Dead Shadows (2012)

Author: Brett Gallman
Submitted by: Brett Gallman   Date : 2014-04-25 03:44
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Written by: Vincent Julé
Directed by: David Cholewa
Starring: Fabian Wolfrom, Blandine Marmigère, and Johanna Seror


Reviewed by: Brett Gallman




“I hope you aren't afraid of the dark."


When I first read the synopsis for Dead Shadows (killer comet serves as the harbinger for a mutant apocalypse), I readied my snark bullets: I couldn’t believe someone had done a grim and gritty retread of Night of the Comet. Having seen it, however, I’m going to holster that ammunition because I’m damn impressed by what David Cholewa crafted out that premise for his directorial debut. Hailing from France, Dead Shadows is a genre-mashing tribute to the likes of John Carpenter and H.P. Lovecraft that recalls the days of scrappy, low-budget gross-out movies and updates them with a 21st century gloss.

Its ambition is clear from the start, as a deliberate, spooky title sequence basks in the glow of the cosmos, which takes on a haunting, threatening quality. Once Cholewa comes to Earth, he focuses on Chris (Fabian Wolfrom), a lowly, lonesome French twentysomething who suffers from a severe phobia of the dark. When a comet is due to pass over the Earth, he really couldn’t give less of shit considering his family’s history with rare comets, so he spends most of the day moping about while everyone else comes down with apocalypse fever. Little does everyone know, their playful prophecy holds a hint of truth when the comet’s path coincides with a sudden outbreak of undead monsters.

Dead Shadows especially wears its affection for Carpenter on its sleeve: Alan Howarth serves as sound designer (and I wouldn’t be surprised if he influenced the synth-laden score), some of the creatures look mighty reminiscent of The Thing, and Chris’s room is prominently adorned by an Escape from New York poster. Showing such affection is pretty damn easy, but backing it up with a film that’s worthy of the name-dropping is another thing altogether, especially since entire generations have grown up with Carpenter’s work and can sniff out posers. I’d like to think I’m qualified to make such a judgment, and it looks like Cholewa is the real deal: Dead Shadows isn’t without its rough patches (it sometimes stretches its budget too far, and its themes are a bit muddled), but it captures the general spirit of the work it admires.

Cholewa has particularly replicated Carpenter’s ability to build a film on sheer atmosphere. From the opening frame, Dead Shadows is a brooding, moody little picture that thrives on an overbearing sense of doom, almost as if the apocalypse is actually a foregone conclusion. Attempting to carve a slice of life out of this is similarly commendable but a bit more problematic in execution: Chris is okay as a sort of sadsack protagonist, but his journey here is a bit listless and scattered: essentially unfolding over the course of one fateful day, the film tracks his microcosmic interactions with random strangers, including no less than three women. One is his neighbor, Claire (Blandine Marmigère), an artist who invites him to an “apocalypse party,” where he first witnesses signs that stuff is rather amiss (read: he peeps in on a bizarre sexual encounter that leaves a girl impaled in unconventional fashion).

If there’s a primary knock against Dead Shadows, it’s that it really careens right into the monster stuff and loses the more personable character threads. While Chris’s arc is faintly discernable throughout, as Cholewa and screenwriter Vincent Jule especially underline his sexual anxieties and his insecurities (a notion that’s reinforced by the film’s bizarre ending), it’s buried under a thicket of gore during the film’s unrelenting climax that comprises about half of the run-time. Cholewa keeps the action moving well here once Chris is forced to essentially backpedal through his day and re-encounter characters from earlier in the film. One especially bizarre aside involves a woman in a cemetery who morphs from semi-spectral weirdo to a full-on, Thing-like creature throughout the course of the film, a strange little psychological interlude that breaks up the gore-soaked carnage.

Brief moments like that hint at a more fascinating, fully fleshed-out film. Apparently, Cholewa's small budget necessitated cuts and compromises, which perhaps explains the frenzied, disorienting race to the film’s finish line. To its credit, the dash is sufficiently littered with viscera, realized with practical effects of the highest order. A few digital blemishes appear here and there (most notably in the film’s final shot, which was certainly more than the budget could bear), but Dead Shadows is otherwise an effects guru’s delight, featuring an array of creatures (most of which are tentacled, Lovecraftian things) and bodily mutilations and mutations befitting a Cronenberg or Yunza film.

Muddled plot considerations aside, the climax is feverish descent into an undead hell. Much of it is practically dialogue free, as Chris dashes from one gory set-piece to the next. It’s exhausting, which I suppose apocalyptic hellscapes are wont to be. Cholewa helms this frenzy with a steady hand, just as he does the rest of the film, which is sturdily produced and slickly shot, especially given its low-budget roots. I’m especially impressed by how well Cholewa and company integrate the surreal elements in such a seamless fashion and refuse to allow Dead Shadows to become an overwrought, cartoonish eyesore that’s only concerned about piling up blood and guts. There’s a delightfulness to be found in its Grand Guignol displays to be sure, but Dead Shadows aspires to be a bit more of a character study. Even though I’m not convinced that it actually sticks the landing in regard (Chris’s fear of the dark eventually feels like an afterthought), the effort is sincere, and the film works otherwise as an exercise in style.

After touring the festival circuit for the past couple of years, Dead Shadows arrives on Blu-ray from Shout Factory. The disc’s presentation is sleek and crisp, with Shout’s transfer preserving the film’s unconventional aspect ratio, while viewers are offered multiple DTS-MA tracks in the original French language. A 30-minute interview with Cholewa headlines the extras, which are supplemented with some deleted scenes, a peek behind the scenes, and a couple of trailers. Hats off to Shout for uncovering this effort—not only does it echo Carpenter and Night of the Comet, but its soundtrack also features Sponge (apparently, French youth are stuck in the 90s just like me), so it can’t be all that bad. Did I also mention it has the most devious use of a mutated penis this side of Soul Vengeance? Buy it!



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