The Dread

The Dread

Suffixes are interesting. Dread has one meaning, dreadful another. This movie makes its own contribution to grammar though. The Dread is dreadful.

Director, Michael Spence, had made two movies before Dread so we should rightfully expect more based on his having had relevant experience. Despite a competent slasher intro, the acting is wooden, the action, well, non-existent and the general tone lacklustre.

The best part of the movie takes place during the credits.

I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that the movie is about a sister, Sally Pressmanas as Teri, who starts to have doubts about her brother, Ryan Welsh as Chris, who is institutionalized in a mental health facility. The action, such as it is, starts when Teri starts visiting Chris.

Oh, and the odd couple who are desperate to have sex in a mental health facility, well, they did provide the obligatory breast shot that is required of this type of film. Otherwise, what was their function?

Sally Pressman has a lot going for her. A successful modelling career, university graduate and trained ballet dancer. How did she end up in this? How did she end up being so bad in this?

Ryan Welsh, well, he has form with this sort of thing.

With all due respect to Days of Our Lives, it was hardly a quality production in the mid-sixties. The Dread, echoes those production values, evident in Days of 1965. The problem is The Dread was made in 2007.

Director Michael Spence co-wrote The Dread with Karen C. O'Malley. What an indictment against the American education system. The dialogue is stilted and lacking in any emotive variation at all. Spence and O'Malley must have seen quality movies in their personal lives. Copy what the successful do!

It takes Pressman 45 minutes to visit her brother. This is when the movie really starts. That's 45 minutes into a 95 minute movie. Oh, and she parks in a disabled car park when she does eventually visit.

Ryan Walshe's character suffers from SRD. I'm not really given to viciousness but, stupid, really dumb, was the first thing which ran through my mind. Other commentators have mentioned The Dread in the context of Halloween. As we in Australia say, they are drawing a damn long bow. There is no real resonance between the two.

Oh, there is a minor character, a female in-patient, the actors name is Chelsea Simeon I think, who wears a onsey, and is quite sweet and engaging. I don't know that investing 95 minutes for a 2 minute walk on is a good return though.

No one deliberately sets out to make a bad production. (Well maybe Mel Brookes in The Producers.) I'm certain that all involved had high hopes for The Dread. Both they and the viewer have had those hopes dashed.

Not really bad but not great either. I had trouble watching it after a while as I became really bored with it after a while. The acting was okay but again, not really enough to keep my attention. With better direction and acting, it could have been a pretty good movie.

The acting was okay. The premise was good. Overall execution was weak. I'll admit, I washed dishes and did laundry as the movie played, because it wasn't compelling, in the least. For a mediocre mid day film that is a noise distraction, I recommend it. For anyone who wants a ghost/crime/mystery story you'll care about, avoid.

To start off the movie's title 'The Dread' is not captivating as it sounds like a terrible remake of a Japanese Horror. However the dingy title matches the cinematic quality as the film is utterly abysmal. With a shoestring budget that's been used depressingly bad its evident the creators of this film had no idea what they were doing; the plot, copious amount of cliché's, dreadful acting, screenplay, special effects; the whole movie is a giant train wreck that I'm surprised was ever released to DVD.

The film starts out with a wannabe opening from Halloween; homage or not it's executed in a very uninteresting way and it is almost as though the creators are trying to pass it off as their own with an alter ego addition. The story is about a child's "inner evil" that murders his parentals in their bed whilst his real body sits in front of a scratchy pictured television screen whilst playing a video game – little tension and atmosphere as it seems to be shot on someone's digital home video. A decade or so later the now grown up child is locked away in a derelict mental clinic – does this not sound familiar already? Teri, the protagonist discovers that her long lost brother is the same boy who killed his parent's year's back and she decides to see her apparent brother with her own eyes. As the night goes on in the clinic with supernaturally locked doors the film turns into a very typical, badly written and ugly acted slasher. Even if the film had been executed professionally it still would have been insanely unoriginal and mind numbingly dumb. This is Halloween with minor alterations only this time it's very hard to sit through and even see as the picture quality is so bad.

The picture quality is very terrible ranging from unintentionally too dark attics and hallways to audio that goes up and down throughout and the actors are as though they were taken from a bus stop. My drama class back in school could have done a better job at blocking and delivering lines than anyone in the film did. The only person who is acceptable is The Evil Deads cult star Ellen Sandwiess, possibly because she has about one or two lines and even then is the only actor who is mildly convincing. The special effects look like tomato sauce and water and even looked like water at times however at least the gore was there even though in an over the top fashion. Torn up torso's that look like mannequins made of foam with gore that looks like dried up PVA glue spilling from it is nonsensical. The paranormal being an element of the film is not an excuse either. It's pathetic and tries to use gore to make a scary villain which is a huge no-no. There is no budget that is an excuse for such a terrible film like this.

Absolutely everything in this film was pathetic and I am surprised I sat through its entire duration. It makes one agitated that there are people out there in the industry with real talent and well structured ideas that never get their way into film. The Dread is a bad film and this is coming from a reviewer who has intentionally seen hundreds of films with bad reputations. The dread is way at the bottom of the barrel and won't even form into a so-bad-its-good cult film. Nothing can save you from the dread of The Dread. Avoid.

Acting? Stellar. Shot composure? God Tier. Script? Better than Kubrick. A hidden gem from Kalamazoo MI.