Dead End Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
Read the signs.
For the past 20 years, Frank Harrington has grudgingly driven his family to celebrate Christmas with his mother-in-law. This year, he takes a shortcut. It's the biggest mistake of his life: The nightmare begins. A mysterious woman in white wanders through the forest, leaving death in her wake. A terrifying black car - its driver invisible - carries the victims into the heart of the night. Every road sign points to a destination they never reach. The survivors succumb to panic, to madness; deeply buried secrets burst to the surface, and Christmas turns into a living hell.
| Ray Wise | Frank Harrington |
| Lin Shaye | Laura Harrington |
| Mick Cain | Richard Harrington |
| Alexandra Holden | Marion Harrington |
| Billy Asher | Brad Miller |
| Amber Smith | Lady in White |
| Karen S. Gregan | Doctor |
| Sharon Madden | Nurse |
| Steve Valentine | Men in Black |
| Jimmie F. Skaggs | Worker #1 |
| Clement Blake | Worker #2 |
| Jean-Baptiste Andrea |
6.70 out of 10 (4133 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Unimaginative, smug, poorly-written...
posted on 18 Aug 2009Without giving any spoilers, I must say that the "big twist" in this film has been done many, many times before, but rarely has it been done so ineptly or so obviously. Literally five minutes into the film I had guessed what was going on. The next seventy-five minutes felt like eternity.While waiting for the painfully obvious final revelation I was treated to terrible acting from what should have been a good cast - Ray Wise is always a treat to watch, but the stilted and unbelievable dialogue forced between his lips just made me cringe. I was treated to every rebellious teenager cliché available - teasing the sister, baiting her boyfriend, masturbating to porn, swearing at parents, and getting stoned (and I don't recall ever seeing someone act stoned so poorly). Naturally, he gets all concerned and sad and reveals he really does care about his sister when things get rough. I was treated to an embarrassingly inept portrayal of post-traumatic stress induced madness from a veteran actress who should have known better.To all those people who seem to think this is some kind of minor masterpiece, get out and see some of the genuinely good examples in the subgenre, such as the original Carnival of Souls. Pointless hackery like this is just a waste of everyone's time.
Dead End is a horror film that might have been interesting if it weren't a horror film
posted on 12 Aug 2009I am hard-pressed to believe anything that occurred in this film. As a whole, the ways the characters react to the horror, and to each other is wrong. The teen-ager is a stereotype of a stereotype, and what's more, is involved in an embarrassing scene in which he's masturbating to a centerfold in the woods (oh miss july, miss july uhh uhh uhhh.--sadly, this is the most memorable line in the film.) The moments that DO work are out of place, for the most part. The bickering between the husband and wife is at times quite funny--and I believe if this film had been about a trip where a family falls apart and just that, it might have been interesting. The horror that is present is always derivative, always stupid, and never scary. As the film progresses, the dialog becomes more absurd, and we've already guessed the next stupid twist in the plot, because we know how stupid writers think. Along with the even worse tacked-on ending. However, I can recommend the film for one thing: if you like the kind of movie that is so exquisitely stupid you can laugh at it, and mock the characters along the way, then you very well might enjoy it. If you're looking for anything unsettling, surprising, or frightening, pick any title other than this one. It's about as scary as the Little Mermaid; only the character in Little Mermaid were closer to real people than the ones found in this.
This one lives up to the title "horror" film!
posted on 15 Jul 2009I adored this movie. I've always liked stories about people trapped in cars in the dead of night, (and if you do too, also check out the new release "Wind Chill") but this one is especially creepy. Ray Wise and Lin Shaye are very good actors and they had some moments that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There's a lot of creepiness in general with the woman in white, the black hearse and just the desolate shots of traveling the same stretches of road over and over and over. I've seen this film three times now because I watched it with both of my daughters also, and it still got to me. They both enjoyed it too, and they're tough critics. Check it out. It's a fun little spine tingler with some very cool moments, yet manages to keep the gore under control.
