Sadly Over-hyped

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

"Dead Still" actually turned out better than I had anticipated, given the less than impressive reviews and overall rating that the movie had received here on IMDb. But still, it is a horror movie, and that alone had me interested. But given the negative vibe to the reviews and such, then I must admit that my hopes for the movie weren't great.However, I was more than genuinely surprised that the movie was better than I had hoped (or feared) that it would turn out to be. Sure, it wasn't a horror masterpiece, but it still an entertaining enough movie, and it did have some originality to it, which was what kept the movie afloat.The story was somewhat different from what I had expected and it was that aspect of the movie that particularly turned out to be a fresh addition to the horror genre. The storyline is about a wedding photographer who inherits an antique camera, that has been used previously to take obscure death-scene photographs. And strange deaths starts occurring around the talented photographer, which are tied to the old camera.I will say that I was actually genuinely entertained by the movie, despite it not being a groundbreaking monument in the horror genre. But it still turned out to be entertaining and it did have a sense of originality to it.The acting in the movie was adequate for most parts, but I must say that it was especially Ray Wise who carried the biggest part of the movie with his performance and his usual wicked charisma on the screen.The effects in the movie were actually quite good, especially the creature make-up and designs. I liked those quite a lot. Just a shame that they weren't more actively used in the entire movie."Dead Still" is actually a good choice for a movie if you are in for an evening of horror movies. I was more than genuinely entertained and pleasantly surprised with it. Who knows, you might just be as well...

Sometimes one wants to see an amazing movie and sometimes one sets off on their journey to find something a little cheesy, a gory and a little engaging, this was the journey I was on when I sought out this movie. And it satisfied the craving.It was everything I expect: Acting was ridiculous at times, but awesome at others. Effects were amazingly over-the-top. It has that made-for-TV feel, but yet it exceeds the vast majority of made-for-TV quality out there. Plus it was based on actual practices of days of yore. (Although NOT banking on historical accuracy which is a shame.)In fact, if I did have a moment of let down it would probably be that they chose not to exploit the actual, TRUE history of 'Death Cameras' and their original practices in the past. But then again maybe that would have made me expect a more 'serious' tone in the film as a result and alter my opinion on this film entirely, so on second thought, maybe the embellishment was a creative take that was needed for this film to succeed.All in all, not an awful watch if you're going in it for cheesy, visually gory fun! Felt a few of the reviews were a bit harsh given it's a low budget venture, but I digress.

Suspenseful,scary,gore,fascinating are only a few words to describe this film! I had so much fun watching this movie! The characters are great! Costumes are wonderful and makeup and special effects are hauntingly delightful! The little girl who plays Lela is precious! I feel in love with her character! Most of all the story is intriguing and keeps you're attention! I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was next! Its on my DVR and I will be watching it again!! Thank you Booth Brothers for bringing us a very entertaining film! I hope you have other projects in the works because I for one am a fan! If your looking for a sitting on the edge of your seat kind of movie look no further!

Following his grandfather's death, a photographer inherits his antique camera and begins using it only to find a source of great evil attached to the camera and must find the reason why before it kills his loved ones.This is quite a fun and enjoyable effort when its' on, though it isn't that way all the time. Most of the problems stem from the fact that it trots out the tired cliché of the cursed camera but does nothing new with it, as if there's no other way to do a storyline like this without having to do the angle about those who get their picture taken end up getting killed. It's not a clever surprise when it happens, there's nothing new here about how it goes about doing this and it really tends to make the first half to this go along quite roughly. It also doesn't hurt that none of the other story lines are all that interesting either, about the affair between the married husband and his assistant or the rumblings about the divorce with his wife causing strain in his relationship with his son, and the times these are broken up due to the clichéd moments with the camera don't make for anything interesting to happen. All that tends to disappear in the second half, though, when it really gets going by fully dishing out the goods in terms of how the relationship between the two evolves as the stakes get raised. Due to the discovery of the camera's true nature, however retarded it really is, that makes for a greater sense of danger when it all gets played out in the spirit world where it really takes a different, much darker road that really makes for quite intriguing and interesting viewing. With it's army of ghouls and demons alongside the fight for survival between the family members with the son looking on makes for quite a fun time as well as the fact that it's chilling and far more intense than it really should've been. This is quite nicely handled throughout this segment and helps to make for quite some fun times here when it spends as much time as it does here, with plenty to like about it. Coupled with some rather nasty and incredibly brutal kills along the way and it manages to stick in some rather impressive moments along the way.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Nudity, a mild sex scene and continuous children-in-jeopardy.