"Deadgirl — From newcomer directors Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel and screenwriter Trent Haaga comes the most original and disturbing take on alienated youth and teenage peer pressure the horror genre has ever produced... The film’s brooding, stylized physical and psychological atmospherics are reminiscent of David Cronenberg’s most nightmarish work, yet it yields some hauntingly poignant moments." — The Oklahoman [OK's "most trusted news"]
Bonus recommendation from The Scope, St. John's arts and entertainment paper. Click here for a long, spoiler-heavy review that features some fairly astute observations.
UPDATE: The Philadelphia Inquirer suggests Deadgirl as well for this weekend.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Get the 411
"You might love Deadgirl; you might hate Deadgirl. But I don't think you'll feel ambivalent about Deadgirl... In the end, I wasn't quite sure how I felt about what happened in the movie, but the very fact that I couldn't stop trying to decide tells me all I need to know about its strength as a film." — 411mania
Also this week...
We were surprised to see a great review in West Virginia University's paper, The Daily Athenaeum: "While there have been countless movies that have analyzed the troubles of adolescence and sexual development, it’s doubtful any had the same twisted spin... I spent most of the 100-minute run time in a state of severe anxiety – though for a film like this, that’s definitely a good thing."
And BlogCritics kicked off its long, very favorable review with a thought that's been increasingly common: "Deadgirl, a film that is so much better than I was expecting..." We love it when that happens.
Btw, now that the movie is out, we'll be posting behind-the-scenes photos semi-regularly. Up top's the first one: Nicest-guy-in-the-world Andrew DiPalma (Johnny) takes a moment to prepare for his big scene. If you've seen the flick, you know what we're talking about...
Also this week...
We were surprised to see a great review in West Virginia University's paper, The Daily Athenaeum: "While there have been countless movies that have analyzed the troubles of adolescence and sexual development, it’s doubtful any had the same twisted spin... I spent most of the 100-minute run time in a state of severe anxiety – though for a film like this, that’s definitely a good thing."
And BlogCritics kicked off its long, very favorable review with a thought that's been increasingly common: "Deadgirl, a film that is so much better than I was expecting..." We love it when that happens.
Btw, now that the movie is out, we'll be posting behind-the-scenes photos semi-regularly. Up top's the first one: Nicest-guy-in-the-world Andrew DiPalma (Johnny) takes a moment to prepare for his big scene. If you've seen the flick, you know what we're talking about...
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Attention Tech Geeks:
"Deadgirl premiered at Toronto International Film Festival as the first independent production to use a completely tapeless digital production method. Pomfort SilverStack helped the filmmakers to realize a flexible, professional workflow with the best image quality..."
Click here to read the entire case study, courtesy of Pomfort SilverStack.
Click here to read the entire case study, courtesy of Pomfort SilverStack.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Scream King & Queen
Spike TV's Scream Awards will air next week, but here's a sneak peek at the red carpet...
While Dave Navarro does point out his date, the lovely Jenny Spain, you'll have to look pretty carefully for a glimpse. But it's worth it, as always.
While Dave Navarro does point out his date, the lovely Jenny Spain, you'll have to look pretty carefully for a glimpse. But it's worth it, as always.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Consider yourself warned
"Consider yourself warned. This is strong stuff, especially if you start thinking about it afterwards. Deadgirl takes the concept of coming-of-age and attaches it to a narrative that can only be described as stomach churning... There is undoubtedly a strong statement being made about class here and the struggle we all feel as teenagers to look beyond the momentary heartbreaks that seem to utterly define our nascent sexuality. Plenty of fodder for thoughtful discussion but not for the weak of heart." — Twitch
Thursday, October 15, 2009
30 Days
The plan was to do a comprehensive summary of the last month, since that's how long Deadgirl has been out on DVD. But time does not permit a comprehensive summary.
So instead, here's a half-assed one:
We're at 40,000 ratings on Netflix, which really blew away our expectations. As previously noted, since not everyone rates the movies they've watched, it's hard to know exactly how many more people have Netflixed the movie.
And it's been neat seeing the empty Deadgirl spaces in Blockbuster (at least our local one, where it's rarely been back on the shelf).
For some reason, Best Buy has it in the Sci-Fi section, so that's probably something to be aware of, just in case.
Dave Navarro was a big fan of the movie and invited Jenny Spain on his radio show, where he described the movie as "terrifying" and "compelling" and added "Not only have I seen fucked-up stuff, but I've seen really fucked-up stuff ... and this disturbed me more." Then he took Jenny out to dinner.
Universal Studios and the Chiller/Eyegore Awards gave Deadgirl a prize for "2009 Best Villain of the Year" ... that would be JT (Noah Segan).
The media response has been enormous. Lots of great reviews, from larger newspapers (Boston Globe, Washington Post), to more local ones (Tampa Tribune, Kansas City Star) to all types of blogs and websites (DVD Talk, Cinematical) and everything in between. Most of them quoted below, so won't bother re-quoting here.
The Boston Globe even placed the movie high on its list of 20 Best Zombie Movies of All Time (#6).
Because it's October, many people are doing some sort of 31-day horror movie countdown till Halloween, and many of these lists include Deadgirl. Thanks to everyone who has made it part of the festivities.
Deadgirl continues to split reactions almost right down the middle, as it's done from day one. On IMDB we're at 60% positive. Same with Amazon. On Netflix it's 56%. On Rotten Tomatoes, the T-Meter Critics are at 31%, but the Rotten Tomato Community is at 66%.
And easily the coolest part of the last few weeks is reading real-time reactions on Twitter. Good, bad, confused, angry, surprised, curious, and genuinely thrilled, tweets have covered it all and have come from everywhere.
Needless to say, it's been a really exciting first month for us.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Win your own dead girl
Our Canadian distributor, E1 Entertainment, is holding a FrightFest Contest, so click here while there's still a chance to win a copy of Deadgirl (each of the five winners also picks up a free dvd of Dead Snow, too!).
[note: Only open to Canadian residents. Here are all the rules.]
[note: Only open to Canadian residents. Here are all the rules.]
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Innocence Lost
"An unbelievably taunt, surprisingly poignant and harrowingly bleak picture of innocence lost... Deadgirl gets under your skin. It bothers you. It challenges you. It does things that more experienced filmmakers with more experienced actors aren’t always able to do in much-bigger-budget movies." - The Tampa Tribune (online)
Monday, October 5, 2009
In honor of Zombieland, The Boston Globe made its list of the "Top 20 Zombie Movies of All Time." In the top spots were the expected ones: Dawn of the Dead, Braindead, Night of the Living Dead, Return of the Living Dead and Shaun of the Dead... but coming in at No. 7 (and ahead of a bunch of other classics) is Deadgirl! "By far the most disturbing zombie film on the list, Deadgirl is a completely different and original take..."
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Perfect Intro
We have a winner
Universal Studios kicks off the Halloween season tomorrow night with the Chiller Awards, honoring just five people. Among the winners are Rob Zombie ("Filmmaker of the Year"), SAW's Tobin Bell ("Best Villain in a Film Series"), legendary make-up effects artist Rick Baker ("Lifetime Achievement Award") and – wtf? – Deadgirl's Noah Segan for "Best Villain"! We have no idea how that happened. We're just glad it did. The kid deserves it.
Click here for the press release, via CNBC.
Click here for the press release, via CNBC.
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