- Dread (film)
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Dread 
Promotional film posterDirected by Anthony DiBlasi Produced by Clive Barker
Lauri Apelian
Joe Daley
Jorge Saralegui
Nigel Thomas
Charlotte WallsScreenplay by Anthony DiBlasi Based on Dread by Clive Barker Starring Jackson Rathbone
Shaun Evans
Paloma Faith
Hanne Steen
Laura Donnelly
Jonathan ReadwinMusic by Theo Green Cinematography Sam McCurdy Editing by Celia Haining Studio Matador Pictures Distributed by After Dark Films Release date(s) 14 July 2009
(Canada)Running time 108 minutes Country United Kingdom Language English Dread is a 2009 horror film directed by Anthony DiBlasi and starring Jackson Rathbone, Shaun Evans and Hanne Steen, based on the short story of the same name by Clive Barker.[1] The story was originally published in 1984 in volume two of Barker's Books of Blood short story collections.[2]
Contents
Plot
"At a small unnamed English college, Quaid and his friend Stephen (a film student), do a Fear Study as a school project, recording people talking about their greatest fears and worst times in their lives. Quaid however is quite insane and wants to take the fear to "the next level".
Quaid saw his parents murdered by an axe murderer as a child. This is his greatest fear and he wants to learn what makes others afraid and what it takes for them to overcome their fear. It is never revealed whether this is the character's forename or surname.
Stephen lost his brother as a teen, his brother was driving drunk and he wonders if he had driven if his brother would still be dead.
Cheryl, who is editing the project and who Stephen is in love with, was molested by her father as a girl, he worked at a meat packing plant and he smelled of meat while molesting her so to this day she can't stand the smell of meat and refuses to eat it. Quaid kidnaps her and locks her in a room with a huge piece of beef. After about a week, she finally eats the entire piece of rotten beef.
Quaid has a nightmare that involves his parents being murdered while he, as a child, is sitting on the floor on their pile of blood. Later Quaid buys the same model car that Stephen's brother died in off of Craigslist. He wants Stephen to drive it. Stephen does.
Joshua is a student who gets interviewed by Quaid where he reveals that his fear is becoming deaf again for he lost his hearing for a while after a childhood accident. The following night, Joshua shows up at Quaid's house because Quaid told him he had more questions for him. Quaid knocks him out, chains him to a radiator, fires a gun next to his ears, shattering his eardrums and leaving him deaf again. Quaid then drops Joshua off in an alley and goes home again.
Abby, a girl involved with the project, has a dark birth mark covering half of her face and also her body, which she doesn't want anyone to see and is terrified of being teased or shunned because of her birthmark. Quaid has video footage of her stripping naked before sex and he sets it up so every TV on campus is showing her naked, and covered in birth marks, he holds up signs in the video which read, "This is your reality", and, "You will never be normal". Humiliated she goes home, fills a bathtub with bleach and starts scrubbing off her skin with a Brillo pad. Stephen shows up at her dorm as she stumbled down the hall naked and bleeding. He gets her to the hospital and goes after Quaid, grabbing the fire axe off the wall to take with him. While he is leaving the hospital, Joshua, who is now clearly deaf follows after him, remembering that Stephen was with Quaid during his interview and assumes they are working together.
When Stephen shows up and confronts Quaid, Quaid knocks him out, when he awakens he is tied to a chair and Quaid is showing him video footage of him torturing Cheryl. Stephen demands to know where Cheryl is but Quaid claims that he let her go after she ate the meat. Stephen however, thinks that he is lying. Quaid hears a noise downstairs, and goes to check it out. Meanwhile, Stephen manages to break free. After cutting his bonds, Stephen runs into Joshua who stabs him with the axe that Stephen had brought to use on Quaid. Quaid, who had been hiding as this happened, appears and shoots Joshua in the back of the head killing him. Quaid stands over Stephen's body watching him bleed out from the axe wound. Once Stephen is dead, he drags the body downstairs where he unlocks a door in the basement. Cheryl is inside and he throws Stephens body in with her, along with a switchblade and says, "Let's see how hungry you have to be to get through that". He then slams the door shut and leaves her crying with Stephen's dead body.
The movie is noticeably different from Barker's original story. The setting is transposed from 1980s England to 2009 USA. Technology such as file storage, video streaming, image editing and mobile phones are shown to be contemporary to 2009. The original backstory of Stephen's deafness is transferred to Joshua. Stephen is given a different backstory and fear, that of dying in a car crash like his older brother. The reason for Cheryl's aversion to meat is developed from an ethical opposition to a backstory of childhood abuse. As with Joshua, the character of Abby did not feature at all in the short story. The ending of the story, which originally featured Quaid's comeuppance, is altered to reveal Quaid overcoming his own dread and keeping Cheryl prisoner after Stephen and Joshua die.
