Horst_In_Translation Review of The Dead Room

The Dead Room (2018 TV Movie)

Lacks effectiveness in almost all departments

[4/10 · 7 January 2019]

"The Dead Room" is a British half-hour horror movie from 2018. This was made for the holiday season and eventually aired on BBC 24th December in the sense of old traditional ghost stories for Christmas that already were a thing decades ago and are having a bit of a revival here. But sadly, if the quality is mediocre like this one we have here, maybe it is best to not revive old traditions. Writer and director is prolific actor and Emmy winner Mark Gatiss and the main character is played by BAFTA nominee Simon Callow, certainly well-known in Britain and I think he is still among the very best this short film has to offer. Unfortunately, the script is not on par. Direction is okay I guess. As for the story, it never creates the tension or horror I would have hoped and the way they included that big scare factor moment near the end is also a bit desperate and cannot save the film. On the contrary, it makes it even weaker. The very colorful dream-like sequence before that (brighter than the entire previous 25 minutes) could have been a highlight, was probably also intended to this way, but it did not work out too well, even if it is probably still among the more memorable components of these slightly under 30 minutes. It is the story of a radio host, per se a somewhat lonely profession given how many people you are serving, and not the worst decision to center the film around this man's profession, also in terms of where the horror is located exactly and how the character's past is involved as well. So it is absolutely not a failure and there are good aspects included. Shame is just that they are not elaborated on properly to bring the necessary quality and also I would have hoped for a little bit more attention to detail overall. At this running time, you have to deliver quickly and this film does not succeed in doing so, if it delivers at all at some point. The lastg 5 minutes are not worth sitting through everything before that and the idea to go for people forgetting how weak this was (not just) early on by making the ending most memorable is always a bit of a cheap one. Go watch something else instead. Thumbs down for this one from me.