A remarkably creepy and bold adaptation of a Book of Blood Volume II novella, continuing the current Clive Barker movie cycle begun by MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN and BOOKS OF BLOOD. Writer/director Anthony DiBlasi expertly expands on concepts and characters from the original text, crafting a movie that’s an intelligent breath of fresh air amongst contemporary horror films : refreshing in its emphasis on dialogue, characterization and slow-burning dread.
The focus is on three characters with specific personal or physical scars. Shaun Evans is a wannabe artist forever haunted by the night a stranger invaded his house and axed to death his parents (conveyed in shockingly brutal flashback). Jonathan Readwin is a sensitive student equally haunted by the death of his brother in an alcohol-induced car crash. And Hanne Steen is a beautiful young woman unable to ever overcome a birthmark that covers half her face and most of her body.
Inspired by the work of sexuality-expert Kinsey, the Boston college students (the picture was filmed in the UK with British actors but it doesn’t show) set about interviewing similarly scarred subjects as part of their thesis about personal fears and dread – uncovering dark secrets in each other in the process. In particular, Evans becomes fixated on his test subjects and takes everything dangerously too far.
Evans makes a horrifyingly convincing sociopath, at the centre of an exceptional cast that also includes a stand-out turn from Steen as the fragile Abby : an eternal victim of society’s judgmental nature. Her harrowing climactic bathtub scene of self-mutilation – following a public humiliation engineered by Evans – involves bleach and is one of the emotionally wrenching movie scenes of the year.
The brave, disquieting performances at the core of DREAD refuse to comfortably define any of these complex characters and, like the movie as a whole, don’t give the audience an easy ride. Ultimately, DiBlasi’s film, unremittingly dark from the start, becomes an escalating, nihilistic examination of the all too real cruelty that festers between ordinary, intelligent young people.
It pays off with bleak, bitterly ironic confrontation that allows the most dangerous character, now beyond the point of no return, to continue his nasty work. You won’t easily forget the meat room, one of Barker’s most upsetting creations without graphic gore, in which a girl abused as a child by her father is left in a locked room for a few days with only a piece of meat as food. The meat, which rots to a repulsive degree, is placed there because it smells just like her father did when he used to rape her.
Directed in an un-showy, controlled fashion with understated use of music and a total absence of contrived shock effects, DREAD is a very impressive piece of work.
-Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
