Part of the 2010 Afterdark 8 Films to Die For 4 Horrorfest,
Dread stars Jackson Rathbone as film student, Steven Grace, and Shaun Evans (who looked very familiar but apparently only looks like someone else because I've never seen anything else on his filmography) as Quaid and is based on a short story by Clive Barker from the
Books of Blood collection.
The premise: three college students set out to make a documentary on fear (dread). Simple enough plot but with good potential, right? So far, the score: horror movie, 1 point, Jackson Rathbone, 1 point, Clive Barker, 1 point.... Up by three.
Steven meets Quaid outside a bar while having a cigarette and reveals that he is a film student and his brother died in a car accident when he was 15. Quaid decides, based on this information, that Steven would be the perfect vehicle for his fear study and recruits him to help make a documentary. Steven recruits a fellow student, Cheryl (played by Hanne Steen, TV's Ideal), and the three of them embark on a journey through stories of fears of clowns and Mickey Mouse and the dentist.
In the next scene, we learn, through his memories, that Quaid is the sole survivor of a home invasion murder where he watched a stranger bury an ax in his mother's forehead. For reasons we never find out, the killer spares the life of the young boy (eight, maybe ten years old in the memory) who grows up suffering perpetual nightmares from the incident. Built-from-a-kit sociopath - half a point.
Quaid becomes ... frustrated, for lack of a better word, with the "quality" of the fears people are bringing to the study and I have to say at this point in the movie, I'm beginning to understand his frustration. Boring beginning - lose a point. Current score - 2.5
About two and a half hours into the movie (which is a super amazing accomplishment, given that it's only 108 minutes long) things start to get interesting as Cheryl volunteers to be interviewed. But it's still another decent portion of the movie before Quaid finally snaps and decides interviewing people about their fears is not enough, he needs to make them live them. Horribly drawn out journey to get to the "meat" of the story (pun intended...just watch the movie) - lose 2 points. Current score - .5
OH Shush! That wasn't a spoiler. You all knew where the story was headed. Clive Barker wrote it, it's called Dread, and it's about college students doing a fear study. There weren't a lot of avenues available for it. One of the, ahem, guinea pigs decides he didn't appreciate Quaid's research methods and ... misdirects his revenge. The "right" ending that sucks because the wrong guy dies - ummmm breaks even. Add a point for not going the Disney route but lose a point for misdirected anger.
Pretty much, starting from zero, it looks like Dread ends with a score of half a point, down from three out of a possible.... I have no idea. Basically, I didn't love it. I didn't hate it, probably won't watch it again, at least not unless everyone else at the party wants to watch it. Overall, I give it a hearty, resounding review of "meh."
