I went into this film knowing nothing about it beyond its stylish poster (a pair of luscious lips sideways, so as to resemble a vagina). Deadgirl is a horror movie about a couple of teenagers who discover a zombie chained up in the basement of an old psychiatric hospital. "Let's fuck her!" suggests one of them, and so he does. And gets some other guys in on it too. This opening and that quote demonstrates the entire problem with this movie.
However interesting its premise may seem, the characters are so implausibly horny, evil and vulgar, it is impossible to associate with them, the movie, or the message. It is unfortunate because it has, at its heart, an intriguing horror premise with a genuinely frightening zombie - a credit to both the make up team and the lead actress for creating such a hideous, painful, yet perversely attractive monster; emaciated, festering, jaundiced yellow, yet a once beautiful woman. That eerie creature is easily the best thing about the movie. Shame the director decided to instead focus on the "real horror"; sociopathic, juvenile delinquents.
Deadgirl wants to impart some satirical message about the desperation of guys on the bottom of the pecking order; about man's pathetic, yet dominating obsession with sex. But no one could be expected to take this seriously. This caricatured depiction of mankind is too absurd and gratuitous for that. With all the female characters getting brutalised or treated as property, and all the men depicted as sociopathic, testosterone junkies, this movie manages to be both misogynistic and misandric. It needn't have happened if the movie just gave us one character we could sympathise with. The only person I feel sorry for is the actress who played Deadgirl. Just think of all that talent wasted in this schlock. That's the real horror.
The Best Zombie and the Worst Zombie Movie
I went into this film knowing nothing about it beyond its stylish poster (a pair of luscious lips sideways, so as to resemble a vagina). Deadgirl is a horror movie about a couple of teenagers who discover a zombie chained up in the basement of an old psychiatric hospital. "Let's fuck her!" suggests one of them, and so he does. And gets some other guys in on it too. This opening and that quote demonstrates the entire problem with this movie.
However interesting its premise may seem, the characters are so implausibly horny, evil and vulgar, it is impossible to associate with them, the movie, or the message. It is unfortunate because it has, at its heart, an intriguing horror premise with a genuinely frightening zombie - a credit to both the make up team and the lead actress for creating such a hideous, painful, yet perversely attractive monster; emaciated, festering, jaundiced yellow, yet a once beautiful woman. That eerie creature is easily the best thing about the movie. Shame the director decided to instead focus on the "real horror"; sociopathic, juvenile delinquents.
Deadgirl wants to impart some satirical message about the desperation of guys on the bottom of the pecking order; about man's pathetic, yet dominating obsession with sex. But no one could be expected to take this seriously. This caricatured depiction of mankind is too absurd and gratuitous for that. With all the female characters getting brutalised or treated as property, and all the men depicted as sociopathic, testosterone junkies, this movie manages to be both misogynistic and misandric. It needn't have happened if the movie just gave us one character we could sympathise with. The only person I feel sorry for is the actress who played Deadgirl. Just think of all that talent wasted in this schlock. That's the real horror.