A surprisingly good little movie
posted on 07 Jun 2009I Tivoed this figuring it was some kind of cheapy creeper that would at a later date fritter away an hour and change should a horror movie mood come over me. It was a surprise to see this movie instead. It had a wit and sense of humor without being funny. It had a little to unknown cast that carried their well-written roles with sincerity. The story was fine without getting in the way of the interplay of the characters.I can't say enough about the acting. The father character (played by Ray Wise) starts off as an uptight father on his way to a less-than-thrilling evening with his in-laws -- but we soon see that he has a full three dimensions to him. The mother is pure 50's -- but there are a few surprises. The teenage son has an edge of realism that fleshes out what might otherwise be a caricature. And the daughter character adds a serious, somber aspect. Although this might sound like a bunch of stock characters, each is filled out more completely than is usually the case in these types of films, to the extent that you're happy to watch their interactions rather than simply wait for the next plot development.I'll give it the ultimate honor: I'd watch it again.
not bad for what it is
posted on 02 May 2009i thought this movie was great for what it is, kind of a dark comedy, cheesy low budget horror film. Like a relax and laugh at with ur friends kinda of movie,it also managed to creep me out in some strange way considering the movie itself was not exactly too well put together, but if your into this kinda thing and liked movies like the evil dead trilogy or ravenous then this may satisfy your cheesy movie craving. For what it was, the acting wasn't as bad as i have come to expect with these movies. lets fill up space now hows the weather up there? do you enjoy seafood? i think seafood is quite grotesque and apparently i am not allowed to submit this comment yet for some unknown reason, these guidelines are kinda pissing me off here and this is only mt first review, not a very good one at that, when i'm done with this i'm gonna go take a shower cuz its lie 2 in the morning and i might wake up my roommate but i don't really care if i wake him up cuz hes being a little whiny bitch lately
"Read the signs."
posted on 28 Apr 2009~Spoiler~ I hate knowing the destination before a movie has even left the driveway. That was the case with Dead End. A father is driving his wife and kids to his in-laws for Christmas dinner when he decides to take a short cut. Once he's taken that wrong turn, they cannot find their way off the road and mysterious things start to happen. Early on in the film I thought "they're already dead." Then I became almost certain of it when all the clocks/watches within the movie were stuck at 7:30. But I hung in there. I thought surely these filmmakers won't use that tired cliché. I was proved wrong. Anyone who thinks Dead End is an original and unique horror experience obviously missed the brilliant Carnival of Souls and Jacob's Ladder. Hell, Deathwatch used the same plot device just one year prior as did the terribly inept Soul Survivors the year before that. That's not to say the film doesn't have it's moments. There are some exceptionally well-written characters in this, except for the angst filled teenage boy. Nobody's that obnoxious. I couldn't wait for his character to exit the film via a graphic death. However, there's not much gore to be had. I admire the filmmaker's for going a bit more old school and leaving some of the horror to the imagination. Not only are most of the characters 3 dimensional, but the actors playing them are remarkable as well. Ray Wise is one veteran that I thought never got his due. It's nice to see him in a lead role for once. And Lin Shaye is phenomenal as the high strung mother. Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa almost had a potential classic on their hands. But it's all wasted on a worn out cliché. I can't believe the number of positive praise for Dead End. Word of mouth on this movie was so hyped and the internet buzz was just ridiculous. It did not deliver, perhaps could not deliver with all that hype to live up to. Also upsetting was the DVD itself. Lion's Gate is usually very genre-friendly, but this has got to be the worst DVD they have ever released. No extras, zero. Not even a trailer. And the real travesty is that the film is full screen. Full screen! That is downright unforgivable.
All right I suppose
posted on 10 Apr 2009Hmm...what can I say about this movie? It was not satisfactory enough for me to say that it was a good horror movie, however it is not awful enough for me to say that it was a horrible horror movie. It's somewhere in between.The only thing that I really liked about it was the fact that is has a satisfactory ending, so different from the endings of other horror movies. I never expected it I must say. However, all this just because one girl has concussion was not really satisfactory. It seems as if the only point of the movie is this dream that Marion is having, and all this scary stuff that happens to them really makes the movie look rather ridiculous.Does this movie have a point to it? Maybe. How about "don't take shortcuts as you could be killed!" Of course that's not true and I don't mean to discourage anyone from taking shortcuts! This movie didn't scare me, supernatural events don't scare me, but if you are scared easily by movies like this, then don't watch it. It could keep you awake for weeks.The acting was quite good...you could really get into people's characters.Overall, no Alfred Hitchock but all right!
what happened to the ghost?
posted on 13 Mar 2009*deep breath* what the hell happened to the ghost???????? who? what? when? where? how?why? i don't get it, how did they come out at the other side of the road when they never even crossed the road? what the happened to the ghosts , i wanna see the ghosts!!!!! don't get me started on the crappiest ending ever! they should of made her walk home by her self and see all the ghosts in the woods and get people who have been killed to tell there story to her! god i should be a director because obviously this one was asleep whilst writing this movie! i wanna see the ghosts!!!!!!!!!!! please consider writing dead end 2?!!! i just don't get it why did u have to make the man in the hearse alive? why couldn't he of been dead and mangles and scary but no no he had to be a normal guy in his middle 30's with a great life and a lovely job, how come he never helped the girl the 1st time he drove by then? i wanna see the ghosts!! its made me think more bout the movie because i don't get it i wanna see the ghosts, oh yeah by the way I'm 13 yrs old and i could of done a better job at directing that god damn movie!!! make sure u make the next 1 with ghosts OK, otherwise i will get my lawyer to sue your ass! good day to you sir.
