfied because it doesn't quite give enough explanation.

After seeing the low scores on this film, I was encouraged to write a review as this film is worthy of a Seven, not the Four or lower most viewers have given it. The film has an excellent cast including Nick Stahl (Of Terminator Fame), Rose McGowan, and Amy Smart (both extremely under-rated actresses who can do comedy, drama, horror, thrillers, you name it and extremely attractive without being model gorgeous at the same time) as well as two lesser known actors playing the Irish "parent substitutes" for Nick Stahl's character, Dylan.

The film is basically a thriller that leaves you guessing as to Dylan's fate. Is he alive or dead? Is he talking to ghosts? This has been compared by other reviewers to "Sixth Sense" and I would agree. In essence, Dylan still hasn't come to terms with the death of his parents and assisting a crack addict, Charlie (Rose McGowan) finds redemption as does she. Meanwhile, with Charlies guidance, he rediscovers his old high school sweetheart, Natalie (Amy Smart), and is able to rekindle a romance that should never have ended.

So what does this film offer? It keeps you guessing as an excellent thriller should; the presence of the ?undead? and the fact Dylan works in a funeral home lend an element of fantasy, mystery, and eeriness; the rekindled relationship and flashbacks with Natalie provide romance; and most of all, all of the three main characters achieve some form of redemption. Seven Stars, would recommend to anyone and would watch again.

Ever wonder who would show up at your funeral? After attending a funeral for an old high school friend and running in to his ex-girlfriend (Amy Smart) Dylan (Stahl) comes up with a plan to stage his own death and hold a funeral for himself. When a strange crack addict (McGowan) shows up to see him his life takes a strange turn and nothing is what it seems. This movie is hard to explain without giving anything away, but the best way I can put it is that it is a cross between the "Sixth Sense" and "After.Life". I really enjoyed the movie and I'm not sure if it was because I had no expectations heading in or because it was actually a very good movie (if that makes sense). This is more of a drama then horror, in the same way the "Sixth Sense" could be categorized either way. I really liked the twist at the end, I honestly can predict about 95% of movies made lately and this one got me. I was very surprised at how much I liked it. I surprisingly give it a B+.

Would I watch it again? - I would, if only to catch clues I missed the first time.

This movie was really good and I'm not to sure why it got so many bad reviews. This movie made me think of "After.Life" but I am not sure why maybe because the eeriness that was in both of them? Just the feel of it I suppose. Anyways it is about a man who has gone through a tragedy and then somehow when he fakes his death the person who caused the tragedy somehow lives through it and gets to make amends. Doing so the whole movie leads you through twists and turns and leaves clues of the ending throughout, I knew what was going on. Boy gets girl the dead passes on after amends, kind of like the usual but written differently and uniquely. On a side note at times I felt it was awfully slow and could have been written better to pick up speed and get you into it more. I am no one to judge though. Overall the movie was really good predictable or not, worth a watch.

I did sort of enjoy this movie, but I'm not sure if some meaning was lost in the editing, or it was just not well written, or if I'm just a bit dense. The acting is fairly solid throughout, but there were so many loose ends you could make another 4 movies to tidy it all up. Some subplots just don't make sense. There are others that just seem to be forgotten, and left unfinished, or unexplained. Ideally it need another 30 minutes to wrap things up, but it was a strange movie. The cinematography had a real grainy quality, as if shot on super 8, and I'm not sure if this was intentional or due to budget restrictions. But surprisingly, it did fit the tone of the movie and didn't become annoying. I can understand the 6th sense references, but I also got a bit of a Jacob's Ladder vibe, mostly due to the, at times, jarringly disjointed narrative. Having said all that, it did keep me watching and curious.

Overall I gave it a six, as it kept me watching to the end and had some really good ideas, that unfortunately were not well executed at times, but there are so many bad movies out there with good scores on IMDB, and this is not one of them Ultimately a challenging watch, but has its has it has more than enough moments to carry it through.