Clive Barker’s Dread

The name Clive Barker is pretty much one of the most notorious names in horror. The author always is very quick to point out that when horror comes calling it won’t have a happy ending. Few of Barker’s novels allow the hero to survive.  While the authors writing is as popular as ever, movie production has been a little erratic. Hellraiser was incredibly popular but followed by the awful Nightbreed and half a dozen Hellraiser sequels (Not written by Barker by still attributed to him). Candyman again bought the author great visual acclaim, but again was followed by lesser quality movies and yet more Hellraiser. So as you can imagine as I and roughly a thousand other cinemagoers settled down for the Premier of Clive Barkers Dread (based on a short story) at this years Frightfest we waited with baited breath to see what this new movie had to offer.

Dread so it seemed was incredibly well received, its story of three University students carrying out a Kinsey style survey on things that people fear or dread was an interesting topic for a movie. What made the movie so compelling was the fact that each of the three of the students while looking for dread outside their circle actually have the worst possible stories contained within.

The story itself is a varied one, with a running time of 90 minutes the film goes from being totally compelling to moments when you wish things would just get a move on. It seems the movies director is just trying to add dimension to the three main leads; while leaving some of the smaller and potentially more interesting roles in a very one-dimensional frame. One of the movies greatest assets the character of Abby (Laura Donnelly) who plays a character scarred by a birthmark is at times almost forgotten. While the character Joshua (Jonathan Readwin) is given little time to shine till the end.

Of the leading cast too much time is focused in my opinion on Quaid (played by Shaun Evans most recently seen in Martina Cole’s The Take) he has by far the most interesting back-story of all our protagonists, but it leaves Stephen Grace (Jackson Rathbone from the Twilight movies) looking a little hollow as what is essentially the movies lead. The character of Cheryl (Hanne Steen) however is given the right amount of time on screen. As the three collect videotapes of people’s fears it’s the character of Quaid that pushes and pushes for more.

Dread moves at times from being utterly charming to almost grotesque in a Japanese horror style (I mean that as a compliment). One moment your watching love bloom and a rather unfortunate love quadrangle occur, the next your looking in detail at the total horror of eating meat that is slowly rotting over a period of days and weeks.

The biggest fault of the movie is time, and you really do not get to understand the timeframe in which the movie is meant to be set. Is it days, is it weeks? Conversations’ and situations are picked up and dropped at an alarming rate. When the character of Cheryl effectively “disappears” you are almost led to believe she has been missing for days, but later your then left with the impression that she could actually have been missing for weeks.  Its very short sighted of the movies producers to leave time quite so hazy, and its characters quite so blasé about incidents that occur in the void of time.

It might seem that I’m very negative about Dread, and I’m really not; of all the movies I saw during my visit to Frightfest this was one of the highlights. It was a really enjoyable and uncomfortable ninety minutes, but well worth the investment of my time to see it. In the long list of Clive Barker stories turned into movies its right up there at the very top. Its compelling and enchanting, and at times just horrific, especially when the collective fears of the studies participants come to haunt them.

Director Anthony DiBlasi gives the movie a very gritty rough looking sheen that is obvious from the opening scenes. It’s filmed with a very grey miserable looking palette that only helps to add levels of intensity to the feature. The director sometime producer seems to have devoted his more recent life bringing Clive Barker movies to the public, and as a result hopefully we get a better vision of what Clive Barker wants the viewers to see.

Despite some filming in America, Dread was rather revealingly shot more or less entirely in the UK and its cast with the odd exception entirely British. While I had some questions as soon as I realized Shaun Evans was in the movie, I never expected such heavy British involvement. With the exception of Rathbone who already has an American accent the rest of the cast had to don the American accent, and they do a remarkable job.