DVD Review: DEADBOX
DEADBOX (2008)
Directed by: Robert Archer Lynn
Cast: David Alford, Andrina Maness, Kai Porter, Keir O’Donnell, Jason Lewis, Casey Fuller, Levi Montgomery, David Berry
Review By: Marc Patterson
I’m a proponent of quality over quantity, so the seemingly impressive claim that ‘Deadbox’ incorporates the longest “long take” in cinema doesn’t really raise an eyebrow, at least not one of mine. ‘Deadbox’ is a low budget, shot on DV effort that parades a one trick pony gimmick, that it features a 105 minute single take. Worse for the filmmakers, they put this slasher unknowingly into the hands of a guy who gets a raging hard on for a well constructed long take. So, let’s “take” a closer look, shall we?
A group of paintballers is preparing to enter a tournament to put their combative skills to the test. They admittedly aren’t the cohesive team as they could be and so take to an abandoned prison to work out their tactics and strategy. The major hang-up with their plan is that a really fuckin’ crazy dude lives in the prison and though Vietnam was over 30 years ago he’s still very much in the trenches. To him the paintball squad just looks like good ol’ “Charlie”. Death and dismemberment aren’t too far off for our unsuspecting sport fanatics.
Before I get to the gimmick of this film I want to discuss the film itself. Being shot in one long continuous take, Deadbox proved to be a well-choreographed romp, executed competently by the cast of fairly unknown actors. The initial banter between the cast members is quick, witty, and made me sit up and take notice. Unfortunately, the first 11 minutes or so sadly proves to be the strongest of the 83-minute run time. Once the so-called action kicked in, it was just a lot of screaming and antagonizing noise that grated on my eardrums in a highly abrasive fashion, and was more annoying than entertaining. Actually, the violence was rather rough as well, carried out in a perfunctory and lifeless manner that saw me quickly lose all interest in the film. Nail biting suspense? Forget it.
Deadbox is an unfashionable and messy affair that is neither riveting, nor groundbreaking, as the copy on the DVD case declares. It does not bring anything new to the table for the slasher genre, nor does it bring anything new to the table in terms of single take cinema. It’s a concept that should probably have been studied and explored a bit more by the filmmakers before they attempted to set out and do anything “new”.
Worse, the gimmick of the film gets lost on the viewer rather quickly as the total runtime sits at 83 minutes, whereas, we already previously mentioned that the “single take” is 105 minutes. When I contacted the PR folks who sent me the film in order to get in touch with the director regarding these inconsistencies, I received no reply. So my general assumption on what occurred goes like this: The final 83 minute presentation is taken from a single 105 minute take, and splices made to cut out a few rough patches. Personally, I look at this with great disdain. Film school geeks will look back at their freshman coursework and remember a certain film called Rope in which Alfred Hitchcock intended the film to be shot in one continuous take. Being that 35mm reels couldn’t actually run this long, and technology of the day and age couldn’t accommodate his vision, he spliced the footage together in such a manner as to make the film almost seamless in its presentation as a single take. The point I’m getting at? With endless digital editing tools at the hand of even a penniless college student, why couldn’t more attention have been given to making Deadbox appear to be seamless in transition, and presented in real time? These cuts trump the entire underlying gimmick (and I will continue to use that word), making this film nothing but another low-rent slasher flick, which really isn’t that good of a film in spite of itself.
If you want to look at some tension filled long takes that will rip your innards out look at Gasper Noé’s Irreversible, or Michael Haneke’s Funny Games. Hell, dig out a copy of Hitchcock’s Rope, but just don’t hang yourself up on this one.
Brutal As Hell Rating: 1 out of 5
