While cutting class one day, high school friends Rickie and J.T. make their way to an abandoned mental hospital. After some digging around, they discover a naked woman chained to a table in the basement. Rickie suggests they get the poor woman out, but J.T., through some "experiences" with the woman now nicknamed "Deadgirl," discovers that she is also incapable of dying, and has other plans in mind.
A quick message to my friends reading this: If I ever get this desperate for pussy, please lock me up and throw away the key.
You know how some movie posters immediately catch your attention and can never quite leave your mind? Deadgirl's has always stuck with me since I first saw the image while working at Hollywood Video. Unfortunately, our only copies at the time were rented and never returned, so I had to wait for some time to finally get around for a viewing. And the final verdict? S'alright.
The two leads...actually, scratch that, damn near every character, aren't particularly well written, and I never got the feeling that these two were ever friends to begin with, even if some forced expositional dialogue in the final twenty minutes tries to tell you otherwise. Jenny Spain is our title "creature," and even through she's speaking in nothing but grunts and the occasional scream, easily steals the show from everyone around her. She's probably the only living being (using that term loosely) worth rooting for here, as this doesn't really have too many likable characters to speak of. Even Rickie, our hero, comes across as a bit too weird to identify with, and Shiloh Fernandez's flat acting certainly isn't helping him. Makes you nervous for how he's going to do in the Evil Dead remake, doesn't it?
It is very likely that Deadgirl's ending will divide a lot of folks, seeing as how it does contain a complete 180 from what was previously established, but I'd say it made perfect sense considering some of the last words that are uttered by a certain character. It's one of those "Fuck You!" conclusions, but with an additional "No, Fuck YOU!" towards the very end. A bit confusing, but satisfying in a sick sort of way.
Deadgirl is an absolutely flawed film, and I think it could have been handled extremely well in the hands of a more experienced director, but the final product really isn't all that bad. If you're sensitive about rape in horror films, this could get under your skin. Doing back-to-back screenings of this and the previously reviewed The Woman will probably leave you hating the human race for the remainder of your day.
Tomorrow, we're still stuck in 2008, and this time make a trip to Canada with PONTYPOOL.
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