Dead in 3 Days

Horrorphile

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Dead in 3 Days

January 27th 2009 04:15

An Austrian slasher flick?! Can’t say I’ve seen too many of those, in fact, I can’t say I’ve seen many Austrian horror movies, period. Dead in 3 Days (2006) is the international title for In 3 Tagen bist du tot (In 3 Days You Will Be Dead), a horror-thriller which has done rather well on the Euro circuit, even spurning a sequel. The movie looks great, but unfortunately the screenplay holds very few surprises.

Dead in 3 Days Sabrina Reiter and Laurence Rupp

Sabrina Reiter as Nina and Laurence Rupp as Martin

Nina (Sabrina Reiter) and her four childhood friends, Mona (Julia Rosa Stöckl), Clemens (Michael Steinocher), Alex (Nadja Vogel) and Martin (Laurence Rupp) have all just graduated from high school. They live in a small village town, Ebensee, next to Lake Traunsee. But their idyllic lives are about to come apart as their childhood past returns to haunt and terrorise them: all of them receive an anonymous SMS text message that informs them “In three days you will be dead”.

Julia Rosa Stockl as Mona

Yes, it’s pretty much I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) in Austria, right down to the red herrings and assorted fishy atmospherics. The performances, the picture-esque setting, and the artistic visual narrative lift the movie’s game considerably. The dramatic intensity falters in the last third, with the ending all a washed out to sea, but the well-paced ride sports good use of suspense and tension.

Dead in 3 Days Michael Steinocher and Nadja Vogel

Michael Steinocher as Clemens and Nadja Vogel as Alex

The lake takes no prisoners

Director Andreas Prochaska, has made lots of Austrian television, so his command for efficient story-telling, effective cinematic devices and horror visual grammar is solid. Interesting to note Prochaska was assistant editor on Michael Haneke’s Benny’s Video (1992) and editor on Haneke’s Funny Games (1997). Prochaska’s frequent use of close-ups and shifting focus adds a lot of mood and texture to what essentially is a very derivative and bland story. One death set-piece in particular reminded me of murder maestro Dario Argento, so that’s high praise.

Nina's not having a good time ...

There’s a disquieting sense of claustrophobia that permeates Dead in 3 Days, adding a creepy tightness to the overall atmosphere. Prochaska milks his thin ice premise for all its worth, the repetitious motif of water; dripping, swirling, pouring, raining, swelling, gushing (the dark lake looms in the background on the DVD cover) is the movie’s key visual element.

... Things go from bad to worse

Clemens makes a horrific discovery

I can’t see an American remake of this being produced, as they’ve already made it. Perhaps this is an Austrian re-envisioning of numerous American stalk’n’slash movies?! Dead in 3 Days, despite it’s dreadfully unimaginative title (the Austrian original title is lame enough, I’m surprised the English-language title wasn’t jazzed up more), is an above average slasher. But take that with a grain of sea salt. There’s an awful lot of utter crap on the shelves these days. Dead in 3 Days and its lifeless DVD cover probably won’t jump out and say "Watch me!", but you could do a lot worse … a lot worse.