Dead Frequency.

Well. This is difficult. As a fellow aspiring film maker a certain level of professionalism is expected when watching the premiere of a peer's work. Again. This is difficult.

I have to be honest. Dead Frequency was not even ready for a test screening. A premiere, with full red carpet treatment, private bar and black tie dress code was... embarrassing.

The film opened to cheers and applause each time another actor appeared for the first time. Sadly it wasn't long until this good natured self-congratulatory atmosphere descended first to baffled silence, then reserved snickering and by the end, undisguised laughter from large chunks of the audience and I suspect, cast.

Let's try to remain objective.

The premise: a group of vampires have established relatively ordinary lives for themselves as a close-knit group of couples. Most of them work for a local radio station. An agency of hunters has planted a spy in their midst and are closing down on the group. At the same time, a bailiff makes a personal call to a debtor who turns out to be one of the vampires. Most of the drama is centred on one of the recently converted vampires who has her lusty gaze fixed on her creator.

The first downfall of the film as a whole was the script. Aside from weak, expository dialogue, the actual plot was muddled and perhaps would better lend itself to a series of short films rather than a feature. The radio station and the relationships of the characters seemed to inhabit two separate worlds, until they messily collide in a vague are somewhere around the second act. The narrative with the bailiffs is introduced very late in the scenario and when put against the backdrop of the remainder of the story, seems to contrast wildly as a wacky buddy movie following a clumsy pair of adult themed chuckle brothers.

The editing did nothing to clear up the already muddled script. Large swathes of establishing scenes in the first act were given to abstract meanderings as the soundtrack turned to a seemingly musical interpretation of the characters thoughts. We'll come to that in a moment. With our focus on editing, these sections or interludes were thrown roughly together using a combination of overly long shots, repeated footage and some quite tacky fade transitions. In other place throughout the film, editing, even at a basic level, seemed to be abandoned. Characters were left on screen for no real reason well beyond any logical out point. More than one scene would even fade to black. I'm not certain if Dead Frequency was intended for TV, but if it was then space has been given to more than the usual amount of advertising in all the wrong places. There were no dramatic hooks or sudden revelations before any of the breaks, just meaningless dialogue drifting into the dark.

So the soundtrack. Bad.

The film was written around a radio station as a central location. The station was apparently running with the mandate of broadcasting low quality elevator music 24/7 with quite bland and seemingly bewildered presenters. One pseudo-positive comment I could make would be that the soundtrack at least stuck to its own theme. Any non-diegetic music was equally as banal, electronic and poorly constructed. The only difference was that the songs mentioned earlier were given the dubious blessing of additional lyrics, provided by a singer that came across as hesitant to reach any real notes. When these songs were compounded with the featureless montages already described, the overall effect was of watching a music video created by very young children, placed into a film with only a little bit more maturity.

If there were any strong points to the film, they would have to include some of the acting. I can't say it was all great. The delivery of the odd line or lack of response to quite alarming events raised the odd laugh. However, there were one or two strong performances in the face of a lack of direction.

One scene in particular was during a bout of editing fatigue. I suspect during shooting, the actress had been given a vague idea of the conversation she was to have, but no actual lines. The scene had a very ad-libbed tone to it which she pulled of masterfully. For the only time in the film, a comparison to anything else was possible. Whether intentional or not, the essence of banter from a Shane Meadows film was peeking up from under the grime of the murky plot.

The most alarming aspect of the film was the use of sex. As with most vampire fiction, there is always an undercurrent of sex and fetishism. Sadly, 'undercurrent' should be read here as 'raging torrent'. One of the key goals of a major character consists of nothing more than sex. Added to this, she bafflingly stomps about the place with no footwear. Though this is never really addressed, the camera is often drawn back to show us these feet in close up. In the film's outrageous office-based sex scene, we cut to the biggest foot close up yet on the moment of orgasm. Never have I seen a film so openly obsessed with fetish that hasn't marketed itself to a more appreciative audience.

All in all, not good. The plot takes some digging to summarise. Gratuitous sex and nudity. The editing is almost non-existent in places. The soundtrack is appalling. Acting flickers between extremes. I could also go on at length about a lack of lighting, poor camera skills, superfluous breaks in the narrative (other than the musical variety) but I have already ranted far too much to offer a balanced opinion. In short, there is no evidence of directorial ability. Dead Frequency is not a finished film.


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I should note that I wrote this review the night after seeing dead frequency, then lost half of what I wrote after the Internet cut off. In this rewrite I have been a lot more scathing than intended and rambled quite badly. Apologies to anyone this may cause offence to but I assure you my feelings are at least honest.