Line #9 Film/DeadKids


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/aaaabvemwopuyejhxpvtj0i8a0q0smiaexthrlfirfnumo_5vtrlercblmi_a8jku5w2kxexgkuvvcya58fazk_e_f3_3_w_nmhtlp_ichbszwfkfmuiqzukx08zoz5qza.jpg]]
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3	-->''Cops only kill poor people. Do we look poor to you?''
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5	''Dead Kids'' is a [[UsefulNotes/{{Philippines}} Filipino]] thriller film directed by Mikhail Red. The first Creator/{{Netflix}} original film from the Philippines, it follows Mark Sta. Maria (Kelvin Miranda), a socially awkward scholarship student. He attends a school mostly filled with rich kids, terrorized by wealthy bully Chuck Santos (Markus Paterson). Mark's life is upended when he's roped into a scheme to kidnap Chuck and extort money from his father, a drug czar.
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7	The movie juxtaposes its TeenDrama foundation with [[RealitySubtext a devastating look into class inequality in the Philippines]]. Its Netflix premiere was on 17 November, 2019.
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9	Not to be confused with the 1981 horror film ''Film/StrangeBehavior'', also known as ''Dead Kids''.
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11	'''BEWARE OF SPOILERS.'''
12	----
13	!!''Dead Kids'' provides examples of:
14	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Chuck isn't physically ugly, but Janina doesn't like him that way. He, on the other hand, lusts after her.
15	* AmbiguouslyBrown: Typical for a rich school in the Philippines, there are a lot of mixed and/or racially ambiguous and/or light-skinned students. Chuck Santos is played by a half-white actor with an Anglo surname, Markus Paterson.
16	* AmbiguouslyGay: Uy. His schoolmates to harass him for being gay, [[AmbiguousSituation although it is]] ''[[AmbiguousSituation incredibly]]'' [[AmbiguousSituation difficult to tell if this is just bullying and toxic masculinity or if he]] ''[[AmbiguousSituation is]]'' [[AmbiguousSituation actually gay (or perhaps both).]] Others, such as Paolo, repeatedly call him gay, and not in a nice way. He never confirms or denies it; he only ignores these pejoratives completely. For the record, Paolo is right in that Uy doesn't show interest in his female peers, but Uy shows no interest in other boys, either.
17	* AntiHero: The very plot of the movie involves our heroes kidnapping the school [[TheBully bully]]. Characters like Paolo, however, especially embody this trope, possessing unpleasant qualities or prejudices outside the fact that they're criminals (e.g. classism, homophobia).
18	* ArtisticLicenseGeography: Visayan viewers surely groaned at Mark saying that he's from "the Tacloban province." Tacloban is in fact a ''city'' in the ''Leyte'' province.
19	* AssholeVictim: The premise on the movie hinges on the kidnapping of Chuck Santos, a rich [[TheBully bully]] who is horrible in almost every way.
20	* BilingualDialogue: Characters switch from English to Tagalog with ease, regardless of socioeconomic class. Another TruthInTelevision for post-colonial Philippines.
21	* {{Blackmail}}: Blanco, Paolo, and Uy rope lower-class student Mark into their plan by threatening to rat him out on his secret ghostwriting business.
22	* BookDumb: Compared to Mark, the school's brightest student, the other characters' book-smarts pale. Amusingly illustrated when he quotes Karl Marx, and Blanco responds by saying that [[PopCulturalOsmosisFailure he doesn't watch]] ''Series/GameOfThrones''.
23	* CastFullOfRichPeople: The vast majority of students in the film are rich. Mark, a scholarship student, is the odd one out. A TruthInTelevision, especially for the Philippines.
24	* EatTheRich: Even some of our "heroes," like Paolo and Blanco, are massively elitist.
25	* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: [[spoiler: Blanco's dad, a cop]] is protecting [[spoiler: Chuck's dad]], a drug lord. They are both vile men, but ultimately love their sons. {{Deconstructed\|Trope}} as they only really protect themselves ''and'' the ones they love; the poor and outsiders, they allow to suffer.
26	* GrayAndGrayMorality: Despite the crimes they commit, the main characters are ultimately quite sympathetic. All the characters are endowed with bad and good sides. Even [[spoiler: Chuck's drug lord father,]] while undoubtedly a wicked man, seems to genuinely love his son, though he usually fails to show it.