I liked it
posted on 03 Mar 2009I picked this one up at Blockbuster used (3 for $25) and wasn't expecting anything better than some of the other lesser horror that is out there (any "Urban Legend" sequel etc.) Incidentally, the other two movies I picked up were a waste of time (Urban Legends: Bloody MAry and Jeepers Creepers 2, which was a total bomb)Dead End was a great film. I watched it alone while my wife was sleeping and when I finished my cat (Mr Stoke) was coming down our spiral staircase and making noise with each step. It freaked me out! Loved the overhead shots of the forest with headlights shining. Acting was decent, script was original. All in all a nice treat and a decent surprise. Thanks to Lions Gate for another distribution success! Anyone know of anything similar?
A little family trip...
posted on 17 Feb 2009Minor Spoilers. Caught this on a movie channel and got sucked in. This is a great little film with a small cast and budget though neither matters. As with many of the better horror films it simply builds a sense of dread within itself without really trying too hard as most of the bigger, louder and less haunting films of todays Hollywood. The story of a dysfunctional family taking a road trip is not new by any means but when things begin to go strange after a close call, head on collision, and the appearance of a strange woman wandering a country road which seems to go on forever this begins to be anything but routine. A creepy little gem!
Too Scary to watch before you walk anywhere @ night.
posted on 05 Feb 2009***Spoilers**** I saw this at a friend's house just 2 nights ago.We'd seen "Intermission" first (w/ C.Meaney,C.Murphy,C.Farrel- which by the way was EXCELLENT! I wanted to watch the horror pic Dead End last. Bad idea. Once it was over I was too freaked to walk the 3 blocks back home. 3 LONG DARK blocks home. I asked to borrow his Akita to walk me home -I'd keep her overnight. She gets along w/ my animals...so fine. My friend ended up driving me home after the TV ad came on for the Boogeyman. No way could I walk home even with a tough looking dog. Some issues w/ Dead End though. If you discovered the body of a traveling companion on a road apparently hacked up by an axe or chainsaw- no way would you stand around on the road IN THE DARK, w/ forests on either side of you, God knows who or what's there in the trees-jabbering & arguing w/ the others you're with. The tension was too prolonged. They way they kept stopping the car for what seemed obvious was traps or asinine reasons, but they'd stay there, arguing, when all I'd wanna do is get IN the car, turn around, and get the F out of there. It's a real testament to the Mom's char. acting. She is SO convincingly and annoyingly insane- I couldn't wait til she got killed- (no offense ma'am). For someone who has to frequently drive at night-this movie scared the tar outta me!
ups and downs
posted on 20 Jan 2009I suppose the writer was trying funny in a eerie way. This is one of those movies that had a good story line but you have to get through all the "thats so stupid" scenes. This starts right away with the unnecessary bickering and cussing between the family members (glad to see the foul mouth son eliminated early). Next, your driving down a dark road and you're lost--a psycho woman pops out of nowhere so you stop and let her in your vehicle? Wait! Not only do you let the strange woman into your vehicle, you put your daughter out onto the dark deserted road alone to make space for her. An emergency stop at the cabin looking for help and the son goes into the woods to masturbate? Sorry, sometimes these movies seem to be written by college kids for college kids. Eliminate the stupid unnecessary inputs and you have a pretty good horror movie. Humor just doesn't mix with some horror plots. Eddie Murphy in a haunted house yes--family members being mutilated--no.
Chillingly Scary
posted on 31 Dec 2008There are few films out there these days that can serve up the fright and dish out the frighteningly suspenseful themes like Dead End has done here. It shows, straight from scene one, that it has the potential to scare you witless if you enjoy these sort of films.Christmas Eve. The Harrington's are driving to their in laws. However, this time, frank decides to take a short cut through the eerily dark forest roads. As the night unfolds, they all soon discover that this trip would turn out to be the worst night in their lives....Dead End didn't fail to scare me. It has some very chilling scenes that can play on your mind, but trust me when i say this, there isn't many other films out there that can make you as frightened as this one manages to do. I can't guarantee that Dead End is everyones idea of a good movie, but the way its put together will make the 85 minutes worth while to watch.
