Movie Review: DeadGirl: Director's Cut (Blu-ray, 2008)

One of the absolute best things about being a film fan, for me, has to be seeing a talent grow. Whether it be writing, directing, acting, it really doesn’t matter - growth is growth. Troma alum, Trent Haaga, writer of the film DeadGirl is one of those talents that has taken that extra step. With DeadGirl, he goes beyond the numerous micro-budget fare he’s been a part of for ten plus years and brings forth an intelligent, disturbing story of two teens, a dead female (or is she?) and a lot of pent up testosterone.

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The director team of Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel take hold of Haaga's vision, giving us the viewer one sick, thought-provoking little indie. I wondered after viewing DeadGirl: What if in the heartfelt coming-of-age classic Stand By Me the boys who were on a journey to find a dead body in the woods, found that dead body in the first ten minutes? Beyond poking the corpse with a stick, what might have those curious kids done in the remaining 90 minutes? Yes, it's morbid and almost sacrilege because it's fucking Stand By Me, an American classic - but who knows.





The two young men who discover DeadGirl (Jennie Spain), Rickie (Shiloh Fernandez) and J.T (Noah Segan) are as tight as two pals can be. They have so much in common; the biggest being neither can get laid. J.T's a little more on edge than Rickie and this shows when upon their find he becomes very emotional about his new "woman". He's up for sharing her though. An obstacle that does become apparent early on with DeadGirl is that she's only partialy dead, basically a zombie with a good case of rabies. Does that stop them? No. The shenanigans that do ensue are pretty priceless.

Dark Sky Films has put together this new special edition Blu-ray release in style. Not only does it include a couple of audio commentaries, featurettes and other goodies, the "Directors Cut" of the film is here in all its 1080p glory. Haaga's on hand for an interview along with Sarmiento and Harel and even "DeadGirl" herself, Jennie Spain, contributes a new commentary for this release as well as her amusing audition video. Spain doesn’t say much in DeadGirl but still manages to steal the movie with her incredibly gutsy performance.



DeadGirl is certainly not for everybody but that doesn't push it away from greatness. My jaded sensibilities ate up every bit of this accomplished morbid masterpiece. Highly Recommended!