Deadline (2009/First Look Studios Blu-ray + DVD)
Picture: B-/C+
Sound: B/B- Extras: C- Film: C-
The idea is the writer in a haunted house that goes mad is
an overdone idea that never gets smarter with repeating it. After Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) and Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992), it has been all downhill and Sean
McConville’s Deadline (2009) is
another failed variant. This time,
unfortunately, there was a chance to make it interesting thanks to the cast and
the writing and directing (both by the same man) is clueless as what to do with
the situation.
Brittany Murphy (good in The Ramen Girl, but wasted otherwise of late) plays Alice, a
creative writer who is having troubles and had a recent breakdown. Instead of looking for excitement or
something new and fresh, she does what all writers in the Horror genre do when
suffering writer’s block and/or personal issues; they go to an old
Victorian-era place to isolate themselves from the human race and the world!
After all, an old place whose inhabitants have been long
dead just has to be the #1 placer to
go for happiness, joy and recovery.
In this case, Alice
has decided she has writing that must
be finished by a certain time and soon, so off to work she goes. Or does she?
She starts “hearing things” and notices “things moving” etc., but stays
just the same. No, she must finish that
writing. Then she goes to the attic,
because it just has to be the location with the most fun (or is she
investigating the noises and tremors?) and finds an old videotape. Despite being up there for a while, the tape
actually works and when she puts it into a VCR (she actually finds a working
one well into the High Definition era), she finds a couple (Thora Birch continuing
her bid as a new scream queen and the underrated Marc Blucas) on it and thinks
she may be onto something. Guess that writing
will have to wait.
Too bad the script for this was not on hold, because we
get 89 minutes of wasted screen time in a feature that goes nowhere and never
adds up to anything. It would have been
more interesting if the tape was all gummy, would not play and the VCR was
broken, then she could have had to hunt down another machine, turn to a
restoration expert and… Well, that would
have been too interesting and original.
The locations are not bad and the actors interesting, but
McConville has not made a feature before and it shows. At least the actors are trying, but this
never works out and if it were any worse, would be a total waste of time.
The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is not
too good with weak Video Black and other detail issues throughout that make it
a disappointing presentation, while the depth is not much better and all are
worse on the anamorphically enhanced DVD.
Though the DTS logo is on both format editions, there are no DTS tracks
of any kind to be found on either disc.
The Blu-ray has a better-than-expected Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track that is
rich, even when the surrounds are not that great, while the Dolby Digital 5.1
on the DVD is active enough, neither impresses much. Extras include previews and behind the scenes
footage.
- Nicholas Sheffo