27	* IAmNotMyFather: [[spoiler: Blanco]] is determined not to be like his vile father, but he does show some alarming red flags, such as [[WouldHurtAChild wishing death on a]] ''[[WouldHurtAChild little boy]]'' who was simply walking on the road, [[InsaneTrollLogic equating the child's obvious poverty with drug addiction. And clearly, all drug addicts should die.]]
28	* KarmicDeath: {{Averted}}. [[spoiler: The boys ''are'' punished for their juvenile crimes, but Sta. Maria -- the most innocent and decent-at-the-core one as well as, not so coincidentally, the only student among them who isn't rich -- is the sole member who's slaughtered by the police.]]
29	* LastNameBasis: Blanco, Sta. Maria, and Uy. For reasons unknown, Paolo is the only one who goes by his first name, even though his surname (Gabriel) [[TwoFirstNames could even pass for his first name and not sound weird]].
30	* LoveMakesYouDumb: Paolo severely compromises their plans just so Yssa won't break up with him. For all his flaws, the boy is clearly ''genuinely'' in love with the girl. [[spoiler: She's not nearly as ride-or-die as he is, with the ending implying that ''[[SixthRangerTraitor she]]'' was the one who reported her own boyfriend and his companions to the police.]]
31	* LowerClassLout: {{Averted}} with Mark. He does pretty much become an AntiHero as the story progresses, yet still remains the most sympathetic of the main characters, who are mostly privileged {{jerkass}}es with much less to lose.
32	* ParentalIssues: [[spoiler: Blanco and Chuck, although they are two different sides of a coin. Chuck's, in particular, stems from ParentalNeglect.]]
33	* PoliceBrutality: A prominent element of the story, with TheLeader Blanco's dad being a [[AbusiveParents cruel]] cop. [[spoiler: Mark Sta. Maria, TheProtagonist, eventually dies because of it.]]
34	* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Chuck announces in History class that his favorite historical figure is Adolf Hitler. The nicest thing to be said about this is that he's most likely just trying to piss off his teacher, which works.
35	* RagsToRiches: A very micro and very short-lived case for [[spoiler: Mark Sta. Maria]]. For a while, [[spoiler: the boys actually manage to get away with having kidnapped Chuck. Mark then shows up to school wearing shiny, brand-new [=AirPods=], which of course catches the attention of his classmates.]]
36	* RichSuitorPoorSuitor: Chuck is the rich to Mark's poor. They're both attracted to Janina.
37	* SatelliteLoveInterest: Narrowly {{Defied\|Trope}} in Janina's writing. We hardly see her, and many critics have described her as an underwritten character. But she ''does'' undergo heavy CharacterDevelopment, even though most of it is offscreen. Even after [[spoiler: the main boys are arrested and Janina's LoveInterest dies]], life goes on for her; she's even conquered her stage fright!
38	* SixthRangerTraitor: [[spoiler: Paolo's girlfriend eventually rats them out.]]
39	* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Lightly {{Parodied\|Trope}} with Uy. He wears thin frames and always tries to be TheSmartGuy, [[KnowNothingKnowItAll but is really quite ineffectual]]. It's also established that Mark is the smartest student of them all.
40	* TokenMinority:
41	** Uy is apparently the only student of Chinese descent. [[TwoferTokenMinority And maybe also]] [[AmbiguouslyGay queer, who knows]].
42	** Sta. Maria is also a [[TwoferTokenMinority double-whammy]] of poor kid and Visayan. (He's from Tacloban in Visayas. Visayans are an ethnolinguistic minority in the Philippines, albeit the largest group among non-Tagalog Filipinos.)
43	* TragicBromance: Blanco and Sta. Maria, complete with [[spoiler: the classic one-bro-dies-in-the-other's-arms shot]]. This was, according to Mikhail Red, inspired by another TragicBromance from Russian history, no less.
44	* UnusualEuphemism: The poor students are dubbed "dead kids." [[spoiler: It tragically becomes literal for Mark Sta. Maria, and undoubtedly many other impoverished people.]]
45	* VitriolicBestBuds: Uy and Paolo are ThoseTwoGuys, but also constantly at each other's throats, to the point that Blanco asks them how the hell they became best friends in the first place.
46	* WorkingClassHero: Mark Sta. Maria, "always the dead kid." [[spoiler: [[TheHeroDies Literally.]]]]

Context Film / DeadKids