Deadgirl

Horrorphile

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Deadgirl

December 18th 2009 03:32

I really wanted to like Deadgirl (2008), but it ended up leaving a sour taste in my mouth, not because I was offended by it, but because I went in rather enjoying the first half an hour, but it quickly began to disappoint me, then it began to annoy me, and finally it had almost wholly let me down. I had high expectations I’ll admit, as I’d been seduced by the title and poster design and from a couple of reports saying the movie was strange and subversive.

Strange, yes. Subversive, yeah. But these elements are outweighed by an inherent trashiness and silliness that rears its ugly head less than half-way into the movie, not long after an element of absurdist humour also springs forth; dark, yes, but altogether incongruous in tone. It made sense when I discovered that the screenwriter, Trent Haaga, worked for the Troma production company. I don’t like the Troma style (except for Street Trash).

Deadgirl Noah Segan and Shiloh Fernandez

Noah Segan as JT and Shiloh Fernandez as Rickie

Co-directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel are reasonably competent and keen to push the boundaries as far as they can outside of the usual Troma envelope of bad taste. The producers have Hellraiser and Heathers on their resumes. I wish they’d all steered clear of the scatological and puerile sense of humour they injected part way into the movie. The last third of the movie veers drastically into the arena of stupidity, and finally attempts to pull the entire narrative full circle, but with a perverse pseudo-twist.

Jenny Spain as the deadgirl

The premise in a nutsack, er, nutshell: 17-year-olds Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez) and JT (Noah Segan) cut class to drink beer and smoke cigarettes in an abandoned mental institution for kicks. In the subterranean tunnels of the building they come across a naked girl chained to a medical trolley and covered in clear plastic. She is neither dead nor alive. Rickie is highly dubious of the situation, whereas JT relishes the discovery, and subsequently milks it for all its worth.

Candice Accola as Joann

Although they swear to keep the deadgirl their dark secret JT can’t help himself, and tells hanger-on Wheeler (Eric Podnar) who shares JT’s aberrant sexual interest in the girl. Soon enough the high school jock Johnny (Andrew DiPalma) and his sidekick Dywer (Nolan Gerard Funk) are in on the discovery and get their dipsticks sticky. But there’s bound to be tears before bedtime. This deadgirl ain’t rollin’ over for just anyone.

JT and Wheeler (Eric Podnar) examine the body

Johnny (Andrew DiPalma) about to wet his whistle

Just what is the point being made in this unctuous, awkward, and highly problematic movie? That most American teenage boys would jump at the chance (or at the very least be coerced) into indulging in necrophilia simply because the opportunity has presented itself? That concept alone is perverse enough to warrant Deadgirl one of the most outrageous horror movies of the last decade or so. Part of the problem lies with the lead male characters in Deadgirl simply not being deranged enough to do so. They’re all attractive, they all attend high school, I can’t begin to believe they’re that desperate for sexual activity they’d fuck a supposed dead body, especially one that is apparently in some kind of zombie undead state and stinks like a rotten fish in a filthy alleyway. I can suspend my belief only so far lads.

Rickie's moral conscience gets the better of him

Then there’s the rape issue. The deadgirl isn’t dead-dead, she’s just stone cold, smells something chronic, and can survive strangulation, bullet shots and a machete to the head and still thrash around and grunt like a bitch possessed. Still, that doesn’t perturb JT or Wheeler, or Johnny or Dywer. If they can get some, they’ll have some. It can’t be rape … she’s dead. Necrophilia? Purely technical.

Deadgirl Candice Accola and Shiloh Fernandez

Rickie plays knight to Joann, but the succubus gets loose

Production values and performances are good, but this is essentially mutton dressed as lamb, the continuity is dodgy, and so are some of the special effects. Best performance comes from Jenny Spain in the titular role; she doesn’t have any lines of dialogue, just grunts and screeches, spends the entire movie buck naked (and very oddly she appears to be sporting a murkin - surely the actor could’ve grown her pubes out for the movie??), is gang-raped and has her face viciously beaten, and all the while expressing all manner of Hell from her eyes. It has to be one of the most thankless, yet effectively harrowing portrayals I’ve seen in a while.

Any reviewer who claims this movie isn’t designed to shock is clearly deluded. This is modern exploitation, masquerading as an indie adolescent nightmare. I’m not suggesting it wants to be taken seriously – the toilet cubicle death scene kills that notion in a second – but a movie that tries to balance precariously between politically incorrect comedy and supernatural horror whilst juggling the ethics of male machismo, peer pressure, misogyny, and the trials and tribulations of sexual (mis)adventure, is playing with fire.

Deadgirl burns like flammable glossy trash. If it’s meant to paint an unpleasant picture of the male libido it does so in broad strokes, and it does it at the expense of having any character worth empathising with. Rickie is the only character vaguely likeable, but he turns out to be a perverted tosser like the rest. The origin or behaviour of the deadgirl (one word to emphasise her role as sex object) is never explained. Nor is the hound from hell. But then much of the movie is left in the dark to fester. At least the deadgirl gets to scowl and bite another day …

The movie’s audacity beguiled me, but its tone was confused, its themes questionable, and ultimately the story possessed no cojones, rather it took the well-worn avenue of “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The inspired, sexually provocative "lips" poster rocks, as does the alternate DVD cover art, but that’s small mercies.

Here's the "poetic" trailer:

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

3 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JESUS

December 22nd 2009 03:28

What's Love?

This sounds like whole lotta fun! NOT, still is it worth seeing?

Comment by Bryn

December 22nd 2009 05:28

Horrorphile

Jesus, it depends on your sensibilities ... I'd have preferred the movie to have been played straight right through, and the characters needed to have been a lot more dodgy and grotesque than they were for me to suspend my belief that high school students would "indulge" in that kind of aberrant behaviour ...

Comment by JESUS

December 23rd 2009 23:17

What's Love?

fair call, I think I will give it a go, mainly because your review of it is so indepth and makes we want tlo see the trash for myself!

merry xmas

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