The Dead Ones

High School, those were the best days of my school years for sure. We had a lot of crazy personalites in my class. We had Håkan, member of a death metal band who loved porn movies, and used to talk about porn scenes in the cafeteria ( i have never heard anyone more fascinated in seeing Italian porn star Rocco, Håkan was definetely his biggest fan ). Then we had Timo, originally from Finland. A really crazy guy, who threw out a TV from a balchony at a party, to see how long it would fly, he sold home made moonshine in his locker, and he offered his girlfriend to a virgin guy so he would experience sex, something she did not accept. There are many more stories and personalities i could mention, but those years were really good in my youth, and i am happy that high school turned out so well for me. Of course there were problems that we all had, but we managed to deal with it, because we had fun together. High school was the time when you tried to figure out what you wanted to do with your future. To be honest, i don´t think everyone knew honestly. When it comes to films that brings up high school, you have a lot of different titles and genres to choose between. There are some funny comedies out there, but there are also some great horror films that brings up high school. One of the films i am especially thinking about, is the 1998 horror film The Faculty, directed by Robert Rodriquez. A high school horror film that combines ideas from classics such as Invasion Of The Body Snatchers and combine this with a traditional high school environment. Great cast with actors such as Robert Patrick, Salma Hayek, Famke Janssen and many others. This film have descent special effects ( for being 1998 ), as this film is a fun sci fi horror film, especially for those who love high school horror films. I recently checked around on VOD releases and came across a horror film called The Dead Ones. Never heard of this film before, but im always curious to give unknown films a chance, because you never know if they might surprise you. Is this one of the better high school horror films in recent years, or is The Dead Ones just as forgettable as Victoria Beckham´s solo album?

4 students are serving detention, as they are supposed to clean up their high school as a punishment for what they did. But as they begin, they are about to meet a masked gang known as The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse, enter their school.

The Dead Ones is a strange high school film, because this is not the ordinary kind of horror film that takes place at high school. And that´s a positive thing, that they tried a different approach with this film. But there are three major problems with this film, that is actually annoying. Let us begin with the first detail, and that is the editing. This film is edited so much and so fast, that you eventually begin to wonder why they decided to edit this film as much as they did. Did they have problems making this film work, or did they just feel like this would be the best result? I feel that this does not help the story in any way, it just feels annoying. The second detail is some of the CGI effects, that is supposed to be scary. I can accept bad CGI, if the film feels entertaining or have something interesting to deliver to the audience. But the horror effects in this film is not good, and you begin to laugh instead at some of the horror scenes. The third and final detail is that this film jumps too much forward and backwards in time, that you try and keep up with the plot, as good as you can. I have no problem if you change the time period in a film, as long as you do it in a way that makes sense. But in The Dead Ones, they decide to mix it all up as if that would help the plot. The one thing that this film could have helped this film become more interesting, is to tell the story of character Emily Davis ( played by actress Katie Foster ), who cuts herself and clearly have mental problems. If the film would have focused more on her, instead of jumping so much around, this could have helped the plot. The Dead Ones is one big mess from start to finish, with too many ideas mixed together. Director Jeremy Kasten have directed several films in the past, and this is the first time i have seen one of his films. Jeremy could have made a descent horror film, if he only would have focused on telling the story of Emily instead. What we get is a film that does not really know what it wants to say ( that´s what happens when you jump around too much ), wich makes it very forgettable. If you want to see a good high school horror film, go for The Faculty, and i guarantee you won´t regret it.

Rating: D