Review: ‘Deadgirl’

‘Deadgirl’ is a dark vision of teen angst, a somber coming of age tale about the immorality that can stem from social separation.  Deeply twisted yet strangely cerebral, it is a welcome entry into the horror genre that has become plagued with the ‘Saw’s and the ‘Hostel’s of the world.  While it’s surface narrative could draw similarities to those types of films (torture is part of the story), there is a deeper meaning behind what is going on that allows it to offer up more than your typical serving of torture porn.

JT and Ricky are best friends, outcasts together at their local high school.  They spend their days skipping school, running off to secluded spots around town, drinking beers, and basically expressing their teen-aged anger in the best way they know how.  They find their own, personal Pleasure Island in an abandoned mental institution.  Once there, they proceed to trash the place from top to bottom, ultimately finding themselves in the tunnels below the asylum.

It is here where they find the girl, wrapped in clear plastic, naked, and dead.  Only she isn’t quite dead in the way they initially believe.  In fact, this girl cannot be killed, and JT, being the more destructive of the two, takes this opportunity to turn the girl into his own sex slave.  He chains her up in the basement of the building, shutting out the rest of the world and, ultimately, Ricky who wants nothing to do with the girl.  As with any good, horror movie, things quickly spiral crazily out of control.

More than a standard, run-of-the-mill horror film, ‘Deadgirl’ is a depiction of a twisted social experiment. What would social outcasts do to a helpless and naked woman who A.) cannot be killed and B.) is chained up in a dark basement. With Ricky and JT, we get two answers to the same question, and the writer and directors behind ‘Deadgirl’ (Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel helmed the film with Trent Haaga serving as screenwriter) give each of the film’s two leads equal screen presence. Ricky is the clear protagonist here, but even his character falls into the gray area at times where you aren’t quite clear what choices, moral or immoral, he is going to make.

Ricky pines over one of the popular girls at school, a girl he was childhood friends with, and it is through these gazes to her that we see where Ricky is coming from. He wants more for himself than just being the outcast. JT, on the other hand, has accepted his place in the world, and, because of that, he takes whatever opportunities he can.

More than the dichotomy of the characters, the directors and screenwriter have created a grand setup for a horrific finale. Without giving anything away, let’s just say the fact that the girl cannot be killed comes into play. Though we never get an explanation of who she is or where she came from, the filmmakers behind ‘Deadgirl’ end up setting rules to what her indestructible nature entails.

Unfortunately, it is in these rules where some of the film’s latter incoherency comes into play. There are several unanswered questions before the end of the film, questions that aren’t left open for dramatic or narrative effect. They are just raised and then forgotten about. By the film’s end, we get an idea of where the overall narrative has taken us, but there are definite side roads that should have been explored.

The film’s budget caused much of these issues, I’m sure. ‘Deadgirl’ simply can’t fulfill the potential of its screenplay. Sarmiento and Harel do the best they can. The abandoned asylum and its basement are very atmospheric locations whether they are found built sets. The directors and DP, Harris Charalambous, do an excellent job setting the tone of the film with lighting and composition.

‘Deadgirl’ is a film that will divide audiences.  Most will be turned off by its violent and sexual nature.  For much of the film, those two elements go hand in hand, as JT’s sexuality towards the helpless girl grows ever more violent. Naturally, screenwriter Haaga couldn’t just have the film be two hours of a girl being chained up and raped, so, by the end of it, the film falls into the gore-soaked trappings of so many horror films before it.  This isn’t a negative against the film.  The co-directors handle the violence superbly, and most horror junkies will be right with the film all the way up to it’s twisted denouement.  Twisted and unpredictable, ‘Deadgirl’ is a film that, despite certain script issues and the limitations of its budget, will satisfy fans of the genre across the board.