Deadgirl Sitges Screenings

Fri 10/4 at 11:00pm (Casino Prado)
Sat 10/5 at 10:40pm (Sala Tramuntana)

Deadgirl is screening in the 'New Visions' section of the festival.

Click here to buy tickets.

JT speaks

"Did you wish that just once you had control, a little right to something, the right to be the boss? DEADGIRL put me in the position to answer those questions I've been asking since I was 13. These are real feelings in a surreal world and it helped me a lot..."

Click here to read an interview with Noah Segan, one of the stars of Deadgirl.

Spoiler Alert

io9, the brilliant site for all things sci-fi, posted an interesting essay today inspired by Deadgirl. If you're avoiding spoilers, do not click, as there's a big one right off the bat. Deadgirl is "symbolic enough to provide social commentary, but grody enough to keep you entertained." Read the whole piece here.

"Award-Winning"

We just got back to town from an amazing few days in Austin for Fantastic Fest, where we nabbed two awards. We won Second Place (Tokyo Gore Police, from Japan, took the top honor) – so as I like to say, we won "Best American Movie." We'll write about the second award soon enough. Frankly, we're exhausted. The festival more than lives up to its name.

Gone Mainstream

Thank you to the local CBS affiliate down here in Austin for picking Deadgirl as one of their four Best Bets at Fantastic Fest. See the entire (short) list here.

Yes it's cool.

From Ain't-It-Cool's FANTASTIC FEST preview, in which (thank you, Massawyrm) DEADGIRL gets pretty high praise:

"The thing’s pretty much fucking brilliant. I have never seen a film that so absolutely captured the sheer horror of peer pressure. Of wanting to be accepted. Of finally finding your own little piece of the world and what you’d do to protect it. A truly great horror film does two things: 1) it creates a memorable and scary monster with which to put our characters (and the audience) in a state of true panic and 2) It shows us how humans can be even worse than the monster presented. Conceptually, this thing is playing with the kind of material that Carpenter, Romero and Craven were all playing around with early in their careers. It is a film with something to say. And a filthy, grimy, semen encrusted way of going about saying it."

Click here to read the whole thing.

Our U.S. Premiere

Deadgirl will be showing in Austin as part of Fantastic Fest. Click here for more info on the two screenings, which will be taking place at the legendary Alamo Drafthouse on Friday and Monday. Rodney Perkins did an amazing job writing our program notes for the festival. His entire write-up can also be found at the above link, but here's most of it:

"Many horror films feature teenage characters but these people are generally nothing more than corpses in waiting and might as well be replaced by showroom mannequins. This is a shame as teenagers face unique psychological and physiological disrputions that are ripe for tales of horror. Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel apparently understand this; their film DEADGIRL mines the recesses of the hormone-wracked adolescent mind to create one of the most original American horror films in recent memory... Given the film's untenable content, which is best revealed by actually watching the film, many film makers might be prone to either pull back from the edge or deliver an incoherent string of set pieces. DEADGIRL, however, attacks its subject matter with an unerring commitment. The precise direction and fluid, dream-like cinematography work in service of an excellent script by Trent Haaga. Instead of marching a set of two-dimensional ciphers through a rote hack and slash plot, Haaga provides fully developed characters that allows the cast of mostly young actors (Michael Bowen has a supporting part) to embrace their roles. The film's attention to characterization and story increases the viewer's emotional investment, thus sharpening the impact of the film's underlying prurience and weirdness. It is useful to note that DEADGIRL is an independently produced feature that was digitally shot with HD cameras and a tapeless workflow system similar to that used by David Fincher on his film Zodiac. This might seem like a peripheral detail but it further reflects the type of novel thinking behind this film. DEADGIRL's marriage of hard content and technical craftsmanship easily raises the bar for independent horror films, and demonstrates a path away from the genericism that plagues the genre as a whole."

Rodney Perkins is our hero.

"One of the year's strongest horror films; ambitious and scary."
- FilmBlather

Here's an astute, unique take on Deadgirl, from Little White Lies, a very cool British magazine that those outside the UK can still luckily enjoy through its website...

