Dread

[DavieT]

OK that was an hour and half of my life I'll never get back ... oh ok 45 mins as I actually was asleep for half of it. I didnt really connect with this movie at all, I found it quite slow and to be honest quite dull ... the whole filming your fears thing reminded me of another movie ... but I cant remember the name of it .. my personal "Dread"? that someone will make me watch this again. I stuck with it to the end in the vain hope that Quaid would get the axe through the skull he so richly deserved ... he didnt .. bummer. A number of people around me seemed to like it ... hey we're all different. For me more Dread-ful than Dread and the worst movie of the weekend (hey at least Giallo made me cry with laughter )

[dangerous_jamie]

I thought this was great, light years ahead of Book Of Blood or whatever the last one was called.

[AdeBrown]

Yeah this would be in my top three Barker adaptations (behind Candyman and Hellraiser).

It felt believable and that's down to the lead actors and script.

Here's a controversial thought, it succeeded in reaching the conclusion of Martyrs much better than that film's drawn out pretentious (moi?) brutality. The psychology of both victims and perpetrators was explored, and the penultimate act's explosion of violence was genuinely disturbing rather than grinding down by repetition.

One annoyance: the old Hollywood-appeasing pretence of a scouse actor playing an american ! In a Barker adaptation (again) !

[sherbetbizarre]

Abysmal!

[goregoregirl]

This seems to have divided people, but personally I thought it was really well made and faithful to the concept of Barker's short story. The acting was great, especially from the girl who played Abby (absolutely heartbreaking) and Shaun Evans as Quaid. Very grim in places, but overall one of my favourites this year.

[Tommy-Boy]

Crapola.

[splittter]

This one was like Hierro and Coffin Rock for me, seemed to be classily made, well acted and so on but just never really took off ... I usually find Barker adaptations to be fairly creepy, but this one didn't affect me at all ... think the biggest problem was that the premise of filming people's fears to try and reveal something just seemed ridiculous, and nothing the movie did changed my mind ... Quiad wasn't interestingly disturbed or damaged or anything, he was just an idiot.

[sherbetbizarre]

I found it ridiculous too... it's also one of those horror films where everything is dark, dour... everyone lives in shabby apartments... even the bloody library looked too dark to read in! Ok, so it worked in Se7en, but here it just felt like a cheap way to invoke some "dread" in the viewer in lieu of plot points or character actions.

[jonbly]

Generally good, but jonbly has some big problems with this one.

Firstly, there's no reason given for why the deaf guy chooses the wrong target to vent his rage at the end. Maybe he's just nuts at this point... but it wasn't very satisfying.

Secondly, the meat test doesn't make sense. Her fear is linked to the smell of fresh blood which followed her father around... so as the meat rots, it will actually become less relevant to her personal fear. Not to mention the fact that eating that much rotten meat would probably have killed her without medical attention...

And finally... the meat test is over. Why run it again... what would that prove (in the context of the 'fear study')?

6/10

[AdeBrown]

Secondly, the meat test doesn't make sense. Her fear is linked to the smell of fresh blood which followed her father around... so as the meat rots, it will actually become less relevant to her personal fear. Not to mention the fact that eating that much rotten meat would probably have killed her without medical attention...

You've thought this through, no question
Psychologically, at that stage the rotting meat could well be closely linked to the original fear due to the trauma of captivity and a bit of conditioning.

Regarding the breakdown of Quaid's "research protocol" I'd say that his rather psychopathic perspective on fears that were seen from the start and by that stage, they were further triggered off by Grace's responses to him.

[Reanimator]

Quite liked it although had expected a bit more.

[streetrw]

It's more a character piece about the (possibly homoerotic?) relationship between the two guys which over the second half turns into a vaguely intellectual version of Saw. I didn't hate it, but it felt too long (though it's apparently only 95 minutes) and the "villain" is such an obnoxious knob that I couldn't see why the "hero" didn't just walk away.

[lupogirl]

Was the only time I wished i was in the Discovery Screen. Very dark, slow and no atmosphere. Could not wait for the end credits!

[Giz]

Ok,its not a perfect port of the original story,but if it was it would be a short film.
I enjoyed it,thought Quaid was good,a couple of things didn't sit right,one being I thought she came across as a weaker and less willing character in the meat challenge than in the book,but overall i'm glad these great stories are getting closer to the originals than some previous efforts,looking forward to the next.

[Porkboy]

I also thought they caught the essence of the short story very well, but I felt kind of hollow by the end - I just didn't really care that much. It's not a terrible film, in my opinion, but just very blah.