Dead in 3 Days (DVD)
Reviewed by Uncle Creepy
Starring Susi Stach, Andreas Kiendl, Michel Rastl, Sabrina Reiter, Julia Rosa Stoeckl
Directed by Andreas Prochaska
Distributed by Dimension Extreme
Sprechen sie Deutsche?
No? That’s all right. Fright, like laughter, is a universal language, and this latest German import courtesy of Dimension Extreme packs an above average dosage of it.
Picture this — you and your friends have just graduated from school. Your whole lives are ahead of you. That’s cause for some major celebration, is it not? That’s exactly what our protagonists do, too, until someone decides to turn their lives upside down. It all starts with a simple text message sent to each of their cell phones that informs our group that they will all be dead within three days. Of course they laugh it off as a silly prank, but then one-by-one they start disappearing. Who could be doing it? A burned lover? A geek they tortured? Or maybe, just maybe, they are now expected to atone for something that they did a long time ago.
Yes, this is a total cookie-cutter outline for a slasher movie. Very I Know What You Did Last Summer. Hell, even the look of the killer reminded me of the dreaded Fisherman. However, these are only surface drawn conclusions. Don’t listen to your instincts. Dead in 3 Days is one hell of a ride that rises above all the usual conventions you would expect. The kills range from meh to absolutely vicious, and the twist involving the killer is truly psychopathic.
The film exhibits a stark realism, and we’re not talking about cliché grittiness of the Platinum Dunes variety either. That’s what makes it work. Sure the situation is a little implausible, but the way the material is handled pushes this one over the top, making it one of the best slashers I’ve seen in a good long while.
The only downside here is the complete and total lack of extras. There’s not even a trailer. As mentioned before, this is a foreign film so at the very least you have a couple of ways that you can watch it: the original German language track with optional English subtitles or an English language dubbed one. Personally I don’t understand how anyone can stand dubbed tracks. That shit only works in Godzilla type flicks. They’re like the audio equivalent of pan-and-scan for me. Ugh! I hate them! Still, I know some of you don’t like to read so have at it if you must.
Dead in 3 Days is a solid and slick little film. Here’s hoping that director Andreas Prochaska keeps his feet planted in the genre for a while. The guy knows what he’s doing, man. Good stuff!
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