The Dead Room 2015 Quick Review

The Dead Room is about a 3 person team of ghost hunters hired by an insurance company (I think) to investigate the home a family head has recently fled. The team consists of two scientist/skeptics and psychic. Soon the presence makes itself known and 2/3rds of the team wants to leave immediately. They are convinced to stay and devise a plan to rid the house of the menacing spirit once and for all.

Director:
Jason Stutter
Writers:
Kevin Stevens, Jason Stutter
Cast:
Jed Brophy, Jeffrey Thomas, Laura Petersen

First I want to say that the poster for The Dead Room is so misleading. Nothing like what is pictured even comes close to happening in this movie.

I watched this other night and it was slow going but I was liking it. The characters were believable. All of them were just interesting to look at it. I liked the premise of The Dead Room. I like that it was two scientists and a psychic. I think psychics are pure quackery however they make great characters for supernatural movies. Seriously, Poltergeist wouldn’t have been as good without Zelda Rubinstein‘s character telling us, “This house is clean.” So, I’m all for psychics in these types of films.

As mentioned the story is slow going, it doesn’t tell you what’s going on at first. In fact as it started I kind felt like maybe I had missed the beginning. That being said, it’s okay. It’s not hard to figure out who these people are and eventually what they’re doing there. I liked the slow build of the film and not only were the characters interesting enough, the acting above average. Jeffery Thomas as Scott Cameron has an almost hypnotic pretense and there wasn’t a moment I didn’t believe he was a real scientist. Jed Brophy as the other scientist, Liam Andrews, was a pleasure to see again and he played off Thomas’s character to perfection.  Then last but not least the character of Holly Mathews, the psychic played by Laura Petersen. She played her part with a strength and vulnerability that was near enchanting. Couldn’t take my eyes off of her. I’m much looking forward to whatever she does next.

The Dead Room is played out over a few nights as the ghost hunters try to capture evidence of the supernatural entity that is haunting this home. Not much happens at first and yet its still interesting. Another plus is that very rarely does anyone do anything stupid. There’s no gore to speak of, as I recall. A couple of jump scares, some suspense, a little bit of action but most of all, an interesting story. It’s like you’re there with these people. I was really enjoying The Dead Room right up until the ending.

For me, the ending killed this movie. Film makers just don’t seem to understand what makes a good ending. And, when you have a movie that is mostly story and you don’t wrap it all up at the end, you’ve failed. I don’t care how good a movie is, if the ending sucks the movie is going to bomb. About the only exception to the rule is Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds. One of the worst ending of all time. I mean that movie was fascinating all the through it. It’s an entire about why this birds are attacking and then it just ends with no answer given. Like Alfred just offered up a big “Fuck You!” to the audience and walked away. And, people ate that shit up and asked for more.

So here’s the thing and the reason I am on the bubble with this one. Some may like it. It’s an interesting story with a great cast. But, if you’re like me and like a little resolution at the end of your movies, you’re going to walk away from this film disappointed. Personally, an ending like this to me says the writers just had no idea how to end the movie so they went for something cheap and hoped for the best. I think they failed. Maybe you will disagree.

I will say, that if they made a sequel to this movie I would look forward to seeing it in the hopes that they would wrap up the many unanswered questions leftover from the first film.