Director(s) – Marcel Sarmiento (V/H/S Viral, The ABC’s of Death) and Gadi Harel (Operation Midnight Climax, Nights Like These)
Starring – Shiloh Fernandez (Evil Dead, Red Riding Hood), Noah Segan (Knives Out, Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever), and Jenny Spain (Harvest, American Girls)
Release Date – 2008
Rating – 3.5/5
Blu Release – 4/5
I watch and review a lot of horror movies and I’ve done so for over a decade now. While I do try to watch at least one movie a day and have for some time, I can remember a good portion of all the films I’ve seen over the years. However, occasionally I will watch a movie and recall bits and pieces of it with no recollection of actually watching it.
Several weeks back my friends over at Unearthed Films sent over their blu release of the 2008 horror film Deadgirl written by Trent Haaga. When I received the blu for review I was under the impression that I had never seen the film before but once I hit play, I quickly realized that a good chunk of this movie was very familiar to me. Like always, I want to thank MVD and Unearthed Films for sending this one over for review.
**Spoiler Alert** The film follows two friends who decide to spend their evening exploring an abandoned asylum near their home when they make a startling discovery. They find the body of a dead woman and flee thinking they stumbled upon the corpse of a former resident. The next day one of them goes back and discovers that she’s actually still alive in some capacity and can’t be killed. Their friendship is then pushed to its limits when one of them uses her as a sex slave and the other wants to cut her loose and free her. Things take an even more dramatic turn when some bullies find out about her resulting in one of them getting bitten by her. He slowly starts dying and becomes a member of the undead just like her. This gives one of them the idea to kidnap a woman and have her bitten in order to create another sex slave and when he chooses his friend’s crush for the candidate it forces him to act. **Spoiler Alert**
I went into Deadgirl thinking I had never seen it before but as the movie went on, I realized that I recognized a great deal of it. I don’t remember watching this and considering I never owned a copy of the film until Unearthed sent me a review copy has me very perplexed as to how I had seen it. The only thing I can think of is it was part of a watch party when I was a member of the Upcoming Horror Movies message board back around the time this was released. Regardless, I enjoyed this one way more than I thought I would and could see myself revisiting it again sometime soon.
The acting in this one is decent but I’m not a fan of the characters and their personalities. The cast works very well with each other, and they are fully committed to the film but the characters they were given to portray are very unlikable. In fact, there is not one character in the entire film that I cared for. A little more focus on character development and wardrobe that stood out would have gone a long way in this one.
The story for this one is a lot of fun even though it crawls at a snail’s pace. I once read a short story about a group of teens who find a girl zombie near some train tracks. They chain her to a tree and build a fort around her. They then would meet every evening after school to nut on it until she broke loose. I don’t which story came first but it reminded me a lot of it. It’s a lot of fun, fucked up, and very unpredictable.
Finally, the film doesn’t boast a high body count but the kills we do have are fantastic. We have amazing practical effects, and one death in particular really stands out with the viewer. Overall, Deadgirl has a pretty solid cult following and for a good reason. It’s a pretty fucked up movie but it’s not something I would call extreme. It’s graphic and bloody at times but all genre fans can appreciate it. I highly recommend snagging the Unearthed Films release.
Special Features:
NEW Interview With Co-director Gadi Harel
NEW Interview With Writer Trent Haaga
NEW Interview With Actor Noah Segan
NEW Interview With Actor Shiloh Fernandez
NEW Interview With Special Makeup Effects Artist & Designer Jim Ojala
NEW Behind The Scenes Gallery
NEW Extended Makeup FX Gallery
Audio Commentary with Cast & Crew
Audio Commentary By Actor Jenny Spain
Exquisite Corpse: The Making Of Deadgirl
Jenny Spain’s Audition
Deleted Scenes
Promotional Stills Gallery
Theatrical Trailer
NEW BD-ROM: PDF Of Deadgirl Shooting Script & Deadgirl 2 First Draft
