Dead Within (2014) Reviews

• An atypical zombie movie

  peterp-450-2987162015-06-11

  "Baby, maybe we're just both crazy. What if we're, like, in The Truman Show ? There is no plague. And...there's cameras everywhere." I'm certain that many will speak disparagingly about this movie. Typical statements as a total lack of tension, a deadly dull storyline, a cheaply produced film at a single location and the absence of confrontational, brutal and bloody images with zombies feasting on human flesh, will be used in abundance. But admit it, most zombie films use the same clichéd image of a slow walking living corpse, hungry for fresh blood, with a pale gray face with lifeless eyes in dark eye sockets staring into nothingness. "World War Z" used a very different approach to the phenomenon zombie and their characteristics were highlighted in a very different way. In "Dead Within" you only have the nasty outside sounds and short excerpts of transformed creatures. And frankly, I thought the opening fragment with those awful noises was quite frightening: the primitive growling and screeching nocturnal creatures (weird but it reminded me of "Jurassic Park") and the cries in terror of the victims being dismembered. Turn the sound wide open and those hysterical cries will give you the shivers. Apart from the opening scene (a staggering three split view with out of sync customized images) and the final scene, the complete film takes place in a wooden cabin somewhere in a forest at an unknown place. We see how Mike (Dean Chekvala) and Kim (Amy Cale Peterson), along with their newborn baby Lily and dog Teddy, arrive at the cabin of their friends Todd and Erika, where they probably expected to enjoy a long relaxing weekend. First there are fragments of them socializing. But this is abruptly broken off, and we see Mike and Kim on a dowdy mattress with a machete and a kind of riot-gun by their side. After a while we learn that they are hiding for 6 months already in this barricaded hut, letting no one inside because a deadly virus has spread (though if that happened locally or globally is a non-answered question) which transforms living creatures into black-eyed undead with ink black blood flowing through their veins. Apparently it affects every living being (the dog Teddy is a living proof of that). I asked myself at that time if there could be deadly squirrels or rabbits creeping through the woods. For the horror freaks who enjoy gory movies with plenty of severed limbs and gore scenes, I can already tell them that this will be a total disappointment. The only thing we are witnessing is the gradual change that Kim is undergoing caused by the total isolation. Mike is the only one who leaves the cabin on a regular basis (where he is risking his health and life every time) to seek for food and other consumables. Kim tries to kill her time by cleaning up once again, playing the guitar and to create a wall painting. It's obvious that after a while the two survivors not only need to fear what's wandering outside, but also realize that the growing paranoia and the realization that their situation seems to be hopeless becomes a threat. We see Kim evolving into a state of fairly psychotic behavior with delusions and conversations with imaginary people. Is it an excellent movie? No, not exactly. The repetitive situations and the lack of information won't make it an exciting movie. The use of flashbacks provide a partial explanation but after a while that starts to innervate anyway. The minimalistic use of real horror images also isn't an advantage. Is it a dreadful movie? No, not exactly either. The inner tension and the constant threatening atmosphere made sure it was entertaining in a way. And especially the performances of the two protagonists is magnificent. It's not obvious to portray such a situation in a convincing way. It's the same familiar situation as with two people who sat together for a long time in a confined space and trifles start to irritate them. "Dead within" is an atypical zombie movie where the emphasis is more on the psychological state of mind of survivors than on the destructive nature of mutated creatures. A survival film avant la lettre with anxiety, guilt and madness as a central theme. More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT

• Rated by zombies

  begob2015-02-09

  Good pace on a difficult two-hander. Better than Moon, I reckon. Acting very good, and the sound track maintains tension along with cuts in visuals. The dialogue could have been livelier - the characters had their niggles, but both were reserved personalities. Timeline jumps about a bit, so keep an eye on the hand bandage. Not sure the final shot was necessary - perfectly satisfied with psychosis induced by grief and cabin fever. And how/when could it have happened to her? Maybe a spinning cam in the sunshine with a zombie jaws final frame was best bet. One thing that bugged me was no explanation for running water until about 40 mins in, when it cut off. People - in a zombie apocalypse you'll die of thirst or typhoid way before the brain gobblers get you. So it's important! Then the water turned on again, and I couldn't figure out if it was hallucination. Not as good as The Battery - sort of indoors version without the humour - but definitely deserves higher rating. edit: the ranger story wasn't resolved, so point lost.

