Dread (2009)

Another film whose hook is to be based on a story by Clive Baker. This sees a bunch of college students deciding to study fear as part of a college project. This involves them filming and interviewing a number of fellow students about their worst fears. All goes well for a while, but then members of the group begin to realise than one of their number is taking the subject matter far too seriously...Unfortunately this is a largely uninteresting film saddled with unlikeable lead characters and a thunking lack of storyline. Indeed much of the narrative sees the principal characters sort of drifting along aimlessly before a shock scene or two jolts them into action again. There are some interesting elements here, like the grisly ending or the birthmark girl, but they're lost in a general mess of low budget, mean spirited nonsense. The acting isn't too hot either, with Shaun Evans the best of the bunch as the obsessive guy.

I am not a rabid horror fan. I like horror movies, but most of the ones that come out do not interest me. So when I saw that Twilight star Jackson Rathbone had made a horror movie (during the high point of Twilight's popularity), I knew I had to see it regardless. I give it 6 out of 10 mainly due to the ending.Dread is about college students who find out about people's innermost fears. One young man, Quaid, saw his parents killed when he was a kid and he's thoroughly messed up for life (understandably). He is obsessed with this project and with getting his way. Shaun Evans stars as Quaid and brings a craziness to the role. You can see his descent into madness after he stops taking his medication. At first, his obsession is small, but as he begins to hurt his friends, you realize he's completely gone. Excellent.Jackson Rathbone is Stephen, a film student needing a thesis project. He agrees to go along with Quaid and does a fear study, believing that it is just a school project. Rathbone is perfect as Stephen. He is completely convincing as a naive man who realizes Quaid's sociopath tendencies, albeit a little too late. At the climax, when Rathbone goes to Quaid's house near the end, you can tell that he himself has descended into madness. There is a reason why Rathbone is making his mark in the film industry; he has the talent.Laura Donnelly played Abby, my favorite character in the film. Abby felt discriminated against her entire life because she has a full birthmark on the right-hand side of her body. She hates it and believes it is why she is not beautiful (I beg to differ). During her segment of the fear study, she says that she realized in kindergarten that her birthmark was something to be ashamed of and every time she meets someone new, she returns to that fateful day. She also has a crush on Stephen and believes his rejection of her is because of the birthmark, when it actually is not. We never really find out what happens to her after she tries to remove the birthmark near the end of the film, and I wish we had.Cheryl Fromm is played by Hanne Steen. Cheryl is also a film student who partners with Stephen to work on the fear study. Steen was very convincing, especially when we learn why she can't stand to look at a piece of meat. I did not find her as attractive as Donnelly, however. She did very well when locked in a room in Quaid's home, although we also never find out what happens to her. I have my assumptions, but it would have been nice to have a concrete answer.Dread is based on the short story by Clive Barker. When they made the movie, they changed the ending. I know that Hollywood is famous for this, but I wish they had kept the original ending. I think it would have been more fitting to the story. With the ending that we are given, we see some good acting from Rathbone and Steen.This is another movie that does not rely on effects too much to tell a story. However, there is blood so if you are squeamish, you may want to avoid this. Unlike other horror movies, I did not find the blood count to be too bad in this one. In some films, I believe they go for shock value and try for as much blood and gore as possible. While it is present in Dread, there are only a few scenes that show it.This movie was effective for me in regards to thinking about your innermost fears. I know mine came to the surface while watching this film, along with a few others. It takes courage to admit what scares you the most, and even more courage to face the demon head-on. This film looks at both those aspects.I do not know if I will add Dread to my collection as I did not like it that much. However, I am glad that I saw it to show support to Rathbone. As long as Twilight fans continue to support their actors, Rathbone will have a long career ahead of him. Regardless, I will be eagerly watching him.

This movie in my opinion is truly a classic , the acting is brilliant and the story line is excellent , unlike some movies , in which the acting looks scripted and fake and the plot is rubbish.The movie starts of rather slow , but the ending is worth the wait. There is plenty of gore and suspense in between to keep you glued . This movie is not for the faint heart-ed or people who get grossed-out very easily.5.7/10 is a rather unfair score for this movie.The originality and simplicity of this movie is what makes it special.It's more a sort of a psychological thriller . Anyways , its a fun flick with plenty of gore , suspense and partial nudity.A must watch for any thriller fan.

Yet another dip in the brainless gross out horror pond. I generally despise this genre but this is a bad movie even for that. Without going into too much detail this movie sinks even lower with trying to gross out the viewer by showing somebody eat maggot infested meat, that's pretty much a new low in using cop out tactics that require absolutely no good writing or screenplay or atmosphere or anything that makes a horror actually scary or unnerving. Instead it resorts to self mutilation, torture and absolutely pedestrian tactics like what i mentioned above to attempt to gross out the viewer. This movie isn't smart at all, it's one of the dumbest horror movies I've ever seen to need to rely on such cheap gross out fare.Speaking of writing and screenplay, it's fairly awful in this with characters not behaving in an even remotely credible way. One guy can meet somebody, have him forcibly remove his watch, smash it in front of his face for no reason other than to be a jerk nearly causing a brawl only to basically have forgotten it happened in the next scene and crash at said guys house and be all buddy buddy. That's just one example, from start to finish I was rolling my eyes at the completely irrational ways the characters acted solely for the purpose of plot convenience.This is just another example of why horror movies have sucked on average since the 80's. Avoid this one.