Sunday, February 13, 2011

Dread (2009)

Oh, 8 Movies to Die For....how you tempt me.  You're good, you're bad, you're in between.  Luckily for me, Dread was right on the money.  Based on a short story by Clive Barker (which is not available on Kindle, dammit), Dread is about a group of college students who decide to do their thesis project on people's deepest fears.

The dominant member of the group, Quaid, obviously has deeply seeded problems.  After watching his parents be murdered as a young child, he is obsessed with fear.  The group interviews numerous people to discover their most secret fears, but Quaid is not really impressed with any of them, aside from a young, hearing impaired man.  After an accident as a child, the man lost his hearing for a few years, and then miraculously regained it.  He now constantly fears losing his hearing again. 

Quaid also becomes obsessed with the fears of his fellow project participants.  As it turns out, they've both survived tragic instances in their lives.  Stephen's brother died in a car accident that he was almost a part of.  Cheryl's father repeatedly molested her, and Abby is terribly afraid of being embarrassed by her large birthmarks.

Instead of being a supportive individual like a NORMAL PERSON, Quaid takes it a couple steps further.  He decides to make each of these individuals confront their worst fears, which he thinks will cure them.  The "confronting" with the deaf guy and Stephen were meh at best, but Cheryl and Abby....oh my freakin' god.  I was literally squirming around in my seat. 

This flick is a little slow in the beginning, but the last half hour is awesome.  The end is so crazy and perfect....I loved it.  I might have to step away from my Kindle for a bit in order to get this story in paperback.

photo source

1 comments:

Will Errickson said...

I still haven't seen this movie adaptation, but "Dread" is one of Barker's best short stories. It's in his Books of Blood, Vol. 2.