“Certainly one of the most disturbing films of the Midnight Madness program this year, Deadgirl takes the idea of woman-as-object and pushes it to the extreme. Two stereotypical slackers – Ricky, the cute and nice one, and JT the one teetering on the edge of sanity – find the naked, dead body of a woman in a sealed room of an abandoned mental hospital. No one knows she is there, and as it turns out, she’s not really dead, but some feral animal that can’t be killed. Women are virtually silent in this film, but that perhaps is the point. Women have no voice when all men want to do is look at them. The dead girl is the perfect woman: she is naked and chained, and no one will rescue her. To JT, women are to be looked at and used for pleasure. But they are that same thing to Ricky; even though he would think of himself as the good guy, he spends most of his days staring at his love interest, Joann. There is even a touch of the homoerotic gaze, when for a brief moment in the library, JoAnn’s stereotypical jock boyfriend stares at Ricky the way Ricky stares at JoAnn. Stereotypes abound in the film as a subtext to the gaze; the male characters each represent a different stage of the evil of men: they all in the end treat women the same, no matter how long it takes them to reach that stage. To emphasize this, directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel let the camera linger in close ups on the faces of their male characters, twisting their own gaze on women into ours on them. And this, in the end, forces the audience to think about their own gaze, and whether they would rescue the girl or run away.”

"Outrageously perverse thrills and mind bending chills... The Hollywood film industry has not really produced this type of scary movie since the 1970’s."

Variety, on the scene

Here we are, as seen by Variety: "Deadgirl directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel were weighing their next festival steps after their Toronto midnight screening. The pic will next play the upcoming Fantastic Fest, where the catalog description will probably be similar to Toronto's: 'Not recommended for first dates... unless they're already dead.'"

Genre in need

"Fucked up. There's no easy way to describe Deadgirl, but that's the first thing I thought when I walked out of the theater… Deadgirl is about two high school kids who find a dead girl in the basement of an abandon insane asylum and realize that she's not actually dead… Watching the story unfold in Deadgirl is part of the thrill, so I'm not going to try and explain any more of it. One of the reasons that it's compelling to watch is that the story is so unique and unexpected, that it was actually quite refreshing, especially considering the horror genre is in need of vastly original ideas like this."
- FIRSTSHOWING.NET

Regrettable Miss

Even though Jeffrey Wells wasn't able to catch any of our screenings, he did include Deadgirl in his short "Regrettable Misses" list, along with Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler, Paul Schrader's Adam Resurrected, and Fernando Meirelles' Blindness. As avid readers of Hollywood-Elsewhere, we've honestly never been so honored to have been missed. Next time!

See his entire Toronto Sum-Up here.

Frightening & Surprisingly Funny

"The premise for Deadgirl is so wrong and disturbing that it’s shocking the horror film ever got made in America. Two high school friends discover the restrained naked body of an uncontrollable monster girl in an abandoned medical hospital and decide to use it for a little illicit fun. As time goes on, the girl appears to be more than she seems. Jealousy, obsession, and a bloodbath ensue. The twisted project is legitimately frightening and surprisingly funny." - METRO CANADA

Metro is the largest and fastest growing international newspaper in the world, and is Canada’s #1 free national daily newspaper.

A very special little movie

"DEADGIRL is a very special little movie based on a couple of burnout friends who discover a naked and seemingly dead girl in a boarded up asylum (you never know what you'll find in those things). Just so happens the girl has got some life in her, and even when killed by accident she keeps coming back. And since she's strapped down to a table and not technically living some seem to think it's okay to give her a go as many times as they like. But of course when a deal is that sweet, word gets out, and the good times must come to an end – an end that features a good amount of blood, high school crushes and figuring out how to protect the things you love. I don't want to give too much away, but there's a healthy mix of absurdity, slacker humor, nudity and some good scares (all very good things right?) It reminded me a fair bit of TEETH in how it took a pretty taboo and extreme subject matter but presenting it in a pretty light way. It's fun, it's fresh and it's well worth checking out."
- AINT IT COOL

Shock and Awe

"Two new faces at Toronto who show more artistic verve and bravery than many of the festival's masters are co-directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel, the filmmakers behind the clever, scary, unsettlingly sexual teenage bondage thriller DEADGIRL. In the pulse-pounding story, high-school friends Rickie and JT skip school and break into an abandoned mental hospital for usual male mischief. Once inside, they discover the body of naked girl tied to a table. Once they decide to keep the woman imprisoned, matters turn bloody very quickly. DEADGIRL is one the smartest teen horrors I've watched in some time, a nervy twist on SAW-inspired victim movies. Companies that do not shy away from controversy and are willing to take risks in order to grasp a youthful audience would be wise to get in business with Sarmiento and Harel. DEADGIRL, from Hollywoodmade, invites gory comparisons to recent thrillers like HOSTEL and TEETH and delivers all the shocks horror fans demand. Any controversy that the film would generate due to the brutal treatment of its core female victim may help build interest from non-horror fans inclined to watch controversial art-house fare. Screened in the early hours of Sunday, the Toronto Festival audience who watched DEADGIRL appeared shocked and awed. For newcomers Sarmiento and Harel, that's the type of festival debut even veterans dream about having."
- INDIEWIRE

Read the entire article here.

