Thursday, March 5, 2015

Dead Within (2014)



Number Rolled: 30
Movie Name/Year: Dead Within (2014)
Genre: Horror
Length: 82 minutes
Rating: NR
Production Companies: 3:41am, This is Just a Test Productions
Executive Producer: Peter James Cooper, Aengus James, Colin King Miller, Gregory R. Schenz
Director: Ben Wagner
Writer: Matthew Bradford, Dean Chekvala, Amy Cale Peterson, Ben Wagner
Actors: Dean Chekvala, J. Claude Deering, Rick Federman, Sarah McMaster, Amy Cale Peterson

There was an outbreak six months back. Mike and Kim have managed to survive by barricading themselves in a cabin. As time goes on, they are forced to spend more and more time apart as Mike has to search further and further away for food.

I believe the only reason this movie got shoved into horror genre is because of the presence of zombies. In my opinion, just having a zombie in a movie doesn’t necessarily make it a horror. Dead Within felt more like a psychological thriller.

Netflix was pretty certain I wouldn’t like the movie. As I rate more movies on the site, whatever algorithm they use to rate movies for me seems to work better. It’s at the point where I’ve gained a lot of confidence in their star system. It doesn’t stop me from adding movies to my list or anything, but it does cause me to pre-judge films. In this case, they didn’t quite get it right.

I can’t say Dead Within was a good horror movie. I can say it was a really interesting film.

The 82 minutes flew by. I barely realized I’d been watching very long when the movie was over. Films that try to show the psyche of someone dealing with cabin fever can get incredibly boring, but this one didn’t. It was fractured at times and confusing, but that emotion aided the overall experience.

Dean Chekvala (Reception, People Like Us, True Blood) and Amy Cale Peterson (Vicariously, Southbounders, I Hate L.A.) really brought their characters to life. That alone was not a small feat, considering they had only each other and the setting to work off of during the majority of the movie. I didn’t see much chemistry between them, but I don’t think I was supposed to.

All in all, it was kind of nice to see a different kind of zombie film. It wasn’t perfect, but it wasn’t bad either.

Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score – None
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score – 22%

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 1.4/5
Trust-the-Dice Score2.5/5

The Random Rating: R

P.S. Some scenes during the credits

Movie Trailer: 

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