Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa’s hugely enjoyable debut plays, for the most part, as a twisted latter-day Twilight Zone, a creepy take on the “road to nowhere” horror that underlies its horrors with a bleak sense of humour. Only an unnecessary “need to explain it all” ending lets the side down.
Andrea and Canepa make no bones about their love for David Lynch and Dead End is packed to the sprocket holes with visual references to many Lynchian classics, notably Lost Highway (1997) and Twin Peaks (1990-1991). It features a cast of suitably odd characters, mostly brilliantly played by a small cast, who are given smart, witty dialogue and plenty of surreal situations that constantly to play with. The cast rise to the occasion admirably – with the exception of Mick Cain whose adolescent Richard is just too annoyingly written to elicit a decent performance – making even the most bizarre behaviour of the beleaguered family seem strangely appropriate under the circumstances.
Andrea and Canepa get some great mileage from the eeriness of the woods, steeping the whole film in a genuine creepiness that starts the split second we get an almost subliminal flash of the “lady in white” lurking by the roadside and continues through to the flawed finale. Beautifully shot overhead shots reveal the intimidating size of the woods and emphasises the terrible vulnerability and loneliness of the family in their car.
There are enough shocks to please all but the most jaded of genre fans and even a smattering of gore, but it’s the careful and deliberate ramping up of this sense of creeping unease that makes the film so memorably chilly. When the gore is trotted out, it’s done in an almost playful manner, particularly in the very funny moment when a mobile phone needs to be retrieved from a mangled (though off-screen) body.
They’re well served by Alexander Buono’s excellent, moody photography and particularly by a wonderful score by Greg De Belles. The haunting, chilling choral passages add immeasurably to the overall sinister atmosphere of the piece and it’s a shame that Andrea and Canepa occasionally lose their nerve and resort to stereotypical heavy metal overkill to spice up some scenes.
Commendably, the script – also written by Andrea and Canepa – opts to stay with the family at all time, making Dead End more of an off-the-wall family drama than a straight ahead horror movie. Much of the uneasiness the film generates stems directly from the strained dynamics within the family group who are ultimately revealed to be more treacherous, dangerous and terrifying than anything that might be waiting for them in the woods.
Sadly, Andrea and Canepa fall prey to that most pernicious of current trends, the need to explain everything in some sort of logical fashion. The “curse of rationalism” almost fells the movie in the closing stages as they try to bring the weirdness to a close by tying up all loose ends, something the film clearly didn’t need – Western filmmakers have still to learn from the then current crop of Asian directors that not explaining everything always makes what’s happening on screen seem all the more terrifying. That said, the revelations in the last five minutes do allow more sceptical viewers a way out, a reason for some of the family’s strange behavior and an explanation for some of the surreal happenings that have puzzled them for the previous 80 minutes. Most of us though would probably have settled for an ending that allowed us to come to our conclusions.
The weak end aside, Dead End bodes well for the future of Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa who could well prove themselves to be genuine talents to watch for in the coming years. They clearly have a great rapport with their cast and stage some effectively scary moments – all they need to do is to trust their audiences to make up their own minds about what they’re watching, though sadly they’re hardly alone in this failing.
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