The Dead Center
Director: Billy Senese
Screenplay: Billy Senese
Minutes: 93
Year: 2018
Score: 7.40
Release: Theatrical
The Dead Center is an emotionally jarring film about a fantastic metaphysical malady manifests in a suburban man which is triggered by an unfortunate incident causing a tragic series of events.
A hospital psychiatrist’s own sanity is pushed to the edge when a frightened amnesiac patient insists that he has died and brought something terrible back from the other side.
The Dead Center opens with an interesting gods eye view of an ambulance zigging and zagging along city streets; the viewer is suddenly transported into a chase vehicle as the ambulance arrives at a local hospital. I body is wheeled into the hospital, down to the morgue. A toe is tagged, a bag is zipped, and a corpse is deposited in the chiller. Lights are turned off. The body jerks up and fights like a suffocating human to peel itself free. A nude man meanders through hospital halls and climbs into an open bed to the surprise of a nurse in the morning.
They may have been dialogue during those scenes, but I certainly cannot remember. I was transfixed on the action and hypnotized by the soundscapes. While, director, Billy Senese claims the film is crafted on a relatively low budget you would never notice by watching it. Senese employs some creative tools to keep the audience from getting too comfortable by fiddling with volume levels and inserting snap-quick cuts.
Shane Caruth, Primer and Upstream Color, stars as Daniel Forester, a psychologist with a tragic past who believes that he can treat the John Doe patient, former corpse, who is presenting with a dissociative identity disorder. Little does Forester know that Doe’s symptoms are not indicative a of a standard diagnosis.
I was very impressed by the film and grateful that Arrow Films is taking a chance on it. A physical release is due to be announced later this year but if you have a chance to see this with a group I would certainly recommend it, though, perhaps alone in the dark with a solid surround sound system may also be interesting. Either way if you heart doesn’t skip a few beats during the film they might be something amiss.
Director: 8 – Cinematography: 5 – Edit: 6 – Parity: 3 – Main performance: 9 – Else performance: 5 – Score: 9 – Sound: 10 – Story: 8 – Script: 8 – Effects: 9 – Design: 6 – Costumes: 5 – Keeps interest: 10 – Lasting: 10