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

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