The Dread

2007 "Death lies within"
3| 1h35m| NC-17| en
Details

A young woman becomes filled with a horrible dread when she discovers that her brother may actually be something other than he appears.

Director

Producted By

Westar Films

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Trailers & Clips

Also starring Sally Pressman

Reviews

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget
FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.
Leoni Haney Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.
Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
Foreverisacastironmess How dreadfully true... Okay I personally didn't really find this to be such a bad film, but it definitely sure as Hell ain't such a good one either! It gets points for genuinely unsettling tone and atmosphere, but it also loses crucial points for the heaps of sheer lousiness and stupidity on display!!! This was ~so~ lame! All that confusing as heck stuff in the mad little prologue? That was not a homage, it was a blatant, near-total rip-off of Halloween! They also manage to slightly rip-off "Alien" too, at one point! And then there's the graphics of the of presumably 'cursed' video game that warps little Alex's mind that were so laughably pathetic they would have barely been acceptable on the Atari! Cheapness was the number one issue of this movie in my opinion. I know it was incredibly low budget, but surely it couldn't have cost much to move the camera a little every now and then just a bit so that every single damn scene didn't feel so wooden! Now the actors also I didn't find that terrible. Yes they were all dull and not one of them seemed able to speak above a monotone, but they were coherent and passable enough that you could follow the story, and let's just say they were right for this movie and leave it at that! I actually enjoy this movie a little, as horrors go, it's definitely beyond mediocre and poor, but hey it's still a lot better than the anti-movie that was "Troll 2." To me it was never so unbearably slow and boring that I couldn't stand watching it, and to my way of thinking a truly bad film is always one that is boring. And even though it never delivered I found it very compelling, and the small music score was effectively haunting. If there was one thing this excelled at, it was mood. It was set in a decrepit insane asylum, that's always a good thing to have in your horror picture! This sure wasn't the most sparkling example of one ever though.. I'm not even sure it was set in a real one, as all that is ever really seen is few cell rooms and the same giant hallway over and over. It was nice to see a TV horror movie that wasn't slathered in low-grade cgi, but unfortunately the overall look of the film is just too pale and grainy, especially in all the scenes that feature the grown up Alex. I think the blank expression on the guy's face was supposed to be all sinister, but it came more across as him just looking a little retarded. And the red scarecrow/grim reaper thing that he somehow had the mystical power to 'astral project' into amid fits of crazy spasming and weird static electric flashes, was plain pathetic and wasn't imposing or scary at all. It looked like a bunch of cheap rags with even cheaper makeup. And it didn't help one bit that it was mostly heavily obscured by shadows and quick cuts. ::: There's no bull about this crummy movie, it is what it is,, and asks nothing of the viewer except that they shut off their brain and at least try and have a good time! The ending is pretty messed up. The climax of the film is, basically "Terry", after vanquishing her brother in a lame sword fight, ends up getting possessed by the same unexplained dark force that had taken over him, and the movie ends on the totally creepy image of her just smiling this evil little smile right at the camera with her now "Exorcist-style demonic eyes. And even though like everything else in this flick it comes out kind of weak and haphazard, I like the message that great evil can lurk in anyone, that anyone unwary can through thought and deed wind up losing their very soul... I found it to be a very chilling final scene. Regardless though, horror films aren't for everyone, and this is definitely one for hardcore fans of the genre. I thought for what it was, it was a good effort. I'll see ya.
BakuryuuTyranno This slasher - it aired during a slasher week shown on the horror channel anyways - features upwards of twenty victims. You would expect it to feature high amounts of blood and gore but surprisingly that isn't the case.The protagonist has a brother in a mental institution. She takes forever to get there because... well actually as far as I've seen there is no because, someone decided a slasher movie with a side story about the protagonist's life running throughout the first half was a good idea. Really, cutting it to her simply finding out she's adopted would have sufficed. While that's happening superfluous characters get killed off, including a couple who break into a working mental facility and make love. Sadly I'm not kidding.Minor spoiler: The movie features a vacuous, annoying assistant type. She literally walks out of the film considerably before the climax. That's right, out of any characters they could've spared they chose the least likable.Minor spoiler #2: The couple broke in through a door. Somehow later the doors are sealed shut. Given that the institution is closing down you'd think they wouldn't have time for that, assuming they even knew a door had been tampered with.
