Deadline

I managed to get all the way through this really poor movie, thinking that at the end the writers would at least have the decency to explain what it was all about. For some reason, movie makers like to leave cliff-hangers where the audience leaves the theater, or walks out of the room at home, scratching their heads and wondering "What the ??? was that all about"? This turkey managed to survive a weak plot and not be Tooooooo bad until the final scene. The writers did not see fit to explain whether Alice was just writing about her own experience and imagining all the videos, or if it was all true and she wrote about what was on the tapes, nor did it really explain why she was scared of being laid on that bed at the end of the show. The true nature of the relationship between her and REbecca was never explained. Were they lesbians? The only thing that ever was explained was Ben. At least she allowed his call where he apologized and told her he'd leave her alone. But, the writers managed to screw everything up by putting in the final scene and left everyone hanging way out in the breeze. Nothing was confirmed or explained. And, the writers left us with a new element of Rebecca on still another video, lying in that bed. I think writers who write scripts with this little explanation should be sued by the watchers and forced to explain themselves, AND THE PLOT!

I'm certain that somewhere in Los Angeles there's a machine that is able to combine random genre clichés and churn out screenplays and storyboards for studios. For a few extra bucks, it will even make casting suggestions. 'Deadline' is a result.

Spending a few nights alone in an abandoned Victorian mansion must be high on most people's list of things not to do. Not so Alice, who jumps at the chance to shut herself away in the spooky old house in order to finish a long-overdue manuscript. Even doors opening on their own, screams in the night, and an abusive boyfriend fresh out of prison can't convince her to seek someplace a little closer to civilization. Hell, she can't even turn a light on when walking around at night. Taking such an implausible scenario as its starting point doesn't bode well, and it can only go downhill from there. Possessing all the scares of an episode of 'The Ghost Whisperer', the complete lack of creativity or originality is depressing.

Deadline is written and directed by Sean McConville. It stars Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch and Marc Blucas. Music is by Carlos José Alvarez and cinematography by Ross Richardson.

Recovering from a psychological breakdown and required to finish a screenplay for a deadline, writer Alice Evans (Murphy) retreats to a remote Victorian house. Once there, though, mysterious goings on begin to accompany her. Undetered, Alice begins to unravel the terrible secrets of the house. But at what cost?

One of the last films made by Brittany Murphy before her sad and untimely death, Deadline (poor title) is mostly friendless in the world of the haunted house sub-genre. Yet in spite of its flaws and tired old set up of premise, it's hardly one of the worst of its kind. It's all very low key and thriving on moody mystery atmosphere, both things which are aided by better than average music scoring and photography. Performances by the cast, in what is purely a six character piece, are very committed, managing to make the thin script more palatable. There's a couple of jolts placed within, while the scenes involving Birch and a clearly unhinged Blucas are genuinely creepy.

Its reputation tells us that it's just too low key for some, and for sure it brings nothing new at all to a well populated formula. While the outcome is infuriating and has proved to be unforgivable for many a sub-genre fan. But with expectations set at low this rounds out as a decent enough time filler for those who like atmosphere laden haunted house pictures. 6/10

"Deadline" is a very creepy film in many ways. The late Brittany Murphy looks like death, at least partly on purpose as her character, Alice, is very sickly but this is no way to remember her. It was literally like watching a diseased ghost, and that realism was too much for me.

A writer in a remote house with psychological problems hears and sees strange disturbances but is it all in her head or is somebody, or something, trying to kill her? The story has been done many times before, and this wasn't a particularly good rendition of it. That's the main reason why the IMDb rating is so low. The filmmakers even seemed to get confused with the ending. They gave us a resolution but they hadn't quite worked out all the details.

The film itself though, was very well shot. They set-up a creepy atmosphere from the very beginning and never let up. Subtle camera work kept up the same suspense level throughout. This film was made on a low-budget and they made it well.

Recommending this is tricky. I was faithfully terrified - not so much because of the storyline but because of what I was watching. Brittany Murphy was so pallid and anemic, it was scary. And the atmosphere and slow moving camera shots were done so efficiently well, significantly better than most horror-thrillers that I have seen. If you want to be scared from a well-told story, you won't find that here. If you want to be scared from the realism, then you just might want to take a look. If I knew what I was getting myself into, I wouldn't have watched it. And yet, at the same time, I'm glad that I did - I like seeing low-budget independent films made well.

Brittany Murphy plays an emotionally broken young woman looking for solitude to try to meet a deadline for a manuscript. The movie itself is haunting since Murphy actually does die about a year later under suspicious circumstance after wasting away from some trauma. Her death in real life is deemed natural, but skeptics think there's more to it and her husband does about 6 months later from virtually identical "health issues.". It's almost prescient. Her character is offered a beautiful but secluded house to stay in while she finishes her manuscript. This "friend" is not doing Her any favors as the house is haunted, or cursed. Age finds some home movie cassettes and becomes obsessed with them. The home movie footage documents of the prior couple's disintegrating relationship. Fortunately she plays the dozen or unmarked video cassettes in chronological order. Also, coincidentally the emotional and physical trauma she recovering from is mirrored in this couple's relationship. As she watches her character begins to unravel emotionally and physically. Can she survive this haunting and learn what happened to the prior occupants? Brittany is believable and great in this role. Watching this knowing that she actually dies in a highly weakened state in a year is eerie. Overall though this is barely an average horror film.