bashfulbadger
Mmm, a nervy girl with mental problems and on medication, decides on a whim, on hearing that the psychotic ex who's been stalking her has just been released from jail, that the best course of action would be to isolate herself in a huge, spooky, remote house without any transport. The premise alone is illogical enough to make most viewers put this back on the shelf.But my excuse is that it was on Five in the afternoon and, once I'd elected to give it a go, it was too hilarious to stop watching.The pace of the film verges on the glacial. Brittany Murphy, looking wan and pretty and rather like a ghost herself, wanders around in some sexier equivalent to pyjamas, wondering how she got herself into this nonsense. It starts to seem like nobody in the whole world ever moved so slowly. I can hear the director instructing her, 'Walk into the room slowly', then urging, 'No, Brittany, slower! Slower!' She sits in a tub and gazes mournfully off to one side. For hours.It's another one of those films that's predicated on the notion that a previous occupant felt the necessity to video every single thing that ever happened to them and that Brittany's character, rather than finding this nauseatingly narcissistic and tediously self-absorbed, would be sufficiently intrigued to watch all this footage back.Oh, I forgot to mention that she's a writer of some kind (people who stay in old, spooky houses generally are) and supposedly working to a deadline, not that you would know it. I think this may have been for some time in the next millennium.If your idea of horror is a few creaky doors and some very weak light fittings, you possibly might find yourself ever so slightly unnerved for a nanosecond. Otherwise, be prepared to find this a scream for all the wrong reasons.
GL84
After renting out a huge abandoned house to work on a screenplay, a writer finds the ghostly hauntings around her might be the result of a grisly murder and begins to investigate the few pieces of evidence left with her to help solve the reasoning behind the activities.This here is an incredibly middling effort, hindered mostly be the fact that it's just so clichéd and familiar that hardly anything here is of any real surprise. It seems to also ramble on without doing anything of any real interest due to the fact that the majority of the film, and that's not a misnomer, nearly ninety-percent of what happens here, is viewed through the video-camera remnants left at the location with just about the rest of the time taken up with her mumbling incoherently as she rambles about the house supposedly terrified of the hauntings going on that really aren't all that terrifying or creepy. In short, this one is a rather bland and dull mess.Rated R: Language and Violence.
petros30678
Well i watched it a couple of days ago. I thought i was going to see a thriller, maybe with a twist or too. What a waste of time. What a piece of crap. I am sorry Brittany Murphy (RIP) but you could do much better than this. No wonder why it went straight to DVD. Don't waste an hour and a half of your life people. The story is awful and the characters are not the ones you can relate too. Nothing in this movie seems to get it right. Also Brittany Murphy seems to be not in her best. I don't know what was going on in her mind when she agreed to star in this movie. And the rest of the cast is not in it's best i think. The only reason i to see this movie is if you are a fan of Murphy, although i don't think this movie does her justice. The only thing i found a little interesting is the cinematography. I saw some good looking shots throughout the movie. All and all, a movie to avoid.
jamesrc60
Our Beloved Brittany Murphy, Did you know that New Orleans offers a haunted plantations tour? I like to think this was why an old Victorian mansion in Louisiana was chosen for you to showcase your immense acting talent in the horror genre. The house and you make "Deadline" highly suspenseful.I was delighted to see your friend and costar from "The Ramen Girl", Tammy Blanchard. Will there be more collaborations? Tammy and you exhibit a close and warm friendship during the time she drives you to the Victorian house and leaves you there alone after a tour of the house.You convincingly convey you are a screenwriter named Alice. You are glad a producer friend has given you use of the house. You want to spend time alone working on your script We learn you have to deal with some emotional trauma from a past boyfriend named Ben. We find out on your first night alone that you also have to deal with a haunted house.Even though you are alone you manage to keep us glued to the screen. Scary things and noises convince us you are not alone in the house. You convey vulnerability and we become more and more concerned something is going to happen to you. It seems the ghost character played by Thora Birch keeps trying to communicate with you. On a phone call with Tammy, Your decision to remain in the creepy house to work and figure out what is going on is believable.You continue to rivet us to the screen. Your acting is intensely contemplative and responsive. Right up to the end we are concerned for Thora's life and your life. This reminded me of the dramatic acting by Marilyn Monroe in the melodrama "Niagara" , which she starred in at the age of 27 in 1953.This is a creative and original look at relationships and dealing with emotional stress. I am proud of you for starring in this role in "Deadline".
AD
