Deadgirl (2008)

Deadgirl (2008)

Deadgirl was a horror film that came out in 2008 that pretty much fell under the radar, and thats a shame since it's creepy as hell. The film was directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel who both had a couple films under their belts and came up with a masterpiece with this one. (They are also currently in the works on a movie called Murk.) It was written though by Trent Haaga who not only written a few movies but has acted in quite a few as well.

The film opens with two best friends (who happen to be quickly shown as the unpopular kids) deciding to skip class. These two, J.T. (Noah Segan) and Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez) end up going to a mental asylum to explore and when they are getting ready to leave stumble across the dead body of a woman. She is strapped to the bed, naked, and suddenly opens her eyes. Dead isn't the exact word for what she is after all though living doesn't describe it either.

While Rickie wants to let the girl go, J.T. talks him into keeping her tied down. Accidentally it's found out that she cannot die though clearly does not have enough intelligence to communicate with them as she acts more like a wild animal than anything else. While they both agree to keep the secret of what they have, and Rickie doesn't say anything, it is clear that a few other people end up finding out about the dead girl. As J.T. has been talking to others about what he has a few others have been paying him to get a piece of her as well.

This is where we mix in the fact that Rickie has a girl that he is in love with. While he is trying to woo the woman he loves we flash to seeing J.T. ever increasing what he does with his undead captive. J.T. clearly has more issues than originally thought as he starts to mix violence with sex and keeps pushing the boundaries wondering what he can get away with. As their opinions on women divide them even further between each other it leads to a climax of the film that is unfortunately predictable. While the ending is actually filmed extremely well it was hard to not see it coming from a mile away.

While the premise is clearly something to creep anyone out (multiple guys deciding to have sex with an undead girl) the film tries to mix humor with the horror. When it comes to trying to tackle a subject of tackling raping the undead, a coming of age story, a teen romance, and a sex comedy? It just doesn't work. The premise if it stuck to just the horror aspect may have been too much for more audiences but would have kept the film from being lowered into something that wasn't fully enjoyable for a failed mixing of genres instead of going "too far. Deadgirl had a lot of potential with a plot that could have pushed the limits of what we feel comfortable watching but instead turned what should have been a graphically and mentally twisted film into something that, while graphic, fell short. It’s hard for me to decide how I feel on this one as I loved the actual premise but felt the side-plots ruined the film.