Paul Andrews The Dread starts on the 12th October, 1986 as Mr & Mrs Brewer are found brutally murdered in their own house... Jump forward fifteen years & Teri Edwards (Sally Pressman) is told by her step-mom that she is adopted, wanting to find out about her own family Teri does some investigation & discovers that she was born Teri Brewer, her parents were murdered, she was adopted & the brother she never knew she had has been in a psychiatric institution for the past fifteen years after being accused of their parents murder. Teri decides to visit her brother Alex (J. Steadman) but it seems that Alex hasn't spoken all the time he has been incarcerated. As Teri visits brutal murders begin to happen...Edited, co-written & directed by Michael Spence one has to say that The Dread is terrible & it's as simple & straight forward as that. Amazingly three people are credited with the script, Spence, Casey Conlon & Karen C. O'Malley which quite frankly stuns me as I can't believe it takes three people to write something so simple, so predictable & just so downright rubbish as The Dread. I pretty much hate most modern low budget shot on a camcorder type horror & have very little good to say about it & a film such as The Dread merely reinforces why I dislike this sort of generic crap. There's no sort of coherent story, nothing is explained, the significance of the computer game isn't explained, why Alex turns into a monster isn't explained, why he doesn't speak for fifteen years isn't explained, why the murders just suddenly start up again isn't explained, why after a murder the local cops only send out two detectives isn't explained, why everyone insists on splitting up all the time isn't explained, why no-one thinks to just leave the place until five minutes before the end isn't explained, why Teri doesn't remember being adopted or her parents being murdered is never explained & how two teenagers can hide behind a wheelchair as an orderly walks past without being noticed isn't explained & quite frankly just lazy. The character's are awful, why would two teenagers want to break into a mental institution for fun for instance? The dialogue is awful, there's far too much running around in corridors doing nothing in particular & no-one ever does anything logical.Director Spense doesn't do much to improve the script, obviously working on a low budget The Dread is still a poor looking film. At least the filmmakers attempt to try & include some gore, it's not very good but there's a decapitated head, some splashed blood, a couple of mutilated bodies, someone is shot, someones heart is ripped out & that's about it. Also you cannot climb up the inside of a vertical ventilation shaft like they do, I don't care what anyone says. I mean they don't even hold on to anything, they just sort of push themselves up which is impossible. The monster isn't seen until the end & even then it doesn't look that great. The Dread certainly isn't scary & why are there no lights in this mental institution? Don't give me all that rubbish about the electricity being cut off either, I mean there's still enough electricity for Alex to play his computer game isn't there? The whole opening sequence is a rip-off of Halloween (1978) as a young boy kills members of his family, unfortunately that's where the comparison ends as The Dread is so cheap looking & lacking in any suspense or atmosphere.With a supposed budget of about $875,000 The Dread was low budget & it looks it too, there's not much else to say other than it looks cheap & nasty. According to the IMDb The Dread was filmed between 17th October & 5th November 2005 in Michigan although remained unreleased until 2007. The acting isn't great, horror fans should recognise Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl from the classic The Evil Dead (1981) & she has aged very well & looks very similar to she did back then.The Dread is pretty dreadful, I know it's a cheap one-liner but it's perfectly apt & appropriate when used in conjunction with The Dread. Basically The Dread is terrible & a total mess of a film.
buddypatrick To start off the movie's title 'The Dread' is not captivating as it sounds like a terrible remake of a Japanese Horror. However the dingy title matches the cinematic quality as the film is utterly abysmal. With a shoestring budget that's been used depressingly bad its evident the creators of this film had no idea what they were doing; the plot, copious amount of cliché's, dreadful acting, screenplay, special effects; the whole movie is a giant train wreck that I'm surprised was ever released to DVD.The film starts out with a wannabe opening from Halloween; homage or not it's executed in a very uninteresting way and it is almost as though the creators are trying to pass it off as their own with an alter ego addition. The story is about a child's "inner evil" that murders his parentals in their bed whilst his real body sits in front of a scratchy pictured television screen whilst playing a video game – little tension and atmosphere as it seems to be shot on someone's digital home video. A decade or so later the now grown up child is locked away in a derelict mental clinic – does this not sound familiar already? Teri, the protagonist discovers that her long lost brother is the same boy who killed his parent's year's back and she decides to see her apparent brother with her own eyes. As the night goes on in the clinic with supernaturally locked doors the film turns into a very typical, badly written and ugly acted slasher. Even if the film had been executed professionally it still would have been insanely unoriginal and mind numbingly dumb. This is Halloween with minor alterations only this time it's very hard to sit through and even see as the picture quality is so bad.The picture quality is very terrible ranging from unintentionally too dark attics and hallways to audio that goes up and down throughout and the actors are as though they were taken from a bus stop. My drama class back in school could have done a better job at blocking and delivering lines than anyone in the film did. The only person who is acceptable is The Evil Deads cult star Ellen Sandwiess, possibly because she has about one or two lines and even then is the only actor who is mildly convincing. The special effects look like tomato sauce and water and even looked like water at times however at least the gore was there even though in an over the top fashion. Torn up torso's that look like mannequins made of foam with gore that looks like dried up PVA glue spilling from it is nonsensical. The paranormal being an element of the film is not an excuse either. It's pathetic and tries to use gore to make a scary villain which is a huge no-no. There is no budget that is an excuse for such a terrible film like this.Absolutely everything in this film was pathetic and I am surprised I sat through its entire duration. It makes one agitated that there are people out there in the industry with real talent and well structured ideas that never get their way into film. The Dread is a bad film and this is coming from a reviewer who has intentionally seen hundreds of films with bad reputations. The dread is way at the bottom of the barrel and won't even form into a so-bad-its-good cult film. Nothing can save you from the dread of The Dread. Avoid.