Movie Review: THE DEAD ONES

THE DEAD ONES

For four outcast teens, summer detention means being assigned to clean their high school after a horrific incident. But they are not alone; a macabre gang wearing guises of The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse – Famine, Pestilence, War and Death – has locked them inside and is hunting them through the school’s ravaged hallways. As the four students battle to survive, each must confront the supernatural echoes of past traumas they have struggled to forget – and may be condemned to relive.

Director: Jeremy Kasten
Writer: Zach Chassler
Stars: Sarah Rose Harper, Brandon Thane Wilson, Katie Foster, Torey Garza, Clare Kramer

Rating: 8 / 10 Stars

REVIEW – Imagine for a moment, you are using cocaine and watching The Strangers but cannot get The Breakfast Club out of your mind. That is the best description I can come up with to describe this film. The Dead Ones is a paranoid puzzle that gets confusing the more you try to figure out what you are watching. The story starts simple enough. Four outcast teens have an odd detention. They have to clean up their high school after an incident happened. As they are starting to clean up the mess, they are locked in the school by four hooded people calling themselves “ The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse”. This film is something so unique and absurdly entertaining. You know early in the film that there will be twists and turns coming fairly fast. When the four figures decide to gas the outcasts you truly see the beauty in what this film wants to achieve. The visuals in this film are haunting and at times a little too realistic. The violence in this film, at times, may offend some people. When this film starts to peel its parts and you understand more, it is haunting and may offend some. I feel though if the film did not go for the throat in the way it talked about the subject matter, it would have been a huge mistake. This film needed to be violent in certain moments. This film also does not truly reveal its intentions till the last 7 minutes. This film has some interesting dialogue and the characters we get a feel for. I will not say we are truly invested in any one character, but we get a look inside them and we understand their dilemma of sorts. I will say for 70 plus minutes this film had my attention.

I will also say that each scene, I was trying to figure this film out. It dealt with flashbacks and present day that at times were so random that they are meant to throw you off to confusion. I will say I was letdown when I knew the twist. I felt after we learned the truth, the rest of the film had to fall in place. For a film that for an hour was daring and jumping into so much unknown water, to just throw us a twist and then have to go around it, felt sort of thrown in. I will not say I hated this film, I feel now that I know the pieces and parts a second viewing could be even better. I feel that some scenes in this film may not sit well with some. Then again, if you are watching politics on tv you can stomach anything these days. Let me say this, my review was vague in the details of this film. I want people to go into this film with an empty canvas and get this film to paint on it and see how they feel. Would I watch this film again? I would watch this film again with my wife to see what she gets out of it. I would watch it with my friends after, to see how they feel. This is a film that will get people thinking and talking. The violence may divide an audience at times, but the film at its core is a horror film that is more reality based than fantasy. This film is a fucking wet dream to the way we view our world in 2020. It is fucked up but yet we cannot turn away from it. Just when you thought it was safe to think we are safe.