Dead Girl (2008)
To say that this movie had mixed reviews is an understatement. I had either heard that it was incredibly brilliant or incredibly repugnant, the latter making me incredibly wary about watching this film (as I have mentioned before, I have a very difficult time sitting through torture/exploitation films and the negative reviews implied that
Dead Girl is just that). However, based on the amount of positive reviews that this movie received plus some pretty high endorsements from this board, I knew that I eventually just
had to see it. So, today, I did.
And...
[SPOILERS - I guess, though I'm just going to discuss its major plot point]
It's just not for me. Honestly, I found the movie to be repulsive. I realize that that's the clear intent, but I honestly have a hard time sitting through a film where its major plot point involves teenagers treating a bonded female captive as their personal sex hole (regardless of whether or not that woman was "alive" or "dead").
Sure, one could say that we're yet again exploring humans as the
real monsters, but generally in order to successfully make that statement, the adversary has to be a monster too (i.e. King Kong being victimized by the Human Monsters)... But here you just had a victim. Granted, an undead and incredibly creepy victim, but a victim all the same.
My BIGGEST issue is that there is supposed to be one character whom I believe we are supposed to identify with (and he's the "good" one because for the duration of the movie he doesn't actually nail her), but I couldn't just get the question out of my head: "WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING CALL THE FUCKING POLICE YOU PIECE OF CHICKEN SHIT?!"
Anyway.
I can sort of see where the positive reviews are coming from... Sure, it is a macabre coming-of-age film in its own right... But I honestly cannot get over the teenagers' perversion, which is actually the crux of the whole movie... It just disturbed me too much.
...
Ok. So I didn't really like it. I didn't really see the point of such repugnance... But at the same time I have a hard time giving it a poor review. After all, it DOES have me thinking about it, hours later, as I type this long-winded rant down...
...
But I just don't get it. Why go through such lengths to torture the female body? What's the POINT?!
...
I don't think I can rate this. Either you will think this movie is brilliant or find it repulsive. I think it may be worth a watch, to see what all the buzz is about... But if you can't stand icky exploitation flicks, even arty-farty ones... Then I'd advise that you watch something else.
Sorry for those of you on the forum who recommended this to me - My review is not meant to be an indictment of your recommendation, your review, or your opinion (I say this because I know that I have been unnecessarily aggressive in the past when disagreeing with people)... This movie was just not my bag. Would love to hear what other people saw in it, though (and I mean that truly). It just wasn't for me.