Freakdog

I've just watched this at Frightfest festival and to be honest I think it's a really good movie. Ticks all the boxes for me for what a good horror should have... Blood (tick), gore (tick), deaths (tick) a hot lead (tick, tick) and a few twists in the plot (Tick!).All in all this surprised me in how good it was. I've heard the budget isn't brilliant (Rumoured to be around £2million) and if this is the case then they've done a great job!) Also is it true that this was filmed totally in Belfast??? If this is the case then I would never have guessed - every location had me fooled into believing it was in America!! I'd give this 8/10 and in saying that when it is released nationwide I'll probably go back to watch it again (i'm weird like that - i enjoy watching a film for a 2nd time once I've seen the twists played out the first time round!)

Go see it it's well worth the visit!

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?

Or is it "Dog Standard"? ;o) Just kidding, I'm not spoiling anything, by saying the movie doesn't involve a dog (as in an animal). It's a "nickname". The movie is more or less what you would expect it is (with one or two exceptions). The gore is OK, the story has been told in similar fashion many times and the acting is OK.

The craziest thing was a warning before the movie started. For anyone who might be epileptic, there are scenes in here, that will trigger epilepsy (I don't know if there is any other more political correct way to say that, but I guess you get my point). The movie was screened at Fright Fest and the reaction of most of the crowd was less than enthusiastic (some even said, that it was as "bad" as Shrooms ... since I haven't yet seen that one, I can't comment on that though)

"Freakdog", "Coma: The Movie", "Frickin' Stupid Doctors" or whatever the film wants to call itself, is unsurprisingly a very unknown film. I had never heard of it, critics ripped it apart and medical students were probably told to never watch it (unless they purposefully wanted to fail). Essentially it's "I Know What You Did Last Summer" meets "Flatliners", and it's just as predictable as both of those films. A group of medical students make a pact to try and kill a creepy stalker, whom recorded footage of them stealing pharmaceuticals, but instead puts him in a coma.

However, this is very very bad. Why? Well because he can travel out of his body, possess these students and kill them in elaborate ways. A slasher/revenge flick utilising an admittedly unique and imaginative premise. Just a shame that pretty much everything sucked! Putting aside the absurdly cheap aesthetic, editing and direction, the film's biggest issue is with its characters. Forcing literally everyone to be unlikeable, from the students to the experienced doctors, results in an entirely expendable cast. A consequence of this is that whenever someone pours burning acid down another's throat or crushed their head in a car door, it's all for nothing. No emotional attachment. No "ahhh but I liked that guy!". Nothing. Then we somehow need to comprehend how unintelligent these students really are. This is the future generation of doctors! Why are they are all so frickin' dumb? And why is a predominately British cast playing American characters? Just get an American cast!

The gore was unfortunately rarely shown on screen, which culminates the "horror" aspect and lays it on an uncomfortable hospital bed whilst we all watch it slowly die. Acting? Questionable. Camera shots? Zoomed in. Conclusion? "Red Snooze". Oh, and if you have epilepsy...watch with caution. (Although I recommend you don't watch it at all, epileptic or not!). Nearly caused me to have a nosebleed with its excessive flashing lights. Seriously! My retinas were burning during the last five minutes. It's coma time!

It always strikes me as quite remarkable that med students in horror films are even dumber than the average adolescent horror movie characters. I mean, these people are supposed to represent our doctors and scientists of tomorrow, yet when confronted with a potentially perilous situation, they take the absolute worst decisions of all. Basically speaking, "Red Mist" is another umpteenth variation on the 'I know what you did last Summer' slasher theme. In other words, a bunch of young people do something incredibly stupid that results in the death of an innocent person, but in order to save their own careers/reputations, the make a pact to keep it secret. The events naturally come back to haunt them. The culprits who were immediately prepared to ditch the dead guy usually die first and most painfully. The sole member of the group with a bit of a conscious, usually the one who insists at first on calling the police, still has a slight chance of survival. Nothing new or innovative there, as "Red Mist" revolves on a band of dim-witted med students that go out partying with drugs that they have stolen from the hospital pharmacy and cause for the mentally retarded morgue assistant Kenneth to OD into an epileptic attack and subsequently a coma. The whole group is perfectly happy with Kenneth's "permanent vegetative state", as this prevents him from talking about what really happened, but the celestial Catherine is overrun by feelings of guilt and remorse. To help poor Kenneth and bring him out of the coma, she secretly experiments upon him with a new type of drug. The treatment doesn't have the wanted effect, however, as it causes "out of the body" episodes during which Kenneth possess the bodies of random people and uses them to extract revenge on those who wronged him! Indeed, what we're dealing with here is a genuine amalgamation of "I Know what you did last Summer" and the obscure Aussie shocker "Patrick". The plot isn't very original, but even more troublesome is that "Red Mist" doesn't distinguish itself from the overload of contemporary horror films in terms of gore, atmosphere or suspense, neither. The film is dull and slow-paced, with unmemorable murders and clichéd situations. The attempts to bring additional depth and plot twists are well-intended but completely miss their effect (like the scene where Catherine suddenly awakes in a body bag in the middle of the woods) due to the overall predictability of the concept. The acting performances are decent, especially from Arielle Kebbel and Andrew Lee Potts, but these freshly faced twenty-something hunks and babes seriously don't look like future doctors or surgeons. This film is a slight improvement over "Shrooms" for director Paddy Breatnach, as that film was completely incoherent and messy, but it still isn't solid horror like it ought to be.