Freakdog (2008)

A young doctor in a US hospital administers a powerful and untested cocktail of drugs to a coma victim. But instead of curing him, it triggers a powerful "out-of-body" experience and ... See full summary »

Director:

Paddy Breathnach

Writer:

Spence Wright (screenplay)

Stars:

Arielle Kebbel, Sarah Carter, Stephen Dillane

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Arielle Kebbel	...	Catherine
Sarah Carter	...	Kim
Stephen Dillane	...	Dr. Harris
Andrew Lee Potts	...	Kenneth
Alex Wyndham	...	Jake
Katie McGrath	...	Harriet
Christina Chong	...	Yoshimi
Martin Compston	...	Sean
Michael Jibson	...	Steve
MyAnna Buring	...	Shelby
Colin Stinton	...	Detective Cartert
Nick Hardin	...	Walt
Michael J. Reynolds	...	Dr. Stegman (as Michael J Reynolds)
Sarah Boyd-Wilson	...	Vanessa (as Sarah Boyd Wilson)
Art Parkinson	...	Young Kenneth

Storyline

A young doctor in a US hospital administers a powerful and untested cocktail of drugs to a coma victim. But instead of curing him, it triggers a powerful "out-of-body" experience and enables the patient - a depraved and dangerous loner - to inhabit other people's bodies and, through them, take revenge on the bullying medical students who were accidentally responsible for his condition. The doctor, who was herself a part of this group, is also targeted and as her colleagues are singled out and relentlessly picked off, she realises that she can trust no-one - friend or stranger - as this comatose killer moves in and out of bodies at will, getting ever closer as his murderous supernatural powers increase.

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Plot Keywords:

doctor | hospital | coma | out of body experience | revenge | 

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Taglines:

Do Not Resuscitate

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Genres:

Horror | Thriller

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 July 2009 (UK)

Also Known As:

Red Mist

Filming Locations:

Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Generator Entertainment, Geronimo Films, Framestore CFC

Technical Specs

Runtime:

82 min 82 min (European Film Market)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

Several characters (most frequently Jake) mention their lofty aspirations to attend "John Hopkins" for advanced medical training. The distinguished medical facility in Maryland is "Johns Hopkins".

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Connections

Referenced in Freakdog (Making of) (2009)

User Reviews

Permanent Vegetative State … Yeah, right!

It always strikes me as quite remarkable that med students in horror films are even dumber than the average adolescent horror movie characters. I mean, these people are supposed to represent our doctors and scientists of tomorrow, yet when confronted with a potentially perilous situation, they take the absolute worst decisions of all. Basically speaking, "Red Mist" is another umpteenth variation on the 'I know what you did last Summer' slasher theme. In other words, a bunch of young people do something incredibly stupid that results in the death of an innocent person, but in order to save their own careers/reputations, the make a pact to keep it secret. The events naturally come back to haunt them. The culprits who were immediately prepared to ditch the dead guy usually die first and most painfully. The sole member of the group with a bit of a conscious, usually the one who insists at first on calling the police, still has a slight chance of survival. Nothing new or innovative there, as "Red Mist" revolves on a band of dim-witted med students that go out partying with drugs that they have stolen from the hospital pharmacy and cause for the mentally retarded morgue assistant Kenneth to OD into an epileptic attack and subsequently a coma. The whole group is perfectly happy with Kenneth's "permanent vegetative state", as this prevents him from talking about what really happened, but the celestial Catherine is overrun by feelings of guilt and remorse. To help poor Kenneth and bring him out of the coma, she secretly experiments upon him with a new type of drug. The treatment doesn't have the wanted effect, however, as it causes "out of the body" episodes during which Kenneth possess the bodies of random people and uses them to extract revenge on those who wronged him! Indeed, what we're dealing with here is a genuine amalgamation of "I Know what you did last Summer" and the obscure Aussie shocker "Patrick". The plot isn't very original, but even more troublesome is that "Red Mist" doesn't distinguish itself from the overload of contemporary horror films in terms of gore, atmosphere or suspense, neither. The film is dull and slow-paced, with unmemorable murders and clichéd situations. The attempts to bring additional depth and plot twists are well-intended but completely miss their effect (like the scene where Catherine suddenly awakes in a body bag in the middle of the woods) due to the overall predictability of the concept. The acting performances are decent, especially from Arielle Kebbel and Andrew Lee Potts, but these freshly faced twenty-something hunks and babes seriously don't look like future doctors or surgeons. This film is a slight improvement over "Shrooms" for director Paddy Breatnach, as that film was completely incoherent and messy, but it still isn't solid horror like it ought to be.