She's Dead

Director - Nik Box (Wrath of the Violent Vicar)
Starring - Alexander Lewis (Weeds), Julian Seager (Snow White and the Huntsmen), and Jamie Smith
Release Date - 2012
Genre - Horror/Suspense/Comedy
Tagline - "3 Men, 1 Corpse, 1 Room, 1 Hour"
Format - Streaming (youtube, screener)
Favorite Quote - "What you've done so far is positively turd worthy"

Rating (out of 5):

     This is the second film Nik Box sent to me to review.  The previous two films I wrote about were short films, where this one is a full length movie.  Being a low budget film that has a limited release I was not able to find anything about it before giving it a watch.  After watching the previous two movies I knew this one would follow the curb and be in improvement over the two where each film surpasses the last.  He told me in the email that it was a "Dark Comedy with a hint of Horror" which are some of my favorite kind of films.  

     The film opens with a young man named Ben (Lewis) who is standing in a room that is covered in plastic.  Ben makes a phone call and tells the person on the other end that he needs help and is in over his head.  A few moments later an older man arrives and the two access the situation.  The young man claims that he went out drinking the previous night and brought her back with him and when he woke she was dead.  The older man, Mr. Clean (Seager), lays down three rules that he always follows.  The first is do not question his leadership or decisions.  The second rule is he does not dismember the corpse himself.  The person who hires him does that.  Third, he always has a glass of tea before doing a job because it is the "fuel for the English worker."  All this is taking place in Ben's parent's home and they will be returning at 7.  This gives Mr. Clean an hour to do his job.  He has never done a job that quickly and this agitates him.  Before Ben called Mr. Clean he tried calling his friend Barry to help.  Barry is a little sick in the head and Ben figured he could help.  Barry returns his call after Mr. Clean has arrived and Ben tells him he no longer needs his help.  Barry, being curious, comes over any way and discovers the body.  The three now need supplies to dispose of the corpse and they all set out to procure them.  However, once Ben and Mr. Clean has left, Barry returns to have a little fun with the corpse.  after having a photo session and screwing her with a candy bar, Ben and Mr. Clean return and the three try to finish what they had started.  Mr. Clean tells Ben to start cutting the corpse but Ben chickens out.   Barry volunteers to cut the corpse into sections that will be easy to dispose of.  Before Barry starts cutting, Ben and Mr. Clean leave the room.  Barry once again starts fooling around with the body.  However, this time before he is able to get another edible item wet, she springs up and bites him on the neck.  After Barry dies the female lays back down.  Ben and Mr. Clean return and Mr. Clean is suspicious of the entire situation.  Ben then explains to Mr. Clean that Barry was unstable and just committed suicide.  Once again, Ben leaves the room and when Mr. Clean kneels down to examine Barry the girl jumps back up and bites him on the neck killing him.  Ben then returns to the room and sits down to have a smoke.  The female then gets up, fills a glass with Mr. Cleans blood, and sits down beside Ben.  After giving Ben a sip of the blood, the two start making out.

     Nik Box definitely learned a thing or two after completing his previous films.  He did not waste the viewers time with this one.  The acting was on a whole new level when compared to his previous films.  Everyone did an amazing job portraying their characters.  I really enjoyed watching the character of Barry when he would interact with the corpse.  It was pretty damn funny.  The story is pretty damn clever and I did not see the twist coming at all.  Definately a big improvement on delivering the story.  Every scene and every word of dialogue had something to do with the plot.  This movie flowed perfectly which made the twist work extremely well.  I also saw a few nods to Tarantino.  I do not know if they were intentional or coincidental but I did see two that reminded me him.  The first was with Mr. Clean and Ben.  Ben calls Mr. Clean to clean up his mess very similar to when Vega and Winnfield call The Wolf to dispose of a body in Pulp Fiction.  The second instance was when Barry was first introduced.  Barry referred to Mr. Clean as Mr. White and Mr. Pink before being corrected.  These are the two code names given to Harvey Keitel and Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs.  I may just be over thinking that but either way I like it.  The movie does do a lot of things right, however, it also has  some room to grow.  I understand the movie's premise takes place in one room but the space, to me, seems way to small.  The movie almost has a claustrophobic feel and I do not care too much for that.  Also, in some of the scenes, when two characters are talking, the camera is not focused on both of them at once.  I like to see who is talking when I watch a movie.  With a movie that is character interaction based like this one is it would have made sense to show them both when they are carrying on a conversation.  Overall, this one should be watched at least once because it is the kind of film that does not have a replay value.