Instant Favorite.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

As Good As It Gets

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The writer/director of 'Dread' Anthony DiBlasi is responsible for one of my favourite horror films of all time 'Last Shift'. On that occasion he caught me completely off-guard and managed to blow me away by how impactfully he was able to make a modern horror film. 'Dread' was actually made 5 years prior to that, but still possesses a lot of the same class. There's something to be a said for a thought-provoking horror movie. All the 'Saw' movies managed to pull it off and it was a thing of beauty. 'Dread' is a also very thought-provoking. There are a surprising amount of levels to this film. All of that culminating in a dark and memorable final scene equals one hell of a film.The characters are what truly drive this film and make it what it is. For one thing they're likable. For another they're believable (for the most part). And finally the character of 'Quaid' is so cool he's almost channeling 'Tyler Durden' from 'Fight Club'. Finally the thing I love most about this film is that it follows through. It sets up a dark premise and then carries it out to the fullest extent. Too many people set up infinite possibilities in their films and then ultimately back down and take the safe route. There's none of that here and I love that about this film. Definitely a must-see if you get the chance.

So when I read the plot of this movie and saw that it was a horror/thriller, I was really excited. The premise looked really cool only the outcome was really bad and boring.I watched it for 45 minutes before stopping. I was constantly in my head that I wanted to quit, but I am not much of a quitter in movies. But nothing really happened and I was yawning, constantly checking on my phone. I knew this wasn't gonna be it for me, since I was constantly waiting for something to happen.I saw what they wanted to reach with this movie and I can see why people would like this movie, only I didn't think of it as a thriller or a horror. Sure some of Quiad nightmares where pretty messed up, but that were the only 'scary' parts of this movie. Most of the things would consider a trauma or PTSS or something like that. I don't see how those things could be classified as horror or thriller.

Based upon a short story by Clive Barker one wonders why this hadn't been adapted to the silver screen earlier . The source involved a student being forced in to torture recorded on videotape by an amoral intellectual voyeur obsessed by the human condition of fear . In the early 21st Century horror has seen a sub-genre branch out on its own , that of " torture porn " and the original short story could have been a very fashionable contribution of the sub genre , perhaps a present day version of the Michael Powell film PEEPING TOM . As it stands what we end up with a highly unsatisfying movie that plays up to the weaknesses of Barker's short story rather than its strengths First of all Barker wrote a rather talkative but streamlined short story . This is going to be problematic to anyone bringing the story to screen . The story proper that Barker envisaged doesn't really happen on screen until the final third . An impatient horror audience aren't going to pay their money to watch a character driven piece . Make no mistake the producers here aren't marketing their movie for a mainstream movie going audience interested in any sort of psychological horror but one where the intended audience are hardcore gorehounds so in order to keep the audience interested we're given several scenes that seem to be included to merely to keep the audience interested and some of these scenes are the lowest common denominator - one where the character is having a hallucination/nightmare/flashback . Very lazy writing on the part of the screenwriter and somewhat alienating too as these scenes are very unpleasant . In fact the whole look of the film is unpleasant as nearly every single scene is set in a dark and gloomy interior . It's not just down to the budget but also down to the fact that it's a British production and it's going to be difficult realising American locations in a low budget British production . This might receive some praise on an artistic level since the claustrophobic look and feel suits the story perfectly but it's a rather nasty and unlikable horror film and it seems a very long time ago Clive Barker was seen as the future of horror and had a massive trans-Atlantic hit with HELLRAISER

Proof you can make a tense, riveting film on a shoestring and a reminder that Clive Barker is a great horror writer. Solid performances, well paced, often shocking and truly frightening complete with haunting imagery. Executive Producer Anthony DiBlasi who worked on the last few Barker films shows real skill as he steps into the writer/director chair and love of the material as he deftly handles it all making this one of my favorites. A movie built on developing the characters, that makes you care about them and what happens to them is a rare thing, solid performances from the main characters come together to make this one of the best horror films of 2009. Make it a marathon and watch the other films produced by DiBlasi and Barker Midnight Meat Train, and Book of Blood together exemplify of what can be done when a writer and filmmaker work together to bring more literal translations of the original work to the screen unlike so many book adaptations who's films barely resemble the novels.