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DEAD END (2003) Directors: Jean Baptiste-Andrea and Fabrice Canelpa Hacktors: Ray Wise, Lin Shaye, Mick Cain Cutting Remarks: When The Blair Witch Project chilled the world in 1999, it should have signalled a revival of genuinely scary movies. Instead, the no-budget blockbuster gave rise to some lousy spoofs (The Blair Bitch Project, etc), a few disappointing rip-offs (The St Francisville Experiment, etc) and a sequel which was widely derided, even though Slasherama maintains a soft spot for it.       Of course, frightening movies always surface from time to time. In 2001, a terrifying flick named Session 9 sadly entered virtual obscurity, while the excellent My Little Eye depicted Big Brother gone horribly wrong. Dead End is nothing like either of those two movies, and not nearly as disturbing. What is does achieve, within just a few minutes, is making you want to turn off the lights and relish the thick, brooding atmosphere.       Directed by two French newcomers in Hollywood, the movie's greatest strength is that it's not immediately obvious what kind of genre it fits. A typical American family, plus the daughter's boyfriend Brad, are taking their annual Christmas Eve road-trip to visit some in-laws. Bored with the usual route, the father (played by Ray Wise, who made an unforgettable impression as Leland Palmer in Twin Peaks, and more recently as the vengeful farmer in Jeepers Creepers 2) takes a short-cut which he may or may not live to regret. Either way, it was a bad decision. Pretty soon, people are being kidnapped in a mysterious black car, only to found in drastically worse health, further down the track. Furthermore, the road literally seems to go on forever…       While most horror/comedy hybrids don't work, there are laughs here which only seem to increase the tension. Characters take it in turn to lose their minds, long-buried secrets come to the fore and there are some great lines, such as Wise yelling, "All we wanted was a nice Christmas! Is that too much to ask?" at the woods. There's also the spookiest rendition of Jingle Bells that you ever heard. The gore tends to be quite restrained here, but the movie has a merciless approach to dispatching its cast - which makes it all the more frightening as we see the family unit literally torn apart. All the time, the viewer is asking themselves what the hell is going on. Is this a slasher movie? A supernatural affair? Is the whole thing a dream? Whatever you decide, come the weird - and surprisingly touching - conclusion, it's certainly one of the better fright flicks in a while. DVD Extras: Writing/directing duo Jean Baptiste-Andrea and Fabrice Canelpa come across as highly likeable characters in a behind-the-scenes documentary. We see their fairytale journey from knock-knock-knocking on Hollywood's door with their script, all the way through to standing on the Los Angeles set and hardly being able to believe they're shooting a movie. There are also two deleted scenes, trailers and TV spots. Far from a Dead loss. Release Date: Out now. [Check it out at Amazon UK] [Check it out at Amazon US] [Ray Wise interview] [Reviews Menu] [Home] © Copyright Slasherama 2002-present