Fantastic Surprise
posted on 19 Dec 2008"Dead End" was one of the happiest surprises that I have experienced in the past few years.The story centers around a family driving to grandmother's house on Christmas Eve. Fed up with the monotony of the holiday traditions, the father (Ray Wise) leaves the comforts and securities of the interstate behind them, and instead decides to take a back road through the woods. Enter a mysterious hitchhiking woman, and let the scares begin.The brilliance of this film does not lie with big-name actors, special effects, or intense gore, but rather in its simplicity. So many low-budget horror movies fall into the trap of trying to overcompensate for their lack of financial backing, resulting in virtually the same mediocre effort being cranked out over and over again. Not the case here. Andrea creatively works with his resources, producing a genuinely creepy film that thankfully does not venture into the realm of the cheesy. With a very limited set, few gory effects and a few jump scares, much of the intensity comes simply from the atmosphere created, and the performance of the actors as we watch the family unravel."Dead End" is a great example of how innovative the genre can be. It works within its parameters, and doesn't overreach. While it probably won't be the most frightening thing you've ever seen, it is certainly entertaining and is definitely worth checking into.
I didn't get it
posted on 17 Dec 2008I just watched the movie Dead End twice because I thought I missed something in the beginning, but I still didn't get it. I don't understand the movie at all. I do, until the end when Marion wakes up from a coma, then they show the car bashed in and that note. At first I thought Marion was dreaming, but the workers found that letter, so there for it couldn't have been a dream. Then the first time it shows the note(when frank was writing it)and the last time they showed it at the end, it was two completely different handwritings. I noticed that it looked like the mothers handwriting from in the drawing she made of Brad. I understand that I probably looked way too deep into this movie, but I still didn't understand it. I think you guys need to either explain it at the end or make a better plot because that one was just way too hard for me and my friends to understand. Thanks for your time.
A cult classic whichever way you look at it!
posted on 27 Nov 2008Just saw it.On the outset, almost everything about Dead End looked dead crappy. From the dead hammy acting to some thick and heavy dead slasher flick cliches. But if this cinematic maxim of "its so dead bad, its dead good" is to be believed, then Dead End is it.For some Dead good fun time was had. Serious!With many quirky "spanners" thrown into its works, Dead End is thus a must watch, if only to see for yourself why on earth a flick like this, one so steeped in slasher movie cliches, could have circumvented its genre constraints and worked so well, and entertained so many?I have a soft spot for intentional "B" movies, from Pumpkin to Bubble Boy. Which made Dead End one of those hard-to-review films. For the fun part of the viewing experience was much in discovering how it progressed from beginning to end and not in its other nitpickable shortfalls.This much is guaranteed though, the test audiences enjoyed the flick. We laughed at its many left of center one-liners. We were jolted by its sudden scares and some graphic gorey scenes. And the denouement, however contentional, does not dilute the immediate consensus that the "process" was one helluva ride.I hence urge all to go buy a ticket and see it for yourself. Let its idiosyncracies hit you on the head. By all means, throw artistic caution to the wind. Embrace it like you would a B'grade cult movie.And you will have a great time.
"Oh, There's No Place Like HELL For The Holidays..."
