‘Dead End’ - Movie Review.
If you are anything like me (and hope not for your sake…) in your taste of horror films, then you will absolutely love ‘Dead End’ (2003). It is not too big budget to be silly and there is just the right amount of gore. But the best thing about this movie is the script.
It centres on a family’s night-time car journey to their relatives’ and the whole film takes place on a lonely stretch of road. This may not sound particularly exciting, but this is no ordinary piece of highway… Without saying too much and spoiling the whole thing, there are plenty of twists and turns in a piece of road that you were sure would be pretty straight. Script-wise, it has several blind curves and more than one terrifying hairpin bend.
There is also a great deal of black humour in ‘Dead End’. It is difficult to give you any examples as it may give the game away, but there are quite a number of truly hilarious moments (one to do with misplaced DNA Testing). Not many films will have any more than a couple of good one-liners, but ‘Dead End’ has heaps of them. And it isn’t your standard brand of black humour either; these jokes are laced with generous helpings of cynicism, sarcasm, narcissism and pessimism.
Much of the film concentrates on the irritating habits of each family member; in many ways you could actually describe the movie as a ‘character study’. There is a lot of amusing bickering between the actors and much of it will take place at the most inappropriate of times.
I love this type of movie because it takes its audience into far more imaginative territory. The only other film I can think of comparing it to would be the equally brilliant, ‘Identity’(also 2003). However, in terms of humour, ‘Dead End’ wins hands down.