Dread

Clive Barker is arguably Britain's finest contemporary horror writer although his work, both in print and adapted for the screen, is of variable quality. From the sublime erotic terror of Hellraiser to Candyman and The Midnight Meat Train, the films from his Books of Blood short stories have been adapted well and turned into impressive feature films. The latest of these is Dread, from the tale of the same name. It is a story about fear and one man's obsession with digging into what scares other people and making then face their worst fears.

Quaid is a strange and intense individual who meets Stephen and Cheryl at university in a psychology class and they decide to do their thesis on dread, interviewing other students to find out what scares them. It is clear from the casting and DVD packaging that the film differs from the source material, boasting that one of the cast (Jackson Rathbone) stars in the Twilight movies and it certainly has a 'teenage angst' feel which is very different to the gothic terror and more grungy atmosphere of the short story.

The story stays basically the same with Quaid recruiting two students to help him with a project which he runs from his ramshackle house but gradually goes off the rails, pushing the boundaries beyond their expectations, resorting to kidnapping and forced imprisonment. The film differs from the source material, I won't go into too much detail to avoid spoilers, with a completely different ending and what they've done seems to work but I don't know why they didn't stick to Barker's story more faithfully.

The result is a film that is less intense, less scary and lives with you for a much shorter period of time than the written word but this is sometimes to be expected as your imagination is much more powerful than any filmic techniques and images. I always saw Quaid as a Tyler Durden-like figure, older than his two colleagues who aren't sure whether he is a student or a lecturer as his house is full of books but he is rarely seen around campus. In the film he is a similar age to Stephen and Cheryl but does have rather odd extra-curricular activities that distance him from the normal student.


You don't need to have read Dread, and oddly you might enjoy the film more if you have no preconceptions or ideas of the characters, places and situations in your head prior to watching the film. I felt as if this was being aimed at a younger audience, despite the 18 certificate, and it seems a bit like emo-horror, missing the gothic atmosphere and terror within the Books of Blood pages. Still, it is a well constructed film, with decent performances throughout, but is not a movie that will live long in the memory or survive repeated visits. It is the weakest of the Clive Barker adaptations (including Nightbreed) and will never sit alongside Hellraiser or Candyman as genre classics as Quaid is a far weaker character on screen than he is in print and will never capture the imagination like Pinhead.

The Disc

The Picture
For a film that is as dark as this is, the quality is very good and the definition doesn't drop with the light levels. The level of claustrophobia and oppressive atmosphere is built and maintained well and the visual effects, such as when Stephen sees a stripper being mutilated, are very good and are never unconvincing.


The Sound
You only get the choice of Dolby Digital 5.1 and this is all you'll need as the dialogue is clear and the surrounds are used fairly well for the atmospherics and music.

Should you need them, there are English HoH subtitles available.

Final Thoughts
Dread is one of the more interesting and potentially terrifying tales from the six Books of Blood and one that came as no surprise when it was optioned for a film adaptation. Sadly, unlike Candyman (from the short story The Forbidden), it doesn't live up to the source material and the result is largely forgettable.


The marketing "STARRING JACKSON RATHBONE FROM THE TWILIGHT SAGA" is utterly confusing as I don't imagine there is a great deal of crossover appeal between the Twilight books and movies and Clive Barker's work. I imagine the latter appeals to a more mature audience who (if they are anything like me) have fairly negative feelings about Twilight.

The film is fairly average and, also counting against a purchase, the disc is utterly devoid of extra features. My recommendation is to maybe rent it or wait for it to come on the movie channels. The fact that this is a straight-to-DVD tells you something.