posted on 01 Nov 2008That dreaded yearly trip 'over-the-river-and-through-the-woods-to-Grandma's-house'. Is there anything else like it, or anything else you dread more than a double-root canal with no anesthetic? Especially if the long trek involves spending time with family members that you'd rather not even share oxygen with?If this is your situation during the holiday season, you will find a lot to identify with in this unsettling little shocker called DEAD END. But only up to a point. After that, you'll thank your lucky stars if the only thing you have to endure is Uncle Louie's bean burrito farts after a roadside visit to Taco Bell.The Harrington family is on their usual holiday trek to the in-laws for Christmas dinner. Frank and Laura (Ray Wise and Lin Shaye) are with their son, Richard (Mick Cain) and daughter, Marion (Alexandra Holden). And this year, Marion's boyfriend Brad (Billy Asher) is also along for the ride.Only this time around, three things will be different. Frank will : a) decide for the first time in many years of taking this drive to try a short-cut, b) fall asleep at the wheel and c) come THISclose to getting them all killed when they barely miss an on-coming car.Then things REALLY start to get bent. The "short cut" has now taken them down a road that seems to have no ending. Nerves get frayed, tempers flare...oh, yeah, and then they encounter a dazed woman dressed in white (Amber Smith), carrying a baby, whom they decide to pick up and take to the nearest ranger station.Then the woman disappears, and Brad is snatched into the back of a malevolent, hearse-like black car, only to be found moments later, his body horribly mutilated. Stuck on a back road and lost in God-knows-where, do the Harringtons now have a serial killer after them? Or is something even more sinister going on?The eerie pleasure of watching this movie is that you never know until the 'twist' ending. Besides, it becomes less about the extraneous stuff than it does about watching the Harringtons fall apart, as true feelings and buried secrets come careening to the surface, something that would usually require a couple of extra snorts of spiked egg nog to encourage.Besides, it's just an incredible amount of fun to watch seasoned vets like Ray Wise (TWIN PEAKS, SWAMP THING) and Lin Shaye (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MARY) go at it. All the while, as the suffocating night and the road fatigue close in, it heightens the drama and the black humor of the situation as this long-married couple under extreme stress suddenly get to know each other, and I mean REALLY know each other. And not to mention the freaked-out reaction of their kids, who also get what they might consider to be maximum "TMI" about their folks. DEAD END is less about a high-body count or bucketloads of gore, than just plain old mind-freaking you into a state of unshakable creepiness, which it succeeds in doing very well (you will never see an old-fashioned baby carriage again without shuddering a little.) Not to mention that most of what gore there is relies almost completely on your overstimulated imagination, so the few spare bloody scenes that crop up are pretty jolting (and trust me - they're scream-worthy bits that David Lynch would love to steal from...if he hadn't already done them, that is!)The only thing that might spoil the experience for some viewers is the ending. Personally, I didn't think it was clever enough to reach the quality we expect from, say, M. Night Shyamalan; that sense of "sleight-of-hand" that makes you gasp aloud at the final reveal. But it was still a notch above your garden-variety "Twilight Zone" ending when it comes to cleverness. Some reviewers have written that they would've preferred a more ambiguous ending, which I think would've ruined it for most people, and given the impression that the filmmakers didn't really have an ending, so they just didn't bother with one.DEAD END is a nice little dramatic creepfest that you should be lucky enough to come across at your local video store, when all the "good" movies are checked out. Or just surf around for it on cable, which is where I saw it. You won't be sorry.Until Christmas travel week, that is...
It's not hard to figure out
posted on 02 Oct 2008A family gets in a wreck, the daughter survives. From the time of the accident to the time she goes into a coma, she sees a black car (the guy that finds her,) and a doctor's last name on a name tag (Marcott.) It's a well known fact that coma patients can have deep subconscious dreams. So her subconscious takes the few things that she sees before she falls into the coma and weaves a wild tale. Simple as that. The only thing that is left to the viewer to ponder is why her subconscious would come up with such a horrific dream......... There were a few things that were a bit cheesy. If there's one thing I hate about Hollywood, it's that they never have the make-up done to reality. The daughter's make-up doesn't start to smudge until over halfway through the movie. Make-up is intact. The other cheesy part is when the wife massages her own brain and has an orgasm.......cheesy! Other than that, good movie!
One of the worst movies I've seen
posted on 22 Sep 2008This film is awful and fails on every level.
It's riddled with cliches, has terrible dialogue
and hammy over-acting (especially the Mother).
The only reason I sat through it
was the rental price I paid.
I should know that a movie that needs a
good review from Hot dog is going to be lame.
I usually only write reviews to praise films
so thats how bad I found this movie. Don't waste your money on this waste of space
It is horror movies like this that gives horror a good name
posted on 24 Aug 2009Now this horror movie was a refreshment! Unlike most horror movies, where you can from the first ten minutes see who is going to die and who is going to make is, which can be quite annoying, is luckily not a problem in this movie. This movie, isn't like that at all. This movie kills people you thought would live and vice versa. The movie doesn't contain a lot of gore either (which doesn't classify a movie as a horror either way) but instead relies on creating a certain unsettling mood which I found very disturbing and that feeling was only enhanced because I watched it in the middle of the night. And I applaud it. I absolutely loved it. The mood of a horror movie - a good horror movie no less - beats blood spilling in your average stupid horror movie any day.For once, the horror directors don't just give us meaningless killing and death, but when it does give us death, it does it for the storyline and not just for the sake of pleasing the audiences bloodlust, the deaths that takes place in this movie actually helps the storyline to move, which is too rarely seen in a movie. I absolutely love this movie.I give it 9 out of 10. I give it the 9 stars because the movie script, the storyline and the acting was superb, the reason it doesn't get the 10th star is because it is too short. This movie was so good, I didn't want it to end, especially not after only an hour and 19 minutes.This movie is a must watch. Watch it!