Lionsgate // 2007 // 84 Minutes // Rated R
Reviewed by Judge David Johnson // July 4th, 2008
You only think you're alone...
Here's a tip: it's probably not a good idea to bring your comatose wife to a secluded cabin in the woods, especially one that's rumored to have been built on an Indian burial ground.
Jack Wade (Quentin Jones) is desperate. The husband of a one-time famous actress, this guy's hit rock bottom. His wife has succumbed to a coma and her family has cut off his access to her estate, leaving him penniless and, with no marketable skills to seek out gainful employment, bottomed out. So he hauls his wife to the only thing he does own, a crappy cabin he won in a card game.
Some of locals warn him about the place, including "Constable Kate" (Gillian Shire), the attractive redhead who immediately starts scooping out his package. But he doesn't care. He's got nowhere else to go. Of course he should have listened because shortly thereafter, funky @#$% starts to go down. First it's hallucinations, then voices, then his wife magically appears and starts talking trash. This wears the dude down, until he ultimately snaps.
What showed promise of becoming a noteworthy little horror flick, Dead and Gone never quite transcends the crowded field of straight-to-DVD slashers, and will likely float away into the ether. But it's not a total loss and certainly not a failure. As far as dude-slowly-goes-crazy movies go Dead and Gone works okay. Jack is a fairly sympathetic hombre and, as he methodically leaps off of the deep end, I did feel a molecule or two of emotional reaction. I kinda liked him, though this movie isn't geared toward building long-lasting friendships. It's all about the crazy and the bloodshed, and there's an awful lot of both.
The Crazy
When your film relies heavily on one guy going
sideways in the head, you can expect a slow burn and that's what you get here.
The requirement of a Crazy Dude movie is the gradual losing of the mind, so the
build-up is everything. This of course can have adverse effects on the pacing of
the story, and if the actor isn't up to the task of carrying the movie himself
-- which Quentin Jones is asked to do -- there's a good chance the thing will
implode. The good news is that Jones is indeed up to the task. He's got a strong
presence and transforms both physically and emotionally into a strung-out whacko
with believable success.
It's the story part that keeps Dead and Gone from really delivering. Not enough happened in the run-up to Wade losing his mind to keep things interesting. His wife shows up, he takes Constable Kate for a walk, his wife shows up again, the idiot grocery delivery boy makes an appearance that merely foreshadows his own inevitable demise, his wife bleeds from the mouth, he vomits, his wife shows up again -- and then at about the 60-minute mark, when Wade does lose it, the film picks up the pace and the blood flies...
The Bloodshed
...and fly it does. Using old-school practical
effects like pumps, Karo syrup, red food coloring, and fake heads, director
Yossi Sasson and his crew soak the final third of the picture in sinew. Hands
are cut off, faces are burned, Drano is poured down throats, arms are severed
and heads roll, most of which is accompanied by spouting blood geysers. It's
this, the payoff to the uphill drive towards Wade's madness, that may attract
most gorehounds to what is a decent, if unremarkable, horror effort.
Solid technical specs all around. A crisp 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen and 5.1 Dolby Digital audio, supplemented by a good making-of documentary, filmmakers' commentary, deleted scenes, and outtakes.
Blood and wackiness abound in this better-than-mediocre horror spectacle.
Not Guilty. Now go get yourself on the five dollar, Healthy Saver generic prescription program and score some brain meds.
Review content copyright © 2008 David Johnson; Site layout and review format copyright © 1998 - 2008 HipClick Designs LLC
Scales of Justice
Video: 85
Audio: 85
Extras: 80
Acting: 70
Story: 80
Judgment: 74
Perp Profile
Studio: Lionsgate
Video Formats:
* 1.78:1 Anamorphic
Audio Formats:
* Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround (English)
Subtitles:
* English
* Spanish
Running Time: 84 Minutes
Release Year: 2007
MPAA Rating: Rated R
Distinguishing Marks
* Making-of Documentary
* Filmmakers' Commentary
* Deleted Scenes
* Outtakes
Accomplices
* IMDb
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0489019/combined