DREAD - movie review

OK, I won't say its completely dreadful. It is by far Jackson Rathbone's BEST movie to date. He's more than eye candy in this. The film is featured as one of HORRORFEST after dark films this past year. Its based on a short story by Clive Barker that takes about 2 1/2 hours to tell..or so it seems.

The story is the character developement of 4 college students on a Fear study. OK, three of them. Jackson Rathbone's Stephen Grace won't ride in cars due to his brother's fatal accident. Cheryl (Hanne Steen) won't eat meat due to her tormented past with her father who worked at the meat plant. And then there is Quaid who has a disturbing past of his own, who takes the study too far. Quaid played by Brit, Shaun Evans plays his part brilliantly. He's creepy. He's sexy. He's on the edge and even worse when he stops taking his pills and his nightmare start coming to life.

Co-worker, Abby played by Laura Donnelly is wonderful too, as Grace's friend with a birthmark that takes over half of her body. Of course, she wants to be more than friends with Rathbone's character, but he's just not one to take advantage of the situation. Messy hair and all, you get the real deal with Rathbone. Wouldn't we all like to just hang out with a cool dude like that at our campus? It was so close to making me think of Rules of Attraction...but you've got your gore.

Rathbone was definitely real in the movie, and of course its great to see him in something where he's doing more than just standing there. Of course, with these kind of flicks one can only wonder if he plans on being the king of horror. He's in Hurt, yet another horror thriller. Or either he's taken up real handicaps like cerebal palsy and down syndrome in up coming movie projects such at Girlfriend (which he co-produced) and Truckstop. Who knows, we might get a boyfriend/boyfriend film out of him yet.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

This film was shot well. Great atmosphere and location. To some it will not be enough horror. To others it was definitely the feel of dread.