Cast
- Jackson Rathbone as Stephen Grace[3]
- Shaun Evans as Quaid[4]
- Hanne Steen as Cheryl Fromm
- Laura Donnelly as Abby
- Jonathan Readwin as Joshua Shaw
Production
The 104 page script was shot in just 28 days.[5] The paintings in the film were created by Nicole Balzarini.[6]
Release
The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Montreal Fantasia Festival, where it picked up a distributor in After Dark Films.[7] It was announced that Dread would be included in the films in the fourth Horrorfest film festival in 2010[8]. The film was released on 29 January 2010 in US Cinemas[9].
Reception
The film received positive reviews by Fangoria,[10] and websites that focus on the horror genre such as Fear.net[11] and DreadCentral[12]. GoreZone Magazine gave the movie 5 stars and did a five page article on the movie in issue 54. The Movie Spot gave the film a 4 out of 5 saying "It takes what people fear and dread and perverts it."[13] However, Top 10 Films, which gave the film 2 stars out of 5, said that although director DiBlasi "knows how to draw a reaction out of his audience" his "style could have done with a little more substance."[14]
References
- ^ "'Dread' Director Anthony DiBlasi on Real-Life Fears". Bloody-Disgusting. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/17878.
- ^ "New Dread Images Shows Off the Ladies". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34928/new-dread-images-shows-off-ladies.
- ^ "Horrorfest '10: A New Look at the Fems of 'Dread'". Bloody-Disgusting. http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/news/18361.
- ^ "Exclusive First Look at the Dread Trailer". ShockTillYouDrop. http://www.shocktillyoudrop.com/news/topnews.php?id=13582.
- ^ "Exclusive: Anthony DiBlasi Talks Dread and What You Will See on DVD". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/35626/exclusive-anthony-diblasi-talks-dread-and-what-you-will-see-dvd.
- ^ "Dread Contest: Have Your Portrait Painted by "Quaid"". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/36516/dread-contest-have-your-portrait-painted-quaid.
- ^ "Clive Barker's Dread on Facebook / Exclusive New Image". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/34553/clive-barkers-dread-facebook-exclusive-new-image.
- ^ Horrorfest news
- ^ "Trailer Debut: Clive Barker's Dread". DreadCentral. http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/35286/trailer-debut-clive-barkers-dread.
- ^ http://fangoria.com/reviews/2-film/3350-dread-film-review.html
- ^ http://www.fearnet.com/news/reviews/b16020_fantasia_fest_2009_dread_review.html
- ^ http://www.dreadcentral.com/reviews/dread-2009
- ^ http://ny-themoviespot.blogspot.com/2010/03/dread.html
- ^ http://www.top10films.co.uk/archives/8286
External links
- Dread at the official Horrorfest website.
- Dread at the Internet Movie Database
Works by Clive Barker Novels, novellas, short story collectionsSingle works Books of the Art The Abarat Quintet Abarat · Abarat: Days of Magic, Nights of War · Abarat: Absolute Midnight · Abarat: The Dynasty of Dreamers · Abarat: The EternalShort story collections FilmsDirected by Clive Barker Directed by others Rawhead Rex · Underworld · Candyman · Quicksilver Highway · Saint Sinner · The Plague · Dread · The Midnight Meat Train · Book of Blood · BornOther topicsArt collections Clive Barker, Illustrator · Illustrator II: The Art of Clive Barker · Clive Barker: Visions of Heaven and HellPlays Incarnations: Three Plays · Forms of Heaven: Three PlaysVideo games Masters of Horror Comic books Dark Horse Comics: Primal · Eclipse Comics: Dread · The Life of Death · Rawhead Rex · Revelations · Son of Celluloid · Tapping the Vein · The Yattering and Jack · Epic Comics: Clive Barker's Hellraiser · Nightbreed · Pinhead · Pinhead vs. Marshal Law · Weaveworld · FantaCo Books: Night of the Living Dead: London · Razorline: Ectokid · Hokum & Hex · Hyperkind · Saint SInnerRecurring charactersAfter Dark Horrorfest films 2006 The Abandoned • Dark Ride • The Gravedancers • The Hamiltons • Penny Dreadful • Reincarnation • Unrest • Wicked Little Things
Bonus films: Snoop Dogg's Hood of Horror • The Tripper2007 Borderland • Crazy Eights • The Deaths of Ian Stone • Frontier(s) • Lake Dead • Mulberry Street • Nightmare Man • Tooth and Nail • UnearthedIII Autopsy • The Broken • The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelations • Dying Breed • From Within • Perkins' 14 • Slaughter • Voices (Someone Behind You)4 Dread • The Final • Hidden • Kill Theory • Lake Mungo • The Graves • The Reeds • ZMD: Zombies of Mass DestructionCategories:- 2000s horror films
- Films based on horror novels
- British horror films
- English-language films
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