Greetings And Salutations, and welcome to my review of Dead Shadows; here's the breakdown of my ratings:
Story: 1.25
Direction: 1.25
Pace: 1.25
Acting: 1.00
Enjoyment: 1.25
TOTAL: 6.00 out of 10.00
Before writing my review, I checked out what the others had to say on Dead Shadows. Well, it would appear to be a Marmite Movie - You love it, or you hate it. And I'm happy to say I love this cheapo French Fright Flick.
Most of the bad reviews come from the lack of a backstory. However, there is a backstory there. It's the strange murder-suicide of Chris' mere and pere. The deaths happen when Haley's Comet passes close to Earth. The strange occurrence is never fully explained. But I loved that about the story. It adds mystery and a dark one at that.
A few years later, and the scared boy has grown more fearful over time. He works from home, a tiny Paris apartment, as tech support and keeps a car battery at the ready in case of power outages. Not only does it keep the PCs whirring, but it powers up his neon tubes and keeps the darkness at bay. He only ventures out of the house for food and other necessities. It would have been great if his anxiety were better demonstrated. As we get deeper into the story, it gets forgotten. Had the writer incorporated more stress, tension, and fear in Chris, it would have only empowered the narrative. Some nice touches add potency and believability. Such as the father and child trying to find the comet in their telescope. It turns out Chris and his dad did a similar thing. Then there's the hobo in the shop who reflects back to when he and his mate fought for their lives during the last comet. Little bits like this made the story for me. I also liked how the writer kept dropping in the odd weirdness here and there. Could these be down to the comet and its closeness to Earth, or could it be something else? And that is the main bone of contention. Like everything else in the story, it remains a mystery. My sister would hate this film, for her everything has to be black and white and have a beginning, middle, and end. The unsolved mysteries and the open-ending would do her box in. I loved it; it's more realistic this way.
The director is great at what he does, though I would have less vignetting. But that's a personal thing. In photographs, it works perfectly; in movies, not so much. On the whole, he does well. He gives the film a nice varied pace. It is best evidenced in Chris' steps fight. The cuts are quick, and the angles from above, below, and on level build interest. When he finally reaches the summit of the steps, the tempo slows to reflect his fatigue. Then slows further when he slumps against the wall, and the spider woman crawls up behind him and takes him in her embrace. The spider woman is a great scene and shows off the FX team's CGI and actual effects impeccably. In big-budget films, the whole creature would have been CGI'ed. However, what the team does works so much better. They use a real actress to move behind Chris and embrace him, and then they merge in the computer-generated spider legs. It's a creepy image, one of the finest I've seen in a low budget flick. Kudos to the FX guys and gals. It's also down to these mutations that I believe the people are not Zombies, as many reviewers keep stating. Try this sci-fi explanation. Spores. Yep, tiny spores carried by the comet were breathed in and passed on by the humans. These then attach themselves to our DNA, and the mutations begin. And I agree with one reviewer; the tentacles are more Lovecraftian, as is the story, than Japanese in origin. It would be the ideal way for the old Gods to Return.
And having said that, I also believe that Dead Shadows could have been the first part of a much larger project. The ending does leave a very wide door open for sequels or extra chapters. I, for one, wish there were more.
The acting is kind of hit and miss. The lead is okay, Fabian Wolfram is decent enough as Chris. He has a gaunt look that could be attributed to Chris' anxiety, and he's not too pretty, so he could definitely be a tech-nerd, and he ain't too ugly to be shunned. It's the others who sometimes have problems, especially Claire. It could be down to her persona. She is a strange lady indeed, but that could be how she was written.
All in all, Dead Shadows is an agreeable film. If you don't mind open-ended conundrums of horror sci-fi flicks, then give it a watch. It's well worth it.
Please feel free to visit my Absolute Horror and The Final Frontier lists to see where I ranked Dead Shadows.
Take Care & Stay Well.
