Directed by Jeremy Kasten
Starring Sarah Rose Harper, Brandon Thane Wilson, Katie Foster, Torey Garza and Clare Kramer
Running time: 1 hour and 13 minutes

By Emily Maesar

What’s going on, and why does it kind of rule?

The Dead Ones is a horror film about four teens who are forced to clean up their high school after a horrific incident. It’s the last week of summer and Mouse (Sarah Rose Harper), Scottie (Brandon Thane Wilson), Emily (Katie Foster) and Louis (Torey Garza) are driven by their teacher Ms. Persephone (Clare Kramer) to what might be the worst detention ever. Their school is fully trashed and, for some reason, they’re the ones who have to deal with it. But when four people in creepy gas masks show up and start locking them in, seemingly preparing for something horrible, things get wild.

Off the bat, I wanna say that this film deals with a shooting at a high school. I don’t think that’s a spoiler since it’s been in the promo material, and I know it’s gonna hit people when it happens. Especially given how common violence in American high schools is. It feels important to mention for that reason alone.

It also feels important to mention because if you’d told me this film was made in 2004… I’d believe you. Everything about The Dead Ones radiates mid-aughts horror films. From the cinematography, to the script, to the fact that the characters fully look like I went to high school with them. But it also feels that way because of how it approaches the subject of violence in high school.

Knowing that this film’s sensibility is seemingly rooted in the mid-2000s, makes a sort of sense in regards to its choices. I don’t think they’re all good choices, like how the film deals with Emily’s mental illness, but the simplicity of “people did a bad thing so we’re punishing them for it” allows for the way that everything feels in the film to be the film.

In fact, this film is pretty much riding on vibes alone, which I’m totally fine with as a concept. Some of my favorite stories have little to no plot and are endeared to me on aesthetics alone. But, while the aesthetic of The Dead Ones is what I would consider abrasive, especially in the vein of a mid-2000s horror flick, I don’t think it actually finds its vibes for a while. It takes the death of a lead to make the plot, such as it is, catch up to the vibes. Which happens to be around the act three mark.

Despite this film’s length (it’s a short one), I think it could have used the extra 10-15 minutes of a traditional 90 minute runtime to expand on what was actually going on. Its attempts to be a purely aesthetic version of this type of story didn’t really work for me until it started to bring in more linear elements of motivation. I don’t need everything explained and spelled out at the top of the film, but layering in the themes and the two major storylines better would have helped make a more cohesive film.

Ultimately, The Dead Ones is a film about trauma. How well it deals with that trauma and showcases it, I think will be decided by each person watching. I don’t think it fully worked for me, not as a modern horror film addressing these issues, but it is an intriguing one. It's very clear roots in mid-2000s grimdark horror, especially horror about something, is certainly a choice. It’s a callback to a time before social media, before we dealt with violence on this level minimum of once every two days, and to a time before Blumhouse was pumping out movies like this.

Except Blumhouse doesn’t really make these kinds of messy horror flicks. At least, not anymore. And I think that’s why I’m conflicted. I’m of two minds on The Dead Ones. Part of me is confused. What was the purpose of telling this kind of trauma in exactly this way? It doesn’t feel like anything new, and many specific choices feel like a regression beyond any I’ve seen in recent film history.

And yet? The other part of me thinks it absolutely rules. Once the film clicked into place for me and I realized exactly what we were doing? I was in. Kind of beyond in, actually. The characters became much more interesting, their interactions deepened and were heavy in a way they just weren’t before. This film isn’t for everyone but, if you’re down to take a wild ride then, it’s certainly here for you.

The Dead Ones will be released on DVD/Blu-ray and VOD/Digital on September 29, 2020.