The Dread (2007)

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good movie but grossly overrated

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I'm not going to go over the plot much because others have explained what there is of one pretty well. The movie has a lot of dead ends and leaves a lot of things unexplained. These, I feel, were the biggest weaknesses besides the attempt at creating atmosphere with a lack of lighting. Some scenes were spot on in their look, but many were muddy and lacked any detail at all.A mediocre monster, general gore and acting that was a bit below pro-level all give away the movie's low budget roots. I feel all of these are forgivable though when you consider the short amount of time they apparently had to shoot and the small amount of money. While I'm sure there are many filmmakers who could have done more with $150,000 on a video production budget, I can see how it bogs things down.Where budget shouldn't be a factor is the screenplay itself. Most of the time I wasn't quite sure what the hell was going on and by the end I just didn't care. There was something about a video game and a monster and a crazy kid who was now an adult. How the monster worked, what his particular powers were or how he chose his victims wasn't important I guess.So, if you're watching a movie tonight to be scared witless, see Oscar winning performances by actors who had time to connect with their characters, grade-A special F/X or a deep story with rich, full characters, give this one a pass. But, if you like to see monsters dismember people you can fast forward to the fun parts.

The concept seems simple but interesting. A asylum stricken young man Alex seems to be able to transform into a maniacal vicious creature with the ability of becoming non corporeal. He is in the asylum due to becoming non responsive after the brutal murder of his parents, something which his monstrous alter ego could be responsible for. The creature has laid dormant for years until a doctor revives old memories for Alex. The killings become more violent when his biological sister Teri comes for a visit(she was adopted after the parents were murdered).This film starts out okay (i'm talking the first couple of minutes), but quickly suffers a downward spiral. If this were a student film for a school project, it would rate well. But it isn't, so it doesn't. Obviously this film had bugger all budget, but i have seen better films on a shoe string budget. Supporting actors seem to be people giving it there best shot, but most of them don't make the grade. The music score is b grade but acceptably so. Includes some horror clichés, like horny teenagers breaking into the asylum for a cheap scare. Word of advise, if you take your date into an asylum and she strips saying she's always wanted to have sex in one, she is most likely nuts herself so i'd steer clear.The point of view shot coming up behind the main character to try and trick the viewer into thinking the killer is behind them. Usually filmmakers do this shot after the killer is loose, not before. The creature is poor and is quite obviously a guy in a costume. If the mouth moved when it talked, it might redeem it a little. But it didn't, so it doesn't. There is some blood and guts for gore hounds, but not great views of it as it will become obvious that they are animal parts from the butcher shop or corn syrup mixed with red food dye. Best performances go to the lead detective played by Marvin Bernard and asylum ward caretaker Sid Ellis. The asylum manager played by Ellen Sandweiss completely overacts and would have expected more from someone who seems to have the most acting experience in the whole movie (she was in the first Evil Dead). Alex's sister played by Sally Pressman is adequate.

When i saw the cover for this movie i thought OMG this is going to be the scariest movie and goriest movie i have ever seen but Jesus Christ i have never seen a worse movie in my whole life. The acting is fine but the picture quality is like soap opera show quality and the effects are bad too and the storyline is probably the worse. you cant connect with the characters or anything. There is a horrible half sex scene which is pointless and the killer just plays video games there is no plot and you don't like properly get to meet the characters. And the mental hospital is sooo bad i cant stand it. the rooms have other doors in there and electricity boxes too. its like they made a movie for a school contest its so bad. and there are only a few characters as well and some of the patients just simply walk around the hospital and the killer costume design is the worst i have ever seen. its like he is dressed to go to a halloween dance party. the coat thing he wears is like what i would wear to school or something and he is wearing a mask which you could buy at your local supermarket. its not original but its not interesting. and in the final bossfight its like *jab* oh well hes dead and im him now OK then lets show the end credits now which go at 100km an hour.

To start off the movie's title 'The Dread' is not captivating as it sounds like a terrible remake of a Japanese Horror. However the dingy title matches the cinematic quality as the film is utterly abysmal. With a shoestring budget that's been used depressingly bad its evident the creators of this film had no idea what they were doing; the plot, copious amount of cliché's, dreadful acting, screenplay, special effects; the whole movie is a giant train wreck that I'm surprised was ever released to DVD.The film starts out with a wannabe opening from Halloween; homage or not it's executed in a very uninteresting way and it is almost as though the creators are trying to pass it off as their own with an alter ego addition. The story is about a child's "inner evil" that murders his parentals in their bed whilst his real body sits in front of a scratchy pictured television screen whilst playing a video game – little tension and atmosphere as it seems to be shot on someone's digital home video. A decade or so later the now grown up child is locked away in a derelict mental clinic – does this not sound familiar already? Teri, the protagonist discovers that her long lost brother is the same boy who killed his parent's year's back and she decides to see her apparent brother with her own eyes. As the night goes on in the clinic with supernaturally locked doors the film turns into a very typical, badly written and ugly acted slasher. Even if the film had been executed professionally it still would have been insanely unoriginal and mind numbingly dumb. This is Halloween with minor alterations only this time it's very hard to sit through and even see as the picture quality is so bad.The picture quality is very terrible ranging from unintentionally too dark attics and hallways to audio that goes up and down throughout and the actors are as though they were taken from a bus stop. My drama class back in school could have done a better job at blocking and delivering lines than anyone in the film did. The only person who is acceptable is The Evil Deads cult star Ellen Sandwiess, possibly because she has about one or two lines and even then is the only actor who is mildly convincing. The special effects look like tomato sauce and water and even looked like water at times however at least the gore was there even though in an over the top fashion. Torn up torso's that look like mannequins made of foam with gore that looks like dried up PVA glue spilling from it is nonsensical. The paranormal being an element of the film is not an excuse either. It's pathetic and tries to use gore to make a scary villain which is a huge no-no. There is no budget that is an excuse for such a terrible film like this.Absolutely everything in this film was pathetic and I am surprised I sat through its entire duration. It makes one agitated that there are people out there in the industry with real talent and well structured ideas that never get their way into film. The Dread is a bad film and this is coming from a reviewer who has intentionally seen hundreds of films with bad reputations. The dread is way at the bottom of the barrel and won't even form into a so-bad-its-good cult film. Nothing can save you from the dread of The Dread. Avoid.