Long Time Dead (2002)

Simply A Masterpiece

Sick Product of a Sick System

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The struggling British film industry commits another blunder with this highly predictable horror film, produced with part funding from the French who now probably regret their decision. I can't say that this film will do much for cultural relations as it is really a major disappointment from the beginning. I had been meaning to catch this at the cinema and never did, now I know why. The lame and clichéd antics never for one single second add up to anything other than overwhelming boredom and the overall result is that you are left feeling that you've seen it all before, and if you're anything of a horror fan like me then you will have. First off the film attempts to appeal to the teen audience with a group of foul-mouthed youngsters having sex, taking drugs and doing all of the other things that teenagers supposedly do. Sadly the cast is a largely uninteresting bunch with only one or two half decent actors in there. The rest just woodenly say their lines without any conviction and make no impact at all.Most of the faces are unfamiliar with only a couple of exceptions to hook in something of an audience. First we have Joe Absolom, a guy who had a role on popular British soap EASTENDERS a few years back; but I don't remember his acting being this bad back then! Absolom is given a fairly dramatic character to contend with but his efforts are hardly noteworthy. Now, remember how old British B-films back in the '60s and '70s used to have imported American stars to appeal to the American audience? They've done the same thing here with the appearance of former child star Lukas Haas (WITNESS), now a gangly twentysomething who enjoys playing with a video camera (for no other reason than to recall THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT). Although Haas gives only an adequate performance he still turns out to be the best actor in the film.The stupid plot concerns the oh-so-predictable antics surrounding a ouija board séance that gets out of hand. An unseen djinn is summoned and proceeds to wreak havoc by…killing off the teenagers one by one. A good opportunity for some imaginative deaths and gore, you might think? Sadly not. The deaths are skimmed over, major characters disappear only to later be found in elevator shafts, etc. The idea of an ancient djinn as a monster has already been done in the superior WISHMASTER and besides which the budget doesn't stretch to any special effects (other than some cheap snake eye morphing stuff), so instead one of the teens gets possessed and we're left trying to figure out which one.Although this film is shot well, the direction is poor (first-timer Marcus Adams really needs to try harder and stop messing around) and the editing is hopeless, just random scenes strung together in a sequence with no idea of time frame or anything. My favourite bit is a suspenseful moment where Lukas Haas is trapped in a dark house with the monster, but it's quickly and predictably over and the film once again goes downhill from there. The finale is yet another of those tired "twist ending" clichés we all know and hate. Only sadists need apply for this uninteresting talkathon.

Saw this when it was released and I didn't think all that much of it. Thought it was quite poor. I hadn't seen it since, until now and I didn't find it as bad as I last remembered. However there are no pretensions that it's your typical run-of-the-mill, forgettable little post-scream British horror flick outing. Almost like a dark supernatural slasher, as a evil entity (Djinn - fire spirit) possesses a human body and goes about killing the college friends who were involved in summoning it through a Ouija board. That who it possess is kept hidden until the film's climax, as red herrings are thrown up and back-stories are revealed. The main problem I had with it were the characters themselves… quite an unlikeable, bland and indistinguishable bunch of players. Surprisingly the ones which might have seem important in some shape to carry it (the few sympathetic turns with some sensibility) were killed off early and this actually made it unpredictable it what order they would dwindle down to. The typical traits are there; false build ups, reckless decisions, surprising revelations to keep the story moving, roaming shadows, distracting noises, characters finding out the truth to only be killed, ghastly shocks with flowing blood, the killer POV shots and a cheap lasting jolt to close up shop. Director / co-writer Marcus Adams' escalates some suspenseful frights and paces it well enough, but still its slick and flashy techniques are systematically vanilla. Special effects are efficient (sped up visuals and CGI) and the simmering score heightens the danger with its heart-racing cues. The performances are okay focusing on a hip young British cast (Hass' the exception) with the ladies (Marsha Thomason, Lara Bellmount and Melanie Gutteridge) standing head over heals over the boys (Lukas Hass, Ale Newman, Joe Absolom, James Hillier and Mel Raido).

After watching such teen horror movies as Cherry Falls and I know what you did last summer, I expected this to be similar: Too gory, too boring and too badly acted.I was wrong.Long time dead, A film in which a group of friends decide to have a night out, making out, getting high and dancing in the process, release a djinn (arabian Fire demon) accidentally while using a Ouija board. Unfortunately for them The evil demon doesn't like the idea and pays them back by killing them one at a time......The film to me, seems much darker and more evil than "i Know what you did last summer" with scenes in places that would creep you out if you had your whole family with you, it doesn't help that they live in an old house with a "strange" landlord. This also brings a few faults into the film by more of them later.The plot is pretty good and the way the students get killed is impressive, while many parts of the film can be quite scary.Faults: Well the fact that they are always in scary places ruins the plot, I mean if someone's trying to kill you, would you go into dark rooms? Or go ANYWHERE alone? me nether....The other bad part of the film is that we quite often see the characters running away from the evil demon which does get a bit annoying after a while.All In all I think this film is very good, better than many I have seen.

I recently saw this movie on cable TV. As I was reading the synopsis, I thought maybe this will be interesting but probably it will be a Class B or C horror flick. After the first 15 min. I almost changed the station. After 20 min. it began to pick up. Then, after about 30 min. it took off and turned out to be one of the scariest movies I have ever seen. After an hour I was on the edge of my seat to the end. Lukas Haas is the only name actor in a mostly British cast - however, the acting was superb! I have watched other horror films with well know actors who did not display the talent and skills of this group. There is a great story line about friends who stick together mixed in with the supernatural, blood, and gore. Long Time Dead was suspenseful, scary, and the ending will catch you off guard. If you are a fan of good horror flicks - this is a keeper!!