It sounds like an eye-rollingly clichéd premise: a group of students doing a “fear study”, identifying the sources of dread in the lives of everyday people. Dread does hold some pleasant surprises, however, and turns out to be well worth watching.
The screenplay is based on the Clive Barker short story of the same name. Sounds like a good pedigree, but horror freaks will know that this is neither here nor there: movie versions of Barker’s work have been uneven, ranging from (albeit campy) classics like Hellraiser and Candyman to the goofy and disappointing Nightbreed. Even the more recent (and quite enjoyable) Midnight Meat Train, probably the most stylish and vicious Barker movie to date, suffered from stilted dialogue and stiff performances. However, first-time feature director Anthony DiBlasi manages to do a pretty good job of capturing Barker’s signature tropes of body horror and sexual obsession, and goes full-bore at key moments when most Hollywood directors would be likely to take their foot off the gas.
Shaun Evans chews up the scenery as Quaid, the troubled (to put it mildly) force behind the fear study. Traumatized as a toddler by the murder of his parents, he attempts to exorcise his demons by taunting his test subjects with their own. Along for the ride are Stephen (the Twilight saga’s Jackson Rathbone, apparently doing his best Jonathan Tucker impression) and Cheryl (Hanne Steen) as Quaid’s study partners who are initially unaware of the extent of his...issues.
Evans’ Denis Leary-ish performance is compelling, but marred by awkward dialogue. His speeches don’t evoke the image of a brilliant, maverick academic so much as a screenwriter trying to guess what a brilliant, maverick academic would sound like. He does, however, manage to bring a certain amount of pathos to a character who is, from the beginning, unlikeable in the extreme. Rathbone is competent, but his doe-eyed and clueless routine eventually wears thin, making him seem that much more deserving of the unpleasantness eventually visited upon him.
The best performances here belong to the women: Hanne Steen as Cheryl is initially underused, but comes into her own in the third act as she unwittingly makes the switch from scientist to subject. Laura Donnelly is the star here, though, in a compelling performance as Abby, the flawed beauty whose greatest fear is rejection and ridicule.
The film’s run-down, dirty look and brownish palette recall elements of Silent Hill and 2003’s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, but in a much more claustrophobic setting that increases the sense of...well...dread, which Quaid believes to be the purest, deepest expression of fear.
The idea of primal fear could have been explored more deeply here, however: except in the case of Quaid, the “deepest fears” of the characters seem more like insecurities and neuroses. To be fair, though, those neuroses are eventually turned into deep fears through Quaid’s intervention. As the film comes to a close, Barker’s influence becomes even clearer: the viewer’s dread begins to turn to hopelessness, and of course, it’s clear that there are no happy endings to be had, here. The final scene and its slap-in-the-face last line are a fitting close, and not one you’re likely to see in your average Hollywood horror flick.
In the end, Dread works. It manages to avoid falling completely into cliché and makes good use of Barker’s knack for keeping the audience off-balance and uncomfortable. The cast carries the plot reasonably well, and there’s no sugar-coating to dilute Barker’s squirm-inducing vision. Dread is one of the 8 Films to Die For at Horrorfest 4, and should make a name for itself among the bloodthirsty festival hordes. Dread will be released on DVD on March 23rd, 2010.
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