Dead In 3 Days (2006)

Today I went to the best place to go when I want a DVD, Best Buy. Ok, that isn’t actually true, but I had $10 to spend from the rewards program. I went to the new release section, to see what is new, and came across Dead In 3 Days. As it turns out, this isn’t really a new movie. It has been around for a few years now, but this is the first time it has been released on DVD here in the US. Dead In 3 Days comes out of Austria, and as luck would have it, it’s their first slasher horror movie. It did make the rounds at film festivals in 2007, but I can’t find all that many reviews of this film. Plenty of reviews I can’t read though, since they are mostly from Germany. Speaking of film festivals, I am going to one at the end of the month. Actually it is a horror convention, but they are going to be showing films as well. So far they have annouced two films, Mum & Dad (a UK film) and Matyrs (a French film that I really want to see). I will be reviewing these films, and any others, here and also at my own blog. I will keep everyone updated!

Dead In 3 Days starts with us seeing someone hanging themselves. We are not told why, or how this relates to the movie, until much later. Then we see Mona (Julia Rosa Stöckl) all bloody walking down a road. She whispers to someone that stops to help her, to go help Nina (Sabrina Reiter). Then we get a message, after the credits, that it is now four days prior to what we just watched. I hate it when a film does this for one simple fact, we know that person(s) isn’t going to die. At least not until much later in the film. From there we see a group of freinds who are taking their graduation test. Once they find out they have all passed, the head out to party the night away. During the interval between finding out about their test and the party, they each get a text message, from an unknown sender, that they will die in three days. That night they head to a club for a night of drinking and dancing. Martin (Laurence Rupp) heads off to use the bathroom, and disappears. Nina finds his phone on the bathroom floor though, and gets worried. She heads to the police station, with friends in tow, but of course they can’t do anything, since it has only been two hours. We discover that Martin has been tied up, and is being taken out to the middle of a lake, where he is dropped in. Once his body is found, will the police take everything more seriously? Who is it that has it in for this group of friends?

Even the plot is slightly different, it was pretty obvious that Dead In 3 Days lifted from other teen slasher films, mainly I Know What You Did Last Summer. You could make the argument that all films do this these days. Because Dead In 3 Days has that feeling of “been there, done that” to it, it did end up a little on the boring side. The thing that does keep it interesting though, is that we have no clue who the killer might be, or why it is this group of friends that has been targeted. Even after a big clue has been dropped, we still don’t know for sure who the killer is, it just has been narrowed down. I give the film credit for that, since some films give it away too early at times. I did feel cheated at times, because of the way the film was edited. For example, when Nina is grabbed from behind, it cuts very quickly to a black screen. For a few seconds, that is all we see. I was wondering if there was something wrong with the DVD until a subtitle came up. The reason I felt cheated is because Nina was taken from her home. Martin was taken from a club with a lot of people around. I felt a little cheated since we are just to assume no one noticed these two people being taken.

I was surprised to see that this film managed to get an R rating. I thought it could have passed for a PG13 easily. There is a quick shot of nudity to be found, but that is all as far as that goes. The effects are somewhat mild. A few stabbings, and a couple of throats get cut open. One goes to the extreme, with the head coming off, but we see that after the fact. The effects are well done though, just would have been nice if there were a few more to be found. The body count stays low, which I was actually glad to see. It always makes me wonder when the killer takes someone out that isn’t really a threat to them, just for the sake of raising up the body count. The acting was pretty good. This was the first film for many of the actors, and in some cases the first acting job. It is harder to judge a foreign film, as far as acting goes, when you are dealing with one that isn’t in a language you know. Either I am reading subtitles, or listening to dubbing that is done by someone else. I had no real complaints about any of the actors. You can also find Michael Steinocher, Nadja Vogel, Julian Sharp, Andreas Kiendl, and Amelie Jarolim.

Even though the characters aren’t very fleshed out, I still enjoyed them. One scene I really liked is when the group find Martin in the lake. Instead of one or two of them jumping in, they all do. I found this refreshing, and realistic. After all, if it were my friend, I would be jumping in first, and calling for help after. I did notice something I haven’t noticed in films lately. Major hints to things you just know will be used later in the film. Like one of the guys saying that broken glass on the side of a tank should be kept covered so no one gets cut on it. I bet I know what is going to happen there! Being that Dead In 3 Days is Austria’s first slasher film, it isn’t all that bad. It does feel more like a remake, with the plot changed slightly to keep us guessing though. I can’t say that it is a great film, but I have watched a lot worse. I won’t suggest rushing out to see it, but I would suggest giving it a rent some time, it is worth a watch at least.

3 out of 5 Giving a head to some fishies