2009 Top Tens (part 6)

It's New Years Eve, but there still may just be a Part 7 to this series. We'll see. But for now...

E-SPLATTER / Top Ten Horror of 2009
The granddaddy of online horror sites keeps it brief: "Deadgirl. A really disturbing, edgy horror film -- the kind they should make more of."

WFMU / Top Ten Horror of 2009
"Since political correctness has fallen hard from fashion, I guess it's okay to praise a movie like Deadgirl." We consider WFMU one of the best radio stations in the country, so this was a particularly nice find.

MOVIES ONLINE / Top Ten Horror of 2009
"One of those genre defining films... Deadgirl is not for the faint of heart but its fantastic story is what makes this movie worth seeing if you can overcome the stomach turning scenes in it."

LARRY RATFLIFF / MOVIES & MORE / Ten Best of 2009
This is one of those lists where we find Deadgirl among Avatar, Up in the Air, Inglorious Basterds, and other movies more often recognized as the year's best. As the site explains: "Some critics drool when they can include something obscure on their Top 10 list. That's not the case here. I just think this sometimes comic tale of bad boys who meet their macabre match is the finest of the genre I've seen in some time."

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2009 Top Tens (part 5)

With just a few days left in the year, here are links to some recent additions ...

HORROR YEARBOOK / Top Ten Horror of 2009
"Deadgirl really gives us something completely different... The film is really about what horrible things one can be tempted to do and how lack of acceptance and belittlement can make you turn to find power and control in dark, twisted places."

HORROR-MOVIES / Top Ten Horror of 2009
"Truly one of the most disturbing movies I have seen in a long time and equally a truly well written and fascinating experience."

ALL THINGS HORROR / Top Eleven Horror of 2009
"Some say it's vile, unwatchable garbage, others laud it with praise for its unwavering horror... a film that horrified me, made me think, and made me want to watch again immediately with a scrutinizing eye."

WILDSIDE CINEMA / The Best of 2009

DEAD LANTERN / The Best Horror of 2009
"A well made, original flick in a sea of unoriginal zombie films... the performances are outstanding but it was this weird morally ambiguous narrative going on throughout the film that really succeeded in creating a reaction in viewers, be it positive or negative."

THE SCREAMSTRESS / The Best of the Decade

UPDATE: And already a few more have trickled in. So there'll probably be one more post before New Years. Huge thanks to everyone who continues to champion the movie.

2009 Top Tens (part 4)

Bloody-Disgusting, the web's no. 1 source for horror, has delivered a couple of year-end wrap-ups worth checking out.

Ryan Daley's list is here.
And Tex Massacre's is here.

Deadgirl was also a "runner up" on multi-hyphenate Luke Y. Thompson's site, which is here, and mostly worth pointing out because of the other honorable mentions. Sometimes it really is about the company you keep.

2009 Top Tens (part 3)

STYD's Ryan Rotten put together his list, which you can find here. It was a surprise to see Deadgirl listed since we thought for some reason he didn't dig the movie all that much. Nice to be wrong.

2009 Top Tens (part 2)

"Controversial, uncompromising and strikingly original" ... Deadgirl makes it onto About.com's end of the year horror list.

And thanks to Awkward Press for putting Deadgirl at the top of its list. While it's actually the 'Best Horror Movies You Probably Didn't See', it includes some that got pretty descent releases, including Paranormal Activity which grossed over $100 million. So not sure how much that distinction really holds true. But it's great being included. Either way.

"The level of ambition on the filmmakers’ part, along with some brave performances from its cast, permits this movie to transcend its own morally reprehensible story-line to probe something much darker, much more disturbing, and much more real… which is what the best metaphor-laden horror movies do: Allow the audience to explore the horror within themselves." - Awkward Press

2009 Top Tens (Part 1)

"First-timers proved that a great idea and a little ingenuity could transcend low-budget limitations and leave jaded fans shivering in their socks."

Okay, the writer may have been thinking Paranormal Activity when she wrote those words in her intro, but nonetheless, we're happy to see Deadgirl included in AMC's "Top Ten Horror of the Year" list. Here's the link.

We also got some notice in the Women Film Critics Circle's 2008 Awards, popping up in their "Top Ten Hall of Shame" ... placing us proudly amongst some sure-to-be Oscar-winners like Up in the Air, and Precious.

xoloitzcuintle

At every q & a about the movie, someone would invariably ask about the dog. As in, what the hell was that thing? The answer is pronounced "sho-lo-skwink-le", spelled "Xoloitzcuintle", and abbreviated as a "Xolo" ... and you can read all about it here.

Halloween Recommendations

"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.

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...

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.

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.

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

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.

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.]

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)

Congrats to Deadgirl's Nolan Gerard Funk... front page of the New York Times' Arts & Leisure section! Ok, it's not exactly The Tampa Tribune, but still.

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..."

The Perfect Intro

Here's the Deadgirl UK DVD main menu, designed by London-based graphic designer David Byrne. As the menu plays out, you'll see he did a phenomenal job capturing the essence of beauty and decay. Thanks David for putting some real thought into this. It's a great lead-in to our movie.

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.

Your Daily Dose of Deadgirl

"Deadgirl definitely has its disturbing moments. But I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it’s just as much a story about friendship, young love and loneliness... The two directors have done an excellent job of working with their actors to portray teenagers so numb and beyond moral reproach; I was reminded of a Larry Clark film, with a touch of George Romero thrown in to make it unique... Dark Sky Films have the making of a real cult classic on their hands. Obviously the subject matter is going to scare off a lot of people, but for those of you who like intelligent horror movies that have some substance, but still make you squirm, check out Deadgirl." — PopDose