Let me begin this blog by first expressing my total disgust with the so called "critic" that wrote a ball bashing article on this movie in Rue Morgue magazine. You sir are a douchebag, and know nothing about movies. That being said, I had been waiting for Dead Girl to make its way to my local video store for quite some time. I had been reading and reading, blogs, articles, websites, etc about this amazingly brutal movie that was touring the filmfest circuits. I waited with eager anticipation, until the day I finally drove down to Hastings, paid my 5 dollars and brought one of the greatest horror movies of the last decade into my home.
Dead Girl is the story of, you guessed it, a dead girl. Yet, it's not that cut and dry. The movie begins with a friendship between two high school boys. One, the typical outsider. He thinks he's a badass, but no one else seems to care. The second, your typical loner. He's got his eyes on the hottest girl in school, but he lost his chance to be with her when they were younger. So, he stares at her from across the quad, hoping that one day she'll see him staring, remember all the good times they had and coming running back to his waiting arms. They are polar opposites. One is the leader, the other the follower. One is a do-er, the other is a talker. So, when the badass decides he wants to ditch class and take a walk to the old psychiatric hospital, the loner has little complaint.
The story begins when the two boys find themselves trapped in the mental hospital trying to escape a rabid dog. As they try and outrun the mutt they fall deeper and deeper into the maze of corridors and locked doors. Until they come upon a door that seems to be the way out. Instead of leading them to the light of day, the rusted old door opens on a room used in apparent experiments. As the two look around the dark room, they stumble upon a naked girl chained to a gurney. Their first thought is she must be dead, but they are only half right. Here is where the movie becomes a masterpiece. It is the classic case of "what would you do?" On one side you have the badass who wants to use the girl for his demented sexual fantasies. On the other, is the loner whose conscience won't allow him to be a part of such a disgusting act. So, as the movie rolls, the badass becomes infatuated with the "dead girl." He begins to spend every waking moment in the torture chamber with her. He skips school, doesn't hang out with his friends, and soon begins to recruit others to partake of his prize. Not long after, the badass comes to the conclusion that the girl is "undead." He has shot her, broke her neck, and beat her to death, but she cannot die. Meanwhile the loners conscience has gotten the best of him. He begins to scheme about how he can set the girl free, and save his friend from the psychotic spiral he has traveled. Needless to say, his schemes backfire and the brutality escalates. The sex scenes are disturbing, the violence is unnerving, and the morality scale is swaying mightily. Without giving away the ending or the major turning point of the movie I will end my synopsis here. Let me just say this, the scene with the star quarterback in the bathroom is GREAT!
Now, back to my opening statement. This douchebag magazine critic bashed Dead Girl, claiming it to be "garbage parading as art." This movie was not only disturbing, disgusting, violent, gutwrenching, and brutal, but it was also brilliant. I have never sat down and watched a movie and felt more uncomfortable than when I watched Dead Girl. I kept asking myself "what would I do?" Honestly, I would have been more like the loner than the badass, but there were moments when I doubted my own morals. Not many movies can do that. Make you feel dirty for watching. Believe it or not, I actually stopped the movie as the end credits rolled, undressed and took a blazing hot shower. There is no need to explain further. Go rent Dead Girl.
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