Red Mist (titled Freakdog in the US) is a 2008 horror film directed by Paddy Breathnach (who also directed Shrooms).
The film centres around a group of young medical students who, while out partying one night, spike the drink of a loner colleague, the severely disturbed Kenneth (cruelly nicknamed 'Freakdog' by most of the group). The cocktail of drugs and alcohol unfortunately turns out to be a very powerful sedative that, combined with a severe epileptic fit, puts Kenneth into a coma. The students, not wanting to be involved or else risk their futures for their crime, abandon his body on a road and drive off as fast as they can, hoping someone will come across his body and help him.
When they later learn that Kenneth's life support is to be turned off, one of the students, Catherine (who was very much against the whole thing in the first place), attempts to set things right and revive him using an experimental drug. The result has horrible and unintended consequences which leads to Kenneth's brainwaves going berserk, leading to out-of-body experiences - enabling Kenneth to possess others in order to exact bloody revenge...
Not to be confused with the character from Kick-Ass, the trope Pink Mist, or with the fanfic Squidward's Suicide.
This film contains examples of:
- Alpha Bitch: Harriet has shades of this.
- Arc Words: "Freakdog".
- Asshole Victim: From the moment he appears on screen, you just know that Sean's going to meet a sticky end before the credits roll.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Kenneth. True, he was a little creepy but ultimately pretty harmless prior to his coma.
- Body Surf: What Kenneth does to several characters. Afterwards, they have no memory of the possession and end up as the physical patsies for them, which is particularly distressing for the security guard and later, for Catherine, who end up imprisoned for murders they don't remember - and technically didn't commit.
- Break the Cutie: Catherine, Catherine, Catherine.
- The Bully: Pretty much all of the main characters with the exception of Catherine, but Sean takes the cake.
- Cassandra Truth: And how. Poor Catherine...
- Covert Pervert: Kenneth.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The deaths of Sean (who suffers arguably the most horrific death in the entire film) and Harriet.
- Deadly Bath: Harriet is discovered in a bathtub filled with blood or very bloody water and IVs sticking out of her arms, implying that she was exsanguinated.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The ways in which Kenneth offs his victims are rather... extreme, to say the least.
- Downer Ending: After killing Kenneth and apparently stopping his murder spree, Catherine is arrested and charged with Kenneth's out-of-body crimes after becoming his Body Surf patsy, and ends up in an institution. If that wasn't bad enough, it turns out that Kenneth isn't quite dead after all, and lives on through her.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Freakdog.
- Facial Horror: Off-screen, but still deserves a mention: After Sean's corpse is discovered, it is mentioned that half of his face had practically melted off. Unsurprising, given that he'd been force-fed industrial strength acid.
- Flatline
- Freudian Excuse: The reason Kenneth is so messed up is explained in a flashback, revealing that, as a child, he witnessed his mother, who was a prostitute, being beaten to death by a client after she refused to have sex with him.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Kenneth starts out as a lonely student who is the brunt of the main group's pranks until one such prank goes too far and lands him in a coma. Catherine's attempt to revive him out of guilt gives him the ability to get his revenge on everyone responsible for his condition via Grand Theft Me. By the end they're all either dead or incarcerated for crimes they technically didn't commit and he's still walking the Earth in Catherine's body.
- Gorn
- Gory Discretion Shot: There isn't much gory detail during Sean's death - all the viewer gets to see is a sudden surge of blood gurgling up into the funnel. Of course, the viewer doesn't really need to see the detail, as the scene is still utterly horrifying. Sean's terrified screams as he lies helpless just make it worse. It's later mentioned that half of his face was melted off.
- We don't exactly see how Harriet dies either; just her lying dead in a bathtub filled with bloody water and it's implied that she was bled to death courtesy of the I-V needles embedded in her arms..
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Yoshimi comes to Catherine, feeling just as guilty about what happened to Kenneth and wanting to go to the police. Unfortunately for her, she's his first victim. And for bonus points, an actual door is involved — it gets slammed repeatedly into her head—making this possibly the one literal application of this trope.
- Hospital Hottie: All of the main characters, and Shelby.
- Jerkass: Sean. All of the other students (with the exception of Catherine) qualify, too, but not nearly to the same extent as Sean.
- Karmic Death: Sean who used a funnel and tube combination to force drugs and alcohol down Kenneth's throat; guess what's used to force industrial-strength acid down his.
- Harriet has her blood drained and used to write the word "Freakdog" above her on the wall, the very same term she used to denigrate Kenneth.
- Kill the Cutie: Poor, poor Yoshimi...
- Laser-Guided Karma: As is often the case in movies like this, the main cast of characters are just asking for trouble when their bullying of the lone outcast ends up going too far...
- Said outcast himself may be on the receiving end of this— yes, he gets his revenge on everyone responsible for his condition but the film ends with his last victim, aka his current vessel, institutionalized with no obvious hints that they'll attempt an escape.
- Medical Horror: To an extent.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Catherine unwittingly makes everything worse by giving Kenneth the experimental drugs in an attempt to help him.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: What Kenneth does with his new powers: he possesses others to inflict horrible deaths on those he blames for what happened to him.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Yoshimi
- Sex Signals Death: Sean is killed after one of his regular meet-ups for sex with Shelby. Unfortunately for him, on this occasion, Shelby isn't quite herself...
- The Scapegoat: Those possessed by Kenneth end up as this for his murders.
- Stalker with a Crush: Kenneth towards Catherine.
- Title Drop: If the film is being viewed under its Freakdog title.
- Unwitting Pawn: Characters who are possessed by Kenneth and charged with his crimes end up as this.
- Vasquez Always Dies: Harriet, the tough Alpha Bitch and the least girly of the female characters, dies about 3/4's into the film.
