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Released By: Millennium Entertainment
Released On: September 9, 2014
Director: Ben Wagner
Cast: Dean Chekvala, J. Claude Deering, Rick Federman, Amy Cale Peterson
Year: 2014
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The Film:
From undercooked chicken to guest infidelity in the laundry room after cocktails, there's a whole lot that can go wrong with a dinner party. In the grand scheme of things, though, those are pretty small issues compared to Kim and Mike's social gathering issues, which involve a contagious illness that causes the eyes and blood to turn black as night, and the victims to go homicidally insane.
Taking place some time after this dinner party massacre, Dead Within finds Kim and Mike still in their cottage-like country home, with the windows and doors barricaded. With the water supply still functioning and a fresh supply of groceries provided by Mike's stealthy missions to the outside world, the two don't seem to have much to worry about; if you don't count the legions of "trollers" roaming around outside, hungry for blood. As the story unwinds, we get a little bit of a glimpse at the beginnings of their predicament, with the aforementioned dinner party ending in tears and severed heads, and the unfortunate necessity of putting down their own infant child. With no help on the way and only themselves for company, Kim and Mike begin to suffer the signs of cabin fever, and a breakdown in their relationship.
After Mike disappears for an undetermined amount of time, Kim finds a glimmer of hope in a radio call from "Ranger Mark", who promises that help is on the way. But Ranger Mark has got some squirrelly things going on his own self, and his tone goes from friendly to menacing when he hears that Kim is alone in the house. When Mike returns after far too long away and seems to have forgotten the secret knock that the two share to prove his mental faculties are still in order, Kim finds herself on the tough end of decision-making time; to trust that the man she loves is speaking the truth, or to turn him away and face alone the threat of Ranger Mark and the frightening things suddenly appearing in the house.
Dead Within has a fairly interesting concept, and honestly, the trailer had me sold on it immediately. And to its credit, the film is laid out in a way that keeps it compelling, urging you to keep watching it to the end of its relatively short run time. While erratic shaky-cam can sometimes get annoying, the technique works well here as it mirrors the atmosphere of the film. The effects are adequately handled as well, with a couple of genuinely creepy setpieces. The problems with it, however, are numerous, the main flaw being that there are large gaps of time where NOTHING happens... just two people staring at each other, cut to two people having sex, cut to washing of dishes... Dead Within gets really damn boring. When the monotony is broken up with something other than the flashbacks to the dinner party, it usually consists of a jump scare or some kind of freaky thing that doesn't really contribute. True, the final reveal does account for a lot of what shows up prior, but in the confines of viewing the film, the dead spots drag the enjoyment level right down with the pacing.
Being that Ben Wagner seems to be a relatively new director, the take-home message here could be that he's got the concept of a good story down, and seems to be able to handle atmosphere and other nuances that could lead to some pretty decent films. Dead Within, however, falls short of the mark.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Presented somewhere in the neighbourhood of an anamorphic 16X9 transfer, Dead Within comes to DVD courtesy of Millennium, with the quality that we've come to expect from them. Detail is nice even in the murky scenes, and there aren't any picture issues that jumped out at me. The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is solid as well, with use of the surrounds and sub when needed, but also paying attention to balancing the soundtrack with the vocals. Hiss, pops and distortion should by now be a thing of the past, and there are none to be found here.
The only real extra on the disc consists of 4 Deleted Scenes, one of which is an alternate opening. All 4 scenes are available with optional commentary from Wagner, talking about why they didn't make the cut.
A Millennium Preview Reel, including the trailer for Dead Within can also be found on the disc.
The Final Word:
Wagner's got his work cut out for him in the future. A decent effort to be found here, but don't expect any socks to be knocked off.
