Dead End (2003) Review

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers!

Plot Summary: A family traveling to visit relatives on Christmas Eve find themselves lost while stalked by a mysterious woman in white and a black hearse.

Review: You'd never guess the degree of critical acclaim and fan following this film has garnered over the years by its terrible opening and title card sequence, but stick with it and you should be pleasantly surprised. Made on a super-low budget of less than a million dollars, the film quality is surprisingly good with recognizable actors like Lin Shaye, Ray Wise, and the lead, Alexandra Holden. Although it has its faults, this is how I wish more indie horror films were--with a tight story, an intriguing mystery, and decent horror elements. This movie is also surprisingly short so you should have more than enough time to squeeze it in between stuffing stockings and decorating your tree.

Like I said, the opening may leave you rolling your eyes for a moment and thinking, "well, this is going to be stupid," but keep going. We are then introduced to the main cast: the father, Frank, the mother, Laura, the daughter, Marion, the son, Richard, and Marion's boyfriend, Brad; for the most part, these are the only characters in the film although it may not feel that way by the end (ooohhh so foreboding!). The first thing that will either amuse or annoy you is the banter between the family members. The dialogue feels mostly real, but it's greatly enhanced by the actors playing up the looks they give each other and superb line delivery. Speaking of which, everyone, for the most part, does a great job bringing their characters to life and making them feel believably real. The family is getting increasingly tired when they nearly crash after Frank falls asleep driving. At this point, horror veterans will probably already know what is happening, but let's go with it for now. With the family startled, they come to the realization that Frank took them on a "short cut," of sorts, on a road they don't recognize that appears to be within a giant forest; I have to acknowledge, the eerie forest shots look cool and ominous. Proceeding forward, the family stumbles upon a woman in white, holding a baby, standing idly in the woods. This part is pretty stupid as Marion says she will walk along for a while as the family, accompanied by the woman in white, drives back to some cabin outpost to call for help since their cell phones aren't working. Talking to herself, we learn that Marion is planning on dumping Brad while at the same time we learn Brad is planning on asking Marion to marry him. But this revelation is short-lived as Brad sees that the woman's baby is dead, screams, and is then next seen being dragged away in the back of a black hearse that slowly drives past Marion. The family regroups to chase down the hearse, minus the woman in white who has disappeared, only to accidentally run over Brad's already dead and mangled body.

One of the things I really like about this movie is that the characters propose different scenarios as to what may be occurring to them which would align with a curious audience. After all, the situation at hand is that there is a woman in white, a black hearse, no one on the road, only a sign pointing to some place called "Marcott" which isn't on the map, and the road and forest both appear endless. The brother thinks it's aliens since their watches have stopped, the father thinks it may be an urban legend he heard about a woman in white, or maybe it is just crazy psychos. As we go along, we learn secrets about the family and their thoughts on various things such as Frank can't stand Laura's family that they're visiting, Marion is pregnant, and amusingly, Richard is smoking pot. Eventually the car blows a tire and while Frank is fixing it, Richard sees the woman in white and makes out with her idiotically (although she is kind of hot). The family, still dealing with the tire, sees the hearse pass by again and now Richard is in the backseat. They chase after the car until they come across Richard's charred body lying in the road. Laura claims that Richard was not Frank's son and becomes unstable as Marion pulls out a gun that was intended to be Laura's bother's Christmas gift. After Laura gorges on food, the family pulls over while she pukes only for her to pull out the gun and shoot Frank. Now, while this may be the stupidest part of the movie (other than when Richard is jacking off), it may have an explanation later since Frank is shot in the leg by a shotgun at close range; his leg would be gone and he certainly wouldn't be driving! Frank believes they have stumbled upon some military road that leads to the coast just as Laura believes she sees ghosts in the woods. Still out of her mind, Laura leaps from the car as the hearse suddenly pulls up. Frank shoots the hearse and as it backs into the shadows, Laura emerges severely injured and dies oddly, to say the least; we then learn about Laura's affair with Frank's friend that produced Richard as Frank drinks heavily.

For some reason, Marion and Frank decide to walk through the woods and find help or whatever they hope to find. After hearing weird noises, they see a light in the distance only to discover it is their own car but on the opposite side of the road; talk about walking in a winter wonderland! The other disturbing aspect was that they did not leave the lights on when they got out of the car...so who did? Oh shit! Anyway, the two come across that same cabin where Brad was taken, now implying they are going in circles on a straight road. The woman in white messes with Frank as he attempts to verify whether or not it's the same cabin only for him to go apeshit and attack Marion in a drunken stupor; Frank then chases after the woman in white only to be killed. Marion comes to, tries to drive away, but the car runs out of gas. Finally, she gets out of the car and asks for whoever is doing this to just end it when she sees body-bags lying in the road containing her family. The hearse emerges in the distance only for the woman in white to get in and drive off. Marion suddenly recalls that the family's near fatal collision did occur as she awakens at a hospital. We then learn that all the family members were killed in the crash, the car they hit contained the woman in white and her baby, and that the doctor taking care of Marion is named Marcott. The person that found the family was driving a vintage hearse as well, but this could be understood differently depending on how you want to interpret the ending.

So essentially everything that happened in the movie was a dream or they were in some kind of limbo; their wounds in that world reflected their real wounds which would explain Frank's gunshot wound. But there is another way of looking at things whereby everything was really happening. The most obvious piece of evidence of this is during the credits when we see a shot of two guys cleaning up the wreck who find a note Frank had written earlier; obviously Frank couldn't have written that before the accident. The other indicator it really happened is the weird guy Marcott is talking to is probably death or the grim reaper or whatever. He is pale, tall, dressed in all black, just happens to drive this old hearse, and describes himself as a "collector." Now if he is death, then it leaves the ending to this film even more bleak since he is giving Marcott a ride with her car coincidentally not working. Maybe she died as well?

Basically, this film is a combination of my favorite Twilight Zone episode, "The Hitch-Hiker," and the urban legend about picking up a girl on the road and then she disappears in the backseat only to discover she died years ago. Obviously there are a lot of cool elements present here even if you could probably see that ending coming a mile away. The actors really save this movie from going down the corny route which it could have easily went. The atmosphere is strong and the audience is left curious as to what is happening with plenty of speculation. The quality looks great with impressive cinematography, commendable distribution of a tight budget, and a general sense of good ideas and intelligent writing and dialogue. On the other hand, there are multiple stupid moments that borderline on absurd, it can be overly comical sometimes, lots of times when budget constraints reveal themselves, and the ending is predictable and unoriginal to horror buffs. Lastly, there are nowhere near enough holiday elements to make this feel like a genuine Christmas horror film; even the scene in the credits and at the hospital look like this is a whole different time of year than December and that's bad editing. Overall, I definitely recommend this film as a proper display of indie film potential as well as being an interesting horror and holiday horror movie in general. Since this film is mostly overlooked, there's a good chance you can use it to spice up your holiday dinner, but understand its flaws.

Notable Moment: When Marion and Frank go into the woods and come out on the other side of the street. It is both creepy and cool, but sort of gives the final clue as to what is going on.

Final Rating: 6.5/10