Consider this the weirdest opening to one of my reviews that you’ll probably ever see, but it has to be asked. If you have sex with a zombie, then is it considered necrophilia? It’s a serious question that kind of bears an incredible situation because zombies are labeled “undead” and not actually “dead.” This is not a topic I’d generally touch upon because sex with the dead is somewhere I’m not willing to ever even contemplate. Wow, this is really getting quite uncomfortable. Nonetheless, do young teenagers even think about something like this when finding a hot zombie chick tied up and left for dead (?) in an old abandoned building? I seriously doubt that, but you still have to have enough common sense to sit back and say, “Whoa! This chick may be a little cold.”
A fire drill during school gives high school friends T.J. and Rickie a chance to ditch for the rest of the day for a good time full of drinking and destruction. Their path ends at an abandoned mental hospital where they can drink some beer and just tear up whatever is left behind. While exploring the lower halls of the hospital, they stumble across an old rusted door which hides a naked girl tied to a bed and underneath a plastic sheet. After their initial shock goes away, the second wave of shock kicks in when she starts breathing. It’s at that point the boys realize what they have on their hands here isn’t exactly a multi-million dollar find, but an undead sex slave.
Deadgirl borders on the line of necrophilia/sadomasochism and horror/comedy porn. Not that there is really much distance between the two, but still it does everything it can to steer just clear of going too far. Kind of makes you wonder about today’s youth actually and if they would know what to do in the highly unlikely situation like this if it were to ever come about. T.J. goes right for what for the opportunity to benefit him as much as possible while Rickie is a bit more hesitant and isn’t sure all of this is exactly “right.” That’s really all that gives us any type of confrontation in the film as we get one so-called good kid against the bad kid, but early on you know which kid wins out or else we’d have a really short film.
There are parts of Deadgirl that seem interesting enough, but not much to keep my attention from wandering off in different directions. One of the biggest problems though is that we never get a chance to know our characters very much and therefore don’t care for them much at all. Who cares that these boys found a sexy undead girl? Who cares that they want her for their sex toy? Who cares that she may like to eat people? The answer to none of those questions is “me” which kind of defeats the purpose of the film and that’s making me want to watch to care what’s going on. Deadgirl tries but you can see the inexperience by all those involved on camera and behind it.
The film is shown in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen format and there is a greenish hue over the entire film but that is completely intentional and works very well for the subject matter at hand. Everything can be seen just fine otherwise save for the occasional scene that may be a bit too dark, but that is rare.
The film is heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and it’s quite impressive. All dialogue can be heard just fine, but the surround speakers are what gives us our money’s worth here. Special effects help keep the creepy atmosphere going while the soundtrack sets the mood even more.
Audio Commentary – Good God I did not expect this impressive a commentary track from this film. It appears as if almost the entire cast and crew have gotten together for this track which is not only fun but very informative. Everything is discussed here from the plot to the acting and the shooting locations as well as editing and Photoshop work. Great listen and well worth checking out the film a second time for.
Behind The Scenes/Making Of Featurette – A very basic “making of” featurette complete with footage from behind the camera as well as interviews with cast and crew. (7:15)
Deleted Scenes – Here is a handful of deleted scenes that were rightfully left on the cutting room floor. (7:27)
Make-Up Gallery
Touching on a subject that is incredibly taboo in some…make that just about ALL circles is a good way to get your film noticed, but not if you still do a half-assed job of it. Deadgirl has plenty of gore and a ton of nudity for your horror viewing pleasure, but that can’t make it into a good film. Seeing the effort put forth is nice so it’s good to grade the filmmakers and actors on reaching that plateau. Hopefully their next collaboration can actually be enjoyable. A few lackluster special features don’t help the case for anyone to pick this up for their collection although you may want to try a rental sometime. I mean it’s not often you see an almost entirely new idea hit the screen…even if it is about sex with the dead. Yeesh.
Dark Sky Films presents Deadgirl: Unrated Director’s Cut. Directed by: Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel. Starring: Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan, Candice Accola, Michael Bowen. Written by: Trent Haaga. Running time: 101 minutes. Rating: Unrated. Released on DVD: September 15, 2009. Available at Amazon.com