Indie Classic

"Probably one of the most challenging films at this year’s Midnight Madness (TIFF) is Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel‘s DEADGIRL, which takes a dark and dreary trip into the underworld of teen adolescence… DEADGIRL, while taking cues from films like SAW and HOSTEL, moreso resembles STAND BY ME and RIVER’S EDGE. The creepy and dark premise, molded around a group of 'innocent' teens, has its main focus on the coming-of-age story than the brutal treatment of the 'deadgirl'... DEADGIRL is not a zombie movie per se, or maybe it is? Either way, the word should be banned from use when converging over the film, as it’s something quite different. DEADGIRL is something that has never been done before and it will leave you shocked. A twisted turn of events make DEADGIRL an immediate indie classic and one of the best teen horror thrillers in years."
- BLOODY-DISGUSTING

A very good thing

"DEADGIRL obviously is going to get tongues wagging. It is explicitly violent, filled with bursts of shocking gore, and equally explicit sexually. Is this what coming of age looks like in our commodofied times, when we think of everything - people included - as objects to be consumed and disposed of at will? This is objectification of women pushed out to ludicrous, though frighteningly plausible, extremes. Like it or not we all know people who would choose JT’s path. We probably wouldn’t even have to think very hard to make a list of them, and that’s where the film’s true horror lies. As shocking as this is, as far fetched as the premise, on an emotional level it is entirely plausible… DEADGIRL has a number of images and sequences guaranteed to sear themselves into your brain, moments of moral degradation you won’t quickly shake off. And, in this context, that is a very good thing." - TWITCH

The next evolution

"DEADGIRL is the next evolution of sex-infused horror genre... But don’t get me wrong, DEADGIRL is steps above the typical torture porn horror film. Directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel have an incredible attention of mood and tone. DEADGIRL floats smoothly between dark comedy and horror, and the result is a coming-of-age film like you’ve never seen before (or will likely ever see again)."
- SLASHFILM

Skirting the Edge

"Pic skirts the edge without going over, and judging from the raucous reception during its Midnight Madness preem at Toronto, twisted auds clearly do exist for such blatantly "wrong" material. The titular corpse more accurately qualifies as a "living deadgirl," with the pic joining the recent trend of zombie movies that never identify themselves as such. Instead, tyro horror helmers Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel focus on the script's more "River's Edge"-like aspects… The directors maximize their location choice for some ominous haunted-house antics. Shooting on a Viper FilmStream camera at Linda Vista Hospital in East Los Angeles, the helmers capture every glint and shadow as they track the teens through creepy underground passages, matching the action with nerve-jangling sound design. Not since "Session 9" has an abandoned asylum been used to such unsettling effect… The two leads show promise, with Fernandez sporting the pinch-faced sneer of a young Joaquin Phoenix. Jenny Spain's a good sport as the deadgirl, flashing her grease-smeared breasts and blackened gums on command (a cult starlet in the making)." - VARIETY

Good Company

Another nice list to be on: Today's Variety lists 17 movies to answer its headline "What are buyers sizing up at the fest?" The batch includes new films by Darren Aronofsky, Richard Linklater, Paul Schrader and Guillermo Arriaga. It also includes DEADGIRL: "Dark fantasy laced with humor by tyro helmers Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel. One of the few available offerings in the Midnight Madness section."

TIFF's Must-See Films

For its 8th annual "Chasing the Buzz" poll, the Toronto Star asked a 24-member panel to name the films they're most interested in seeing. Of the 312 movies at the festival, only 44 were named... and considering the winning pick, Steven Soderbergh's CHE, only received 5 votes, we're thrilled DEADGIRL was included at all. Our single vote came courtesy of Greg Cruse of Tofilmfest.com, who said...

DEADGIRL (Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel): "Shot using digital gear from the next James Bond flick, this is a Midnight Madness choice I think program founder Noah Cowan would be proud of."

The Directors "Speak"

Click here to read a quite lengthy interview newly up at Bloody-Disgusting.

(This photo is of us on location, in the basement boiler room of the aforementioned abandoned hospital)