Dead Girls

USA 2014
produced by
Del Lowry (= Del Harvey), Neal Fischer, Joseph Luis Caballero, Shelley Smith (executive), Lakulish Patel (executive), Brandon Riley (executive), Mia Doran (executive) for Rough Cut Films
directed by Neal Fischer (wraparound segment and segment Theta Phi's Never Die), Del Lowry (= Del Harvey) (segments Over My Dead Body and Vengeance is Mine)
starring wraparound segment: Jessica Galang, Noemi Santo, Rebecca Mullins, Joseph Luis Caballero, Lynn Lowry (voice); segment Over My Dead Body: Aubrey Joyce Tunnell, Ashley Volk, Nick Cardiff, Matty Robinson, Craig Sunderlin, Megan Ligeti, Harold Dennis, Jon Kasunic, Allison Shinn, Madeline Cole, Bryan Schmiderer, Terry Bell, Josh Gaetz; segment Theta Phi's Never Die: Mia Doran, Ali Hadley, Madalyn Mattsey, Sam Steveson, Jax Turyna, Andrew Jacob DeHart, Jennifer Lenius, Shari Mocheit, Ashley Waldon, Vuli Ahmedi, Amber Stevens, Terry Bell, Phil Platakis, Katie Binkley; segment Vengeance is Mine: Kelsey Sante, Brian Rooney, Joette Waters, Mahogany Milan, Dagoberto Zolio Soto, Ivan Vega, Elena Grozdanova, Chris Swenson, Marc Peurye, Bill Stoneking, Alexis Stoneking, Kara Brinkman, Onuté Jureviciute
written by Del Lowry (= Del Harvey), Neal Fischer, David Nevarez, Drake Linder, music by DC McAuliffe, special effects by Josh Gaetz, visual effects by Andy Jarosz

review by
Mike Haberfelner

A girl (Jessica Galang) on the run from a psychopath finds temporary refuge in a house in which she finds a book of obvious Satanic origin, and while for her studying this book seems to be the best option, the audience is displayed three earlier, shall we say, applications of the book:

• Over My Dead Body: Suzy (Aubrey Joyce Tunnell) finds out her boyfriend of three months, Travis (Nick Cardiff), is cheating on her with Kacie (Ashley Volk). Before she confronts him with this, she has a pentagram tattooed on her back, but when she confronts him, he gets in a rage, beats and accidently kills her. Then he locks her body into his fridge and leaves the thing on the roadside. But someone with "the book" comes along and brings her back to life ...
• Theta Phi's Never Die: The sisters of the Theta Phi sororoity, all superficial rich sluts and proud of it, are mortified that they have to accept Avery (Mia Doran) into their sorority, the nerdiest kid on campus - just because her mother was a sister as well. So as a prank during her initiation, they have her drink something that kills her. Then they do the cowardly thing and dig her up in the garden, hoping nobody would notice, ever. But one of the sister (Ali Hadley) was actually her best friend, and she has "the book" ...
• Vengeance is Mine: After the death of her parents, Maggie (Kelsey Sante) is brought up in a monastery ... and raped by the priest (Brian Rooney) she trusted. When she complains aout this to the Mother Superior, she's called a whore and thrown out of the monastery. With nowhere to go to, she actually becomes an actual whore - and guess who's one of her customers who beats her half shitless! Well, eventually she finds the book ...

Dead Girl is a very likeable anthology that's old-fashioned in the best of ways: Sure, all the individual segments are tales of people getting their just desserts via supernatural sources and in the meanest possible ways - but like in the best of short stories it's not so much the finish but the way to get there that counts, and the inventiveness with which justice is delivered - and while all endings to all stories are great, you'll probably not be able to watch the last shot of Theta Phi's Never Die without laughing out loud.

The direction of all three segments and the wraparound relies strongly on atmosphere to really aid the story rather than delivering cheap shocks (though not all material here is shock-free), and the ensemble cast really does great work here.

Totally worth a look or two (or three)!!!

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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