Fantastic Fest 2008

Brief Summary:
Exploring an abandoned sanatorium while ditching school, two high school burnouts discover a girl strapped to a gurney in a secluded chamber. Debut directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento craft a new breed of teen angst drama set against a backdrop of humor black enough to make John Hughes retreat to a fetal state.

Directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento in person!

Full Description:
Many horror films feature teenage characters but these people are generally nothing more than corpses in waiting and might as well be replaced by showroom mannequins. This is a shame as teenagers face unique psychological and physiological disrputions that are ripe for tales of horror. Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel apparently understand this; their film DEADGIRL mines the recesses of the hormone-wracked adolescent mind to create one of the most original American horror films in recent memory.

Shiloh Fernandez (RED) and Noah Segan (CABIN FEVER 2) portray high school stoners who ditch school in favor of drinking beer in an abandoned sanitarium. The pair make their way into the bowels of the building, and stumble across a vicious dog. The ensuing chase leads them to a barricaded door. Upon entering the adjoining room, they find an incapacitated woman wrapped in plastic and strapped to a table. As time passes, the teens make a series of questionable decisions that put them, their friends and the audience on the spot.

Given the film's untenable content, which is best revealed by actually watching the film, many film makers might be prone to either pull back from the edge or deliver an incoherent string of set pieces. Deadgirl, however, attacks its subject matter with an unerring commitment. The precise direction and fluid, dream-like cinematography work in service of an excellent script by Trent Haaga. Instead of marching a set of two-dimensional ciphers through a rote hack and slash plot, Haaga provides fully developed characters that allows the cast of mostly young actors (Michael Bowen has a supporting part) to embrace their roles. The film's attention to characterization and story increases the viewer's emotional investment, thus sharpening the impact of the film's underlying prurience and weirdness. It is useful to note that DeadGirl is an independently produced feature that was digitally shot with HD cameras and a tapeless workflow system similar to that used by David Fincher on his film Zodiac. This might seem like a peripheral detail but it further reflects the type of novel thinking behind this film. DeadGirl's marriage of hard content and technical craftsmanship easily raises the bar for independent horror films, and demonstrates a path away from the genericism that plagues the genre as a whole. (Rodney Perkins)

Directors Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento and screenwriter Trent Haaga will be in attendance to present the film.

Deadgirl just had it's world premiere at TIFF the week before Fantastic Fest, here's some of the reactions if you want to check 'em out.