• It's not a zombie movie, it's better

  betraeger2014-09-17

  Wow, was I watching the same movie? First off, everyone's entitled to their opinion, but I can't believe the previous users and reviews are calling this movie boring, slow, or that they have seen it before. I thought the movie was suspenseful the entire time. Even though it was a limited cast, the acting was spot on and exactly what I look for in this genre. If you want gore and nudity, you are looking in the wrong place, go re-watch one of the installments of Friday the 13th, which are all the same, so take your pick. ALSO THIS ISN'T A ZOMBIE MOVIE! The poster may be perceived as misleading, but we all should be able to get past that. It could be just about anything outside the door, just like Cabin in the Woods. It's a sad story about two people who have lost everything. It frankly, was a lot more believable to me. It's more like Open Water than Dawn of the Dead or Evil Dead. I also really enjoyed discovering the prequel web series AFTER I had watched the film, it was a nice extension of the piece and hope they continue to post more episodes on the site.

• Fear is contagious!

  barna-brbs2014-11-01

  It is not a zombie movie. Not a classic horror film. It has a very deep meaning. The movie has the right atmosphere, gloomy until the very end. The woman - Kim - is nerve-racking, plays very well. The poster's headline is giving us what it is all about: Fear is contagious. The whole movie is about the Fear. The epidemic which cause black-blood, and black-eye is the Fear itself. It is a symbol (when someone is full of fear, he can not see what is real, he is blind, "black-eyed". Also it can show, that almost the entire human population get this "virus". Everyone is afraid of something (death, pain, poverty, powerless, aloneness..). The fear can grow so big, that it can lead the person. And it is very dangerous... It makes people sick, psychotic. As in the movie, Kim gets crazy - believing that she is right! She saw things which were unreal. She is dead, she is not alive, she only exists in her mind. Do you think Ranger Mark was real? Maybe it was her conscience (? wanted to save her?)... Her partner, Mike, was also not "healty".. He wanted to possess the woman, and at the end, he ran to his fate.. This movie asks the question: do you want to live your life, and say no to fear(even if it is inside), or do you want to be like a zombie? What is more important than this? So, in my view, this movie is very deep, intelligent work. Thanks. (Sorry for the poor English.)

• A movie that left me annoyed and empty within

  anushas-010982019-03-05

  The Dead Within started out good. I was interested in the couple and what could have been going on out there to make them hide out the way they were. Kim and Mike seemed happy at the dinner party. They have an unusual routine- Mike goes out, Kim stays in, they have dinner dates with what supplies Mike can find outside. The dinner dates and dresses were a little unusual and made me curious. This intro to the characters held my interest and made me keep watching... but it just got worse from there. Kim is a little stir crazy and her husband is having more difficulty finding resources. There are a few threatening sounds outside... Kim talks to a "ranger" who claims to be rescue but we aren't sure if this is real or imagined. This ranger gets abusive as the movie progresses. Kim descends into madness, especially in the third act and we see a lot of scary post traumatic stress dreams/hallucinations/images. I will give this movie credit for portraying post traumatic stress accurately. The actress also did a good job with what she was given script wise. My problem is the path this movie took. It chose to focus on Kim's descent from stir crazy to psychotic breakdown. What I was really hoping was the movie would focus on the Ranger. The idea of a rescue not being a rescue isn't new in zombie movies, but the lonely Kim looking for company and finding dangerous company in the Ranger seems way more interesting and less discombobulating than a bunch of flashbacks and trauma scenes. At one point Kim said with agency that she is doing an important job: she isn't doing nothing. She's keeping watch while her husband is away. I really liked this hint of development for Kim. I wanted her to grow stronger and deal with the Ranger character in some way. I wanted to see her become smarter, braver, and more competent. This direction has much more room for growth for Kim than what the writers chose. When she killed her husband she was angry he cooped her up (understandable). She said something about her being competent and able and that she didn't need to be cooped up like how she was. What Kim said about her competency might be true, but the movie didn't give her a chance to prove it. She's never seen what's out there and there is lot of evidence she's mentally unstable. For her to say she IS competent struck me as a bit childish. I wanted more maturity and growth from her character. Based on what I saw in the movie, I'm not convinced Kim would be competent outside. The ending was pure garbage. I didn't care when she opened the door and ran out. I knew at that point I would really dislike this movie. I felt her black eyes at the end and her husband appearing again to kill her was a cheap trick. How would he pop out of nowhere like that? Come on! It's also a major stretch to say Kim is infected. I can't see how that would be possible without giving the plot major leeway. I invested my time and energy in this movie based on the first third, but got absolutely no payoff. This movie is like the theater has run out of popcorn when you try to claim your refill :(