The Dead Center

This obvious low budget film certainly didn't skimp on actors. A very effective thriller/horror with solid acting and an interesting story. Very creepy and a bit unsettling at times.

It's unusual to see a horror, with a really scary buildup like this one, that doesn't rely on swimming pools full of blood. Pleasantly surprised!

Don't expect too much from this horror mystery movie. It isn't a big budget movie but to me it's certainly worth a watch. I liked it more than my wife did, aspecially the slow pace that added to the mystery. You can't help it to be interested the whole time about what the hell is happening and that's a good feeling when you watch a movie in the mystery genre. The horror passages are mild but still interesting enough for a low budget. The acting wasn't bad at all and the storyline is worth a watch, why should I complain?

When I saw that Shane Carruth is the lead in this I already knew it's probably going to be something dark and messy with the mind & I wasn't wrong. These type of movies, mood and atmosphere wise, are my favorite. Having said that, "The Dead Center" is not a perfect movie.

It's pretty obvious the director didn't have a lot of money to work with, but that was compensated with some creative, atmosphere building cinematography, editing solutions and practical gore effects. And not only with the technical side - acting also was, for the most part, impressive and believable. The place itself, the hospital, is as authentic and sinister feeling as the characters living and working there. I especially enjoyed the performance by Jeremy Childs, as the otherworldly possessed and troubled mysterious patient. Acting's on point, but I was the most impressed by the atmosphere, hopeless and evil, the aforementioned aspects of filmmaking plus sound design & original score worked together well and made the movie stand out. So far so good, but the problem lies within the story, or the plot. For the first half the mystery goes on, new things happen - a slow burner but a rather great one. Around the middle the story starts slowing down, stumbles, stops surprising. At the end it leaves You kinda unsatisfied and craving more & You start thinking is there some message there you didn't quite catch. If that's the case, can a movie be built on one metaphor? Now, I may not know the full meaning of this movie, but it was mentally extreme & I enjoyed that.

You have to be able to enjoy movies with dark atmosphere, mean spirit, art-house antics, movies about mental illness, and such - if that sounds like a yes to You, I do recommend it. My rating: 7/10.

Psycho fears meets Lovecraftian horror in this unsettling thriller, which manages to be compelling despite its well-worn territory. Shane Carruth stars as a wellmeaning but troubled psychiatrist driven to insanity by a patient who comes back from the dead with no memory of who he is, claiming to have a hidden evil lurking inside. The story takes inspiration from Clive Barker but writer-director Billy Senese keeps things fresh with a 'show, don't tell' approach, holding the tension taut as the film builds towards a supernatural confrontation, with the odd spattering of gore along the way.