Deadgirl

Frequent readers of this blog will have surely noted my constant complaints about how sameness is a problem at the cinema. In my defense, this shouldn't be a big surprise since I'm the oldest member of TMBC, and the one whose seen the most films in a wide variety of genres (though I think Wicked Little Critta is catching up fast....). Therefore, it only makes sense that I get more excited and impressed when I find something truly original. And I get REALLY gratified if and when I see something that not only breaks the mold, but smashes it into dust, and sweeps it into the gutter, to never been seen again. And after seeing innovative horror like Deadgirl, all other common horror films can say is this: Hello from the gutter.
Deadgirl is a film unlike anything I've see before, and has the most intriguing/mortifying hook I've seen come down the pike in a long time. I saw Deadgirl at the Boston Underground Film Festival, where festival co-director Kevin Monaghan told the audience something to the effect of, "I can't say that I hope you enjoy Deadgirl, but I hope that you take something away from it, that it affects you". I'm leaped at the chance to see this film at BUFF, because when I read about what the film was about, I doubted that it would get even a very limited theatrical release. After actually seeing it, I'm sure of that. But...enough foreplay.
Deadgirl follows the story of two teenagers, Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez) and JT (Noah Segan), local high school rejects, Trenchcoat Mafia types. At the beginning of the film, they cut class during a fire alarm to smoke weed and drink beer at an abandoned local asylum. There, they find themselves in the basement where they make a startling discovery: a beautiful, naked woman handcuffed to a gurney. And she's dead.....or at least she looks it........JT wants to free her, call 9/11, and GTFO. But Rickie? He wants to....keep her. To say much more would be going into very heavy spoiler territory, but the "dead girl" has a secret that makes deciding what to do with her (or to her.....) very squarely into "morally grey"....or at least squarely into that territory for Rickie.
If you're thinking that this sounds pretty tasteless, you would actually be very wrong. Deadgirl deals with it's very unorthodox and very dark subject matter with a lot of insight and restraint, and some very black humor, as appropriate. It does not revel in the extreme levels of gore and shock of it's ugly, stupid cousins in the "torture porn" genre. Having said that, this film is clearly NOT for the squeamish. Horror films have frequently been somewhat simplistic morality plays in America, but Deadgirl takes a very clear situation, and builds the plot and action around it, as opposed to shoehorning in lazy subtext in which teenagers who drink, do drugs, and engage in premarital sex are killed arbitrarily.
I liked Deadgirl, at least as much as I actually can like a film that has such brutal subject matter. The acting, directing, and writing are all very, very good. This film disturbed me, made me jump from time to time (but not in that cheap way), and made me shake my head with disbelief with it's final scene. I wish that I could go into more depth about the plot, but it's one of those films with a very minimal plot, so even simple elements of the story constitute huge spoilers. If requested, I might be able to put up an addendum on I Should Be Allowed To Think, TMBC's sister site.
Deadgirl is a powerful film about slippery slope moralities, and how "little deaths" become so much bigger. I will never forget this film. For originality, solid content, and superb craftsmanship, I give Deadgirl a 17 out of 22 on the 22 scale.

P.S. HUGE props go to Radiohead for letting this film use one of their songs.

-Your Racist Friend