Dead end

Year of release : 2003

Run time : 1h23m

Genre : Horror

Cast : Ray Wise

Dead End is an English language French movie, written and directed by Jean Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa.

It's Christmas Eve, and the Harrington family are driving to the wife's relatives for Christmas. Everybody is asleep in the car, and the father can't keep his eyes open either. The daughter awakes him in the nick of time, as their car is about to hit another coming from the opposite side.

 

Stopping, they realize the other car didn't even stop, and the wife notices the husband took a different road, for he says, he was bored, and was afraid he might fall asleep.

Going back to driving, and singing Christmas songs, the father sees a woman in the woods, and stops. The woman comes to their car and they offer to take her as she has a baby with her, although they don't have room in the car. The daughter,Marion, who is car sick, offers to walk back to the cabin they saw a while back.

Reaching the cabin, Marion's boyfriend remains in the car with the woman, while the parents go to the cabin, looking for help. And Richard, the son,goes into the forest to.. m@sturbate.

The woman gives her baby to Richard, and when he sees it he screams.

Everybody hears him and runs towards the sound.

Marion, still on the road, sees a black car driving away with him. She runs to her parents, and they drive towards the direction in which Marion saw the black car drive, but there's nothing on the road. They do see Brad's body on the side of the road. Marion faints and when she comes back to her senses is in a state of shock. The mother, Laura, tries to call 911, but she hears a woman crying on the phone, so she hangs up, saying the phone is broken.

They try to find a police station, thinking they'll be in town in 15 minutes. They see a road sign saying Marcott, and try to drive to it, but they drive for what seems to be hours, without being able to reach any town or village. All of their watches stopped at 7:30 o'clock.

They stop as they see a baby carriage in the middle of the road, and Richard goes out to check it.They push the baby stroller off the road, but it comes back when they get to the car and drive.Trying to listen to the radio,it's a baby screaming.

The car blows a tire, and while the father tries to replace it,Marion snaps out of it, and Richard goes into the forest,to smoke p0t! The woman in white shows up,and kisses him,tearing off his lip!

The black car drives by the family standing by the car with Richard in the back, and they drive off, trying to get Richard.

They find him on the road, m@ngled,just like Brad before him. His mother seems to have a manic episode,and reveals Richard is not her husband's son.After, she seems to have gone insane.

Marion and her father see the Marcott sign again, and her father thinks it must be some hidden army base.

I personally enjoyed the movie, it's one of my favorites from 20 years ago. I like movies in which nothing is what it seems, in which the action happens in the mind. SPOILERS Based on the order in which they die, I think that's how they died in "real life" and also how they show up-with the wounds they have- is also how they actually died. The woman in white with her baby,they pick up, died first,and probably knew she was dead, then Brad, and Richard. I think the ones who saw the Marcott sign might have been the ones who were alive when they got to the hospital, as that's the doctor's name. END OF SPOILERS

What I didn't enjoy was the unnecessary vulgarity of the son, who was rude to everyone, and was doing things I don't think one stranded on an endless road leading nowhere would do (SPOILERS he m@sturbates to a nude poster, and smokes p0t, even tries to get it on with the strange woman).

The actors were great, especially the two ladies who played mother and daughter,Lin Shaye and Alexandra Holden. Ray Wise was the only one who to me didn't give 100%, but I think that's just the way he acts, 'cause I saw him in many movies and he always acts the same.

The soundtrack was beautiful, I liked it.

The visual effects were good.

The movie received positive reviews, and was enlisted in quite a few festivals, winning most of the nominations !

The movie allegedly grossed 75 million dollars, against a budget of 900.000 dollars.

Viewer discretion is advised, as the movie contains nudity,gore and mature content.

You can watch the full movie for free, if you follow this link : https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9pu2u4

Rating : Worth a watch !