Dead Ring

A simply beautiful film.

Every once in a great while a story will slip almost silently under the radar and this is one of those stories. I'm not sure what other watchers were expecting but when I watched the preview I imagined that of a distant fairy tale in modern times.

This movie is heavily story driven with a soundtrack that makes the watcher think of dark far away places wrapped in loneliness. The characters are fairly well developed and believable. Their actions come across as cautious.

I enjoyed the plot and pace of this film. I enjoy movies that make a person think about the actions and development of the characters. I enjoyed this movie because it was fantastical in nature yet firmly based in the realities of human sorrow.

Holy hell this movie is magically awful!

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2017 This is epically terrible, like tommy wasso the room only minus the humor and charm. It feels like a group of talentless but passionate wierdos in an apartment complex decided to get together and make it happen. "Well make the next Edward scissor hands" one said. "Yeah but lets make it just wholly unwatchable and lacking in any solid internal logic" another said. "Wait, we can use the worst makeup effects ever right?" Said a third. " can we? Oh man its gonna be great, ive got a twelve year old who just got a makeup kit and has no idea how to use it." Said the first with a smile. The rag tag crew gathered all the worst actors from their apartment building and they were off. Who needs a decent cinematographer or art director, or make up artist, or actors or costume designers or writers or a director.

Following the tragic death of her entire family, Emily has developed survivor's guilt and agoraphobia. She rarely ventures out of her apartment and the only person she sees regularly is Ian, a 15 year old neighbor who has a lucrative business running errands for folks in the building. Determined to beat her fears, Emily finds an online ad for a radical doctor who helps agoraphobics. The doc's advice? Use art to create a doppleganger. And thus Em is born! Soon Emily and Ian begin building a strange friendship with Emily's creepy goth clone. But how is Em supposed to help Emily cope with her agoraphobia?...

Despite outward appearances this is NOT a horror movie. The only film that I can think of to compare it to is "Edward Scissorhands," and even that's a bit of a stretch. "Dead Ring" has many of the hallmarks of a student film, but that's certainly not a bad thing, if you don't mind the snail's pace, surreal plot and an occasionally stilted line reading.

Savanah McMahon gives a pretty solid performance as Emily, but she really shines brightly as Em (and I'm not merely referring to those freaky glowing contact lenses!). As a stranger in our world, Em has an appropriate sense of wonder and child-like innocence - and man, that makeup is awesome! As Ian, Nathan Olson is a bit green, but I wouldn't say his performance is bad - he hits the right notes more often than not, and he could become a good actor with a little more experience. The weakest link is Jacob Olson as Zak, a neighborhood bully who's made it his mission to torment Ian. Of course, it doesn't help matters that Zak's character only has a few brief appearances and adds virtually nothing to the story.

Craig McMahon deserves kudos for his writing (in this day and age, it's no easy feat to come up with a story that doesn't feel like a tired retread), and his direction is usually on the ball (overlooking the numerous roving skyline cutaways which seemed utterly pointless). The musical score (bafflingly credited to "Musicians all over the world") adds to the film's surrealism, though on occasion it overwhelms the dialogue. It's a shame that we don't have a DVD with audio commentary, because this is a movie that would greatly benefit from insight from the filmmakers.

If you're looking for something completely out of the norm and don't mind a plodding pace, I'd highly recommend this little obscurity. It's not without its little problems, but it's certainly better than the endless crap reboots and neverending franchises that the major studios have been bombarding us with for the entire 21st century.

Leaves you expecting one thing and is a thorough surprise when another occurs. Well played characters assist telling of the interesting reality based storyline and the end moral to the story is very well thought out and clever.

Many individuals will be able to relate to the medical condition shown by the main character and how it affects them. Intrigue is present along the way with themes such as bullying, relationships, trauma and love. The genre is therefore a tricky one to categorize since it is a true mix. That is part of it's elegance in terms of how it keeps you unsuspecting the themes which are about to emerge.

In my opinion a subtle, yet clever film which the rating overlooks considerably.

I hadn't heard of this movie but was browsing, felt like a horror and typed the word Dead in the search. This came up. So Emily is a young woman who has been extremely traumatized but the loss of her family in a tragic accident and as a result, has developed survivor's guilt along with a case of agoraphobia (fear of leaving your house). She meets with a strange therapist that suggests she heal through art and tells her to create an image of herself to help her move past her difficulties. What follows is really compelling in an almost Edward Scissorhands kind of direction. And Savanah McMahon, a British actress has no problem taking on a dual role playing the main characters, herself and her weird goth doppelganger. The whole thing is really only hampered by poor editing and some of the camera work is a little off, nor is it on any kind of large budget but those things in no way detract from the film or really it's message. There is some wooden acting from the boy who plays Ian, but that seems to ease off the more the film progresses.

Really surprised how good it was, I'd watch it again. 7.5/10*