Direct to DVD: "Dead and Gone"

Dead and Gone
Year: 2008
Director: Yossi Sasson
Stars: Quentin Jones, Gillian Shore, Ben Moddy
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment / Darkhaze Productions
Running Time: 84 Mins
Official Website: http://www.deadandgonethemovie.com/

Dead and Gone is about a trophy husband (Quentin Jones) who kidnaps his comatose wife, so he can kill her for her insurance money after he hasn’t received any of her finances to live on. Soon voices start creeping to his head, as his wife starts to haunt him. Is this really happening or is it in all in his head? When he meets a beautiful tough law enforcement officer, he then begins a relationship with her until she starts to find out his secrets. Now, he starts to totally lose his mind, as the officer is closing in on him while the voices get even stronger. Can he save his mind and sanity before he totally destroys himself forever? The film features cameos from Kyle Gass (Tenacious D and the Pick of Destiny) Zack Ward (Postal) and Felicia Ross (Sleepaway Camp, Dark Chamber).

Usually when I buy films to review for this site, they have to be films that I would be interested in watching and reviewing for the site. Dead and Gone was one of those films that caught my eye for two reasons. First, Kyle Gass from Tenacious D was starring in the film, and the film has lovely and talented Felecia Rose. What could go wrong? Well they don’t play major parts in the film, instead the lead actors were Quentin Jones, Gillian Shore, and Ben Moddy (yes the former songwriter and lead guitarist from Evanescence). Man, this was painful to watch.

Dead and Gone was very dead and gone on arrival. This film, in a way, felt like Jumper in the way the pace of the film went. I hated it because it ruined any chance of setting up scares. Yossi Sasson’s direction on the film felt flat and uneventful. One of the main reasons for this was that its pace. It really moves fast to the point that you are not interested in the story, as it becomes all weird and confusing, but not scary. I thought I was supposed to be watching a horror film not a film that has the feel of a David Lynch film. Also, the direction of the scenes felt very dull, as I was interested in watching to see how much time has gone by. By this point, I didn’t care for any of the action that was going on. The acting in this film wasn’t that great either, especially with the lead performances, as it felt amateurish at times. The actors didn’t even make me want to care for the characters that they played. Instead, watching their performance made me bored and wishing that I spent my money in purchasing a film that had some decent acting. The film could have used more of Felicia Ross and Kyle Glass, as their cameos weren’t that bad.

The screenplay written by Harry Shannon has a logic that will be confusing to the average horror fan. This screenplay really didn’t work for me. First thing that I didn’t like about it was the action in the screenplay. It was very weird and unsuspenseful. In order for a horror film to succeed, it must be campy to the point where your have fun watching, the action or the story is suspenseful, or the deaths were scary enough to make you jump out of your seat and also have characters that you care about. This film had none of that because everything that went on during the course of film felt weird and flat. The next thing that is the fact that Shannon doesn’t create characters that were interesting to the point that you care about them. The characters that he created for the film were flat out dull and uninteresting. There was no development to any of them whatsoever, which in return made this a painful film to watch. Finally, Shannon doesn’t even attempt to drum up any scary elements to his story, as the voices in his head felt unmenacing and felt like it came out of a David Lynch film, where nothing made any sense whatsoever.

There are a few times that I have regretted in purchasing films without seeing them first. At least the only positive with this was that the film’s running time was 84 minutes. Dead and Gone is very weird and boring supernatural film that makes me want to bury this film out in the backyard, forever, as this will end up as used copy at some store for eternity, I hope.

Review Rating: Zero Stars

DVD Extras:

Audio Commentary with, Director Yossi Sasson, and Screenwriter Harry Shannon.
Gone with the Dead: The making of Dead and Gone
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Trailers