Recently released on VOD is City of Dead Men, which ends up being the ultimate example of when
a promotional trailer and poster misrepresent what a film is in order to gain a
specific audience. In this case, what appears to be a straight paranormal or
ghost story turns out to be more of a mixture of Point Break, The Wicker Man, extreme sports, and wild youths. The
combination simply doesn’t work in this situation and any portion of scares and
terror were pretty much milked out in the promotional material.
The story involves an American slumming in Columbia who ends
up meeting and living with a group of delinquents in an abandoned psychiatric
hospital, which has a disturbing past. More time is spent on partying, extreme
sports, and this being an unruly group of misfits or gang then the paranormal
aspect, making this more of a youth gang movie then a ghost story. When it
comes to the paranormal aspect of the narrative, it is very cookie cutter and
utterly predictable. What makes it even worse is the narration that is used in
order to further explain the situation, which treats the audience like they are
a bunch of toddlers who need their hands held through the events that are
taking place.
The acting from the two main characters was decent for the
material that they were provided with. Diego Boneta (Scream Queens) portrays the American and he goes through a series
of emotions as his character changes and reacts to certain events. Jackson
Rathbone (Twilight) plays the
brooding leader of the band of misfits, channeling his inner Bam Margera.
Seriously, he looked and dressed just like Margera. The other main character
was played by Maria Mesa, who came off as somewhat uninspiring.
The star of this picture ended up being the overall look,
providing at least the appearance of excellent production values. It was shot
in Columbia, so there are some great large scale overhead shots of the city and
other scenic shots. The colors used were absolutely superb. There were many
scenes that featured neon lighting set in dark locations, giving the viewer
some lovely looking green and red shadows on the actors. There were a series of
shaking and spinning camera effects employed during the paranormal sequences
that seemed overplayed. I question if there would have been a better creative
choice in replace of those, or simply toned down a bit.
 |
| See, at least it looks good at times |
The technical aspects of the filmmaking for the most part were
done well by the director and the rest of the crew. Given a better script, this
director has shown the potential to improve on his first feature length motion
picture. That being said, this one should probably be avoided unless you’re
looking to watch some youths party in an abandoned building.
Share the scares!
Share the scares!
