The October Zombie-Thon 2009 - Day 23: Deadgirl
Posted by Trevor Snyder on 10.23.2009
How desperate would you have to be before a dead girl started looking pretty good?
DEADGIRL (2008)
Directed by: Marcel Sarmiento & Gadi Harel
Written by: Trent Haaga
Country: USA
You might love Deadgirl; you might hate Deadgirl. But I don't think you'll feel ambivalent about Deadgirl. And considering how many zombie movies nowadays provoke little more than a "eh, whatever" reaction, that alone is something worth celebrating.
Ricky and JT are two typical high-school slackers, with little interest in class, sports, popularity, or anything else that might actually make the whole "going to school" experience tolerable. Ricky spends his days pining over Joann, his childhood sweetheart, who has long since moved on and is now dating the school's resident jock hero. JT doesn't even have that much ambition – he freely admits to only coming to school to hang out with Ricky. The two skip school one day, and with nothing better to do in mind, they decide to go raise hell at an old abandoned mental hospital on the outskirts of town.
It's all crazy fun and destructive games at first, but after a wild dog chases them into the hospital's labyrinthine basement tunnels, the two make a shocking discovery – the body of a naked young woman, strapped to a stretcher, covered in plastic, and just barely breathing. Ricky's natural instinct is to free her and get help, but JT has other ideas. "We could keep her," he tells his friend. Ricky isn't exactly thrilled with the idea, but the combination of a weak-will and misguided loyalty causes him to agree to JT's plan. He won't join in on whatever sick intentions JT has for the girl, but he won't tell anyone about it, either.
Ricky returns home, the thought of what he has agreed to eating him up inside. But things get even worse when JT implores him to return to the hospital and share in what he has discovered. During a particularly "rough" exchange with the girl, JT broke her neck and seemingly killed her – except she is still moving. In fact, it turns out she can not be killed, no matter how much punishment is inflicted. A now understandably freaked-out Ricky wants even less to do with this than before, but still agrees to let JT have his fun…with one condition. Ricky makes JT promise not to tell anyone else about this; it will be their secret. JT agrees, but there's just one problem – with Ricky not wanting to join in on his perverted fun, JT is lonely. It isn't long before not only are more people finding out, but perennial outcast JT is starting to relish his position of power in the situation to a dangerous degree. And when he realizes that a bite from the girl can create new deadgirls, thus solving the problem of her increasingly messy body, well…that's when things really go to hell.
As should be obvious from the description, Deadgirl is not a film that is afraid to go to some very dark places (and no, I don't just mean the hospital's basement). And though it's not even the first movie to feature the idea of using a zombie as a sex slave (although probably the first to focus on it), there's no doubt that many viewers will be too sickened by the idea to give the film much of a chance. And it's not just the fact that it's a zombie the boys are raping that will rankle some – there will probably be a contingent of viewers dismayed by the fact that we never learn who the deadgirl really is or how she came to be there. The movie essentially offers her up as nothing more than an object for the boys to use and abuse, and it's not always pleasant to watch.
But then, that's the point, isn't it? Even if the movie's plot is distasteful, the strength of its ideas is too powerful to simply ignore. Underneath the ostensibly exploitative subject matter lies what is – essentially – a warped coming-of-age tale, complete with biting commentary on such common teenage themes as alienation, peer pressure, and budding sexuality. Above all else, it examines the possible ramifications of teens left to fend for themselves with no real moral guidance. It's easy to dismiss Ricky and JT's actions as unbelievable, but the scary thing is how plausible they might actually be. Even when removing the fantastical zombie element out of the story, it's not unreasonable to expect the same sort of reprehensible reaction from many real-life teens if they were to find a bound naked girl somewhere. Probably everyone who watches this movie will say, "well, I would never do that." Maybe they're right. But think back to high school, and everyone you knew growing up. Can you honestly say with 100% certainty that nobody you knew would?
That kind of thinking is what makes Deadgirl hard to shake after seeing it, but what holds your attention while watching it is the strong filmmaking of directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel. The two have the advantage of working from a great script by Trent Haaga. This is good news for me, since it means I can keep alive a Zombie-Thon tradition – Haaga has popped up in one way or another every year, giving me plenty of opportunities to point out what a valuable asset he is to the current indie-horror scene. But even a Haaga fan like me wasn't expecting a film this unique, and a great deal of the credit must go to Sarmiento and Harel. Given the majority of Haaga's work (including his previous go at scripting a zombie film, Feeding the Masses), one might approach Deadgirl expecting a Troma-ish, tongue-in-cheek shocker. But Samiento and Harel play things straight, enhancing Haaga's story with some truly unforgettable imagery and a dead-serious tone (there is a bit of dark comedy to be had, but the duo wisely never let it overpower the harsh reality of what is being done). There best decision was probably that of not eroticizing the film's sexual elements at all. There is nothing tantalizing or enticing about the treatment of the deadgirl. A crasser filmmaker might have played that angle up, but these two are astute enough to understand that we're not meant to sympathize or get hot-and-bothered by what these kids are doing. This is a movie about awful things, and the matter-of-fact presentation helps make us feel awful about it. Sure, that also makes it tough to watch at times, but to do any less would not be giving the story the proper service it deserves.
A special mention must also go out to the film's terrific cast, particularly leads Shiloh Fernandez (Ricky) and Noah Segan (JT). Although neither actually looks young enough to be high school students, their performances are strong enough to make up for it. Both have a tough job here – Fernandez has to keep the audience somewhat understanding and forgiving of his actions even after giving into JT's sick plan, while Segan has to make JT's depravity and subsequent power-hunger believable without ever lapsing into cartoonish villain territory. Both pull it off, thankfully. And I also want to commend Jenny Spain for her brave performance as the titular character. I don't think many actresses would be up for a role that requires constant nudity, no dialogue, and scenes of rape, but Spain somehow brings a strange dignity to the role – you feel for her, even though she is a flesh-eating monster, and you find yourself rooting for her to get loose and get her revenge. When a movie actually provokes that kind of reaction from its audience, it's doing something right.
Deadgirl is certainly not a movie for everyone, which might sound redundant, since every zombie movie is not a movie for everyone. But this one is really not a movie for everyone. It will no doubt be one of the most divisive zombie films of the modern era (assuming it achieves the sort of wide audience I believe it deserves) – but I think that's a good thing. There's a disappointing lack of filmmakers using the zombie genre to actually say something nowadays, and while I'm all for dumb-fun every once and awhile, it's nice to see that the genre can still provoke a strong reaction when approached from a different angle. Using the zombie film to highlight humanity's ugliness is certainly nothing new, but Deadgirl's taboo-ignoring attitude feels fresh, thanks to the skilled hands involved. It's not the most pleasant zombie movie you will see – it is a bleak, harsh film full of characters making disgusting, deplorable choices. But the frightening plausibility of these actions gives the film an emotional charge that is undeniable. In the end, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about what happened in the movie, but the very fact that I couldn't stop trying to decide tells me all I need to know about its strength as a film.
FINAL SCORE: 3.5 out of 4 Bubs (Highly Recommended)
