When the credits rolled on Dead End, I couldn't help but feel a bit shortchanged. Since it's a film that spends most of its time playing with your mind by mixing realism and the supernatural, throwing the viewer back into the real world at the end seems like a rather disappointing conclusion. However, I'm prepared to forgive the filmmakers, Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa, for doing just that, because they have managed to make a witty, camp horror film that subverts clichés and quite literally takes no prisoners.We start the film on the road with the Harringtons, an average all-American family travelling to the Christmas Eve celebrations with the in-laws. It's a ritual that they have been repeating for 20 years - except that this year Frank Harrington decided to take a short cut and no map. Of course, the Christmas setting is instantly a signifier of family hell, as the bickering between mom and dad begins and the Marilyn Manson-loving teenage son starts picking on his sister's boyfriend.
It doesn't take long for the action to kick off. Ten minutes into the film and we've already seen daddy nodding off at the wheel and narrowly missing another car. Soon after that, a woman in white appears on the roadside and as they try to help her, the trouble really begins. The family is caught on a road that never ends, literally stuck in an unending loop, and this forced proximity really becomes the subject of the film as their relationships deteriorate. We never see despoiled bodies, gore or all-out carnage, and that only makes it even even more terrifying.
The use of an entire family is the first subversion of a genre that normally tends to use groups of teenagers to drive the narrative. The moralising of teenage sexual impulses is refreshingly left out of the equation – perhaps unsurprising, since the film was written by two Frenchmen. For instance, you would think that the son, who escapes into the wood for a quick bout of self-gratification, would be the first victim to go å la Friday the 13th - but he is spared, if only for a while.
The confessions that the Harringtons start to make to each other at the height of their despair provide some of the most hysterical moments in Dead End. Laura Harrington, the mother, has the best lines, as she becomes completely unhinged and utterly repellent. At one point she admits she is not good in bed, but should they survive the nightmare, she will give her husband carte blanche to do what ever he likes.
With a clear reference to David Lynch's The Lost Highway and the claustrophobia of The Blair Witch Project, Dead End is a truly horrifying film which manages to be hilarious at the same time. Sometimes over-stylised and occasionally disrupted by an incongruous soundtrack, the intelligence of the filmmakers is constantly evident. The horror is, of course, just a pretext to explore family relations, or to simply ridicule the clichés of the genre, although this is not a revisionist post-modern film like the Scream series. In fact, it's a rather European look at a very American genre.
Reviewed by Antonio Pasolini
Reader comments about Dead End
=lauren= (Email address withheld) writes:
This film was great, i hadn't heard of it before i saw it so i didn't no what to expect, i enjoyed it loads though and my mates craped themselves
Mo (Email address withheld) writes:
My mates were very sceptical about the movie even before we had watched it. But we all enjoyed it. It was funny, creepy and made us jump!. one of my mates jumped so high, he nearly fell foward and could have knocked the person out in front
Megat (Email address withheld) writes:
Brilliant. Horrifying. Intelligent. Shocking. Neat. Terrifying. Do not hold a hot drink whilst viewing this as you may just burn the insides of your legs with it. This movie rocks big time. All the moreso with the complete lack of any CGIs and the need to depend on physical gore. This movie will rip your senses apart.
Memi (psicodelica666@hotmail.com) writes:
I´m from Argentina and I saw the film in the "Fetival internacional de cine" in my city, Mar del Plata, and I liked it a lot. I discovered that it was the accident at the end of the film, and I started thinking and connecting all the situations, that´s why I discovered that it was like a dream of one of the characters.
Well, I hope that you will understand what I want you to know, because I´m still learnig English.
cal (Email address withheld) writes:
please someone delete the above comment as it ruins the ending that has been kept secret by all the reviewers who are more than aware that this a film most people will not have the oppurtunity to see until it is released on DVD!
tanya (Email address withheld) writes:
the film was great. I didn't expected much of it, but it tottaly knocked me down. I was really scared, actually. the tension is great. I recommend it to all horror-lovers.
Sarah (Email address withheld) writes:
I thought it was excellent. Brilliant for everyone who enjoys a bit of funny horror. At one point me and my friend were hiding under the duvet. In one particulary tentionius and scary part the mother shouts randomly-I made the cheerleading squad, and i burst out laughing. A mysterious scary but hilerious horror that I recomend. :D
Dave (Email address withheld) writes:
"We are, all of us, in the gutter - but some of us are looking at the stars"
- Oscar Wilde
Matt (Email address withheld) writes:
I have just finished watching the fim and found it extremely creepy. Like every good horror flick the film leaves much to your imagination. Definately rates alongside the Blair witch as an intelligent and spine chilling experience.
Paula (Email address withheld) writes:
Original. Brilliant. Sharp and witty dialogue and first-rate acting. Both hilarious and scary, Dead End is definitely worth a watch.
nick (Email address withheld) writes:
Dead End is one of the worst horror films I have ever seen, however it was great at making me laugh my head off. This movie has so many pointless lines you can't help but laugh. The annoying mother is especially good when she starts rubbing her brain and saying creepy things. See it if you have nothing better to do.
Ashley (Email address withheld) writes:
Just watched the film last night found it great though my mates were hidden behind cushions for most of the film!This movie will scare the wits out of you but it will also make you laugh !The ending was a bit weird though someone said it was a dream but i didnt think it was because the men clearing up the scence found the note the dad had wrote saying what he would do when he was older and there was also the man who drove the black car who found it someone please tell me what the ending actually meant!!!
Charley (Email address withheld) writes:
I totally agree with Ashley! I have to write a film review for college, and have decided to do Dead End! What was that ending about tho??!! I h8 it when films do that. Just when you think you've worked it out, they go and throw a spanner in the works, and completely throw you again. Defin8ly a good watch though!!
Rebecca Hall (rjh@newmills11-18.derbyshire.sch.uk) writes:
This struck of Final Destination to me. We think that they are being stalked and murdered, however, it is apparent that they are actually dead and she is recou ting dreams becuase she is in a coma. I would imagine the moral to be that you can't cheat death. It seems that the horrific injuries to the family were the result of the car accident and not the lady in white. Good shocker!
Jen (Email address withheld) writes:
Hi. This is a great film even though it is clearly low budget. I think that it is confusing because you learn that it may have been an accident at the end but in can't be because if you carry on wacthing the film a few seconds after the titles come on at the end you see a clip showing the cleaners of the accident finding the note that the dad wrote, so it cant have been a dream and must have happened, and the man in the car, the death car was at the hospital at the end. does anyone understand that and have a conclusion?
jordan (Email address withheld) writes:
Hi i thought this film was trailblazing it is stuck between a gruesome horror film and an hilarious comedy. This film is great for teenagers. It is an outstandingly great all round film. Also the characters in it are great. It also has a witty plot.
lisa (Email address withheld) writes:
this film was excellent!i love it when you have to figure it out yourself.#1 on my list!
Tanner (chek1_2@verizon.net) writes:
Ok i realize that the dude driving the black car is obviously like a death angle or somthing who takes people when they die and im not worried about spoiling this movie cause everyone else has already done that but at the end does that meant that the nurse is going to die... i dont know that part just got me for some reason
Rebecca (rwebb1993@aol.com) writes:
Hi I watched this film last night with my friends it was really good and very sciary and creepy. But I didnt get it at the end what happened to the girl who ran her over?
can someone email me back with what happend
thank-you
Scott (Email address withheld) writes:
Ok, well this film was well played, but made no sense at all!
There was no logical explanation to what happened! Was it like a twiliht zone or sumthink?
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