Dead Sea
Dead Sea
Phil Volken’s Dead Sea tries to combine the crime horror aspect but unfortunately becomes lost in a thick murky storyline that is unsupported. It had the right potential but it’s ruined by cliché plot twists, flat characters, and a dull setting which never manages to create the horror it aims for. Although it has a decent cast headed by Dean Cameron and Isabel Gravitt, it is not enough to reverse the film from its failings.
The Story: A Rescue Gone Wrong
The film begins when Kaya (Isabel Gravitt) is out on a jetski adventure with her friends Xander (Koa Tom) and Julian (Garrett Wareing). This would be alright, but things take a turn for the worse when their boat capsizes. As luck would have it, they are rescued by Curtis Hunt (Dean Cameron) who is the captain of a fishing trawler. However, this appears to be good fortune, until the friends understand there is something very sinister about the ship; something that may cost them their lives.
The Good: Concept and Cast
The film isn’t short of material, but the basic idea behind it is not particularly fresh. The combination of the trawlers cramped spaces and the vast emptiness of the open sea could have made for a harrowing and unsettling atmosphere. The viewers never lose sight of these tensions, and the atmosphere surrounding the events is rather unique. However, Dead Sea, is an equally baffling manner in tension building and sustaining tension. The story is very cliche and dull. This includes a poor sense of horror that has almost no surprises or originality. As soon as the companions step onto the trawler the audience already knows where the plot is directed and the picture has nothing new to offer.
In fact, it is Dean Cameron Curtis hunt whom the public is likely to remember. This is a great match for his character, effective in being unnerving, but a rather poorly developed villain in the end. Some respect has to be paid to Isabel Gravitt assuming the role of Kaya. Both her willpower and cleverness are pleasant additions to her character that create a favorable image for the audience. However, from the perspective of a viewer, her character—and the characters of her pals—are very flat and one-dimensional which makes it difficult to timelapse and actually care for their cause.
The Bad: Pacing and Character Development
The Dead Sea game faces a severe drawback in terms of character development, which is virtually absent in the game. Firstly, Kaya, who is the main character, portrays some degree of toughness, although she lacks any concrete information that would make her interesting or relatable. Xander and Julian for instance are simply supporting friends to her and do not have important individual roles as such. There is also the supporting character Rey (Alexander Wraith), who provides sporadic tension but does not alter the course of the story in any meaningful way.
This is further aggravated by the film’s pacing. The film starts more promising than how it ends but after the first part, the second part feels very unbearable as it consists of dull sequences and almost no progression of plot. Such efforts, however, prove to be pointless since they are overtaken by the mediocre story, where the film resorts to the cheesiness of horror clichés and poor scripts. The absence of fresh content in the composition only adds to the stagnation of the plot.
Visuals and Sound: Missed Potential
Dead Sea also employs stubborn visual and auditory elements in this case. In summary, it is technically well made, but it is not particularly innovative and overlooks the sinister atmosphere that a vast ocean and the hold of a fishing boat would have created. Sound design was equally dull with a poorly conceived soundtrack that did nothing much in contributing to the film.
Overall: A Missed Opportunity
Dead Sea had the elements of a brilliant crime horror flick, but they are not employed well. The screenplay has been aggressive but the film is saloon with typical narrative, missed opportunity in portraying the characters, and a rather flat mood, making it a pointless watch. While the people perform, particularly Gravitt and Cameron, they cannot take the film to other levels because of its poor execution in the script.
In terms of thematic exploration, Dead Sea tries to focus on the film of survival and the brutality in humans. But these themes should have been there, but as it is the case, so does the film’s message. Any potential commentary on the nature of man or the morality of any ins’ actions or words is drowned out by the boring plots and expositions.
Conclusion Review : At the end of the day, Dead Sea is a failure. The ingredients for an engaging crime horror film are there but are not properly put to service. The audience should not expect much from the film in terms of narrative because it is predictable, majority of the characters have been underdeveloped and the mood is bland.
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- Genre: Crime, horror, Sci-fic, Thriller
- Country: United States
- Director: Phil Volken
- Cast: Isabel Gravitt, Genneya Walton, Koa Tom
