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Dood Eind
Dead End
Netherlands 2006
produced by Nick Jongerius, Steven de Jong, Erwin van den Eshof, Daniel Koefoed (executive) for Bridge Entertainment, RCV Entertainment, Steve de Jong Producties
directed by Erwin van den Eshof
starring Everon Jackson Hooi, Anniek Pheifer, Alwien Tulner, Mads Wittermans, Aram van de Rest, Victoria Koblenko, Micha Hulshof, Terence Schreurs, Perla Thissen, Han Peekel, Noah MacIntosh, Amber Teterissa, Esther Vermeer
screenplay by Erik van den Eshof, basd on an idea by Nick Jongerius, music by Erik Jan Grob, special effects by Rick Wiessenhaan, visual effects by Sosho
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A group of Dutch college boys and girls who know each other since
childhood tour Scotland in a van, when they are suddenly attacked by a
couple of dogs, and when one of them, Sid (Mads Wittermans) is severely
bitten by one of the dogs, they have to get out of there, and real fast
too ... and somehow they make it to a nearby abandoned house - however,
the dogs put the house under siege, so our group is forced to spend the
night here.
Thing is, the house is haunted, and the spirit, that seems to be a
particularly nasty one, eats up the house just like flames would do and
kills our kids one by one, until only three of them are left, Chris
(Everon Jackson Hooi), whose answer to the whole hocuspocus is a shotgun,
not that it helps much, Sid, who really can't do anything much after the
dog-attack, and Sid's sister Barbara (Anniek Pheifer), who seems to be
some sort of telepath, and who eventually manages to communicate with the
spirit and find out her tragic story: The spirit is that of Mary McBaine
(Alwien Tulner), who has lived in the house about 200 years ago. MAry
desperately wanted a baby, so she tried to create one witht he help of
black magic - but the villagers got wind of her sinister plans and her
baby was removed from her womb by force - and since then, her spirit
wanders the house in search of her child.
Looking for Mary's child, Chris and Barbara even lose Sid, but they
find a cupboard held shut by a chain - and Barbara has a vision that
Mary's kid was put into the cupboard and burned. Chris breaks the chain in
front of the cupboard and a ghostly hand emerges luring Barbara in - then
the cupboard burns down just like in Barbara's vision, and Chris is the
only one of the group allowed to leave the house ...
At times, this film is suspenseful and even atmospheric - but by and
large it's just our group of heroes running down some corridors really
really scared and getting bumped off. The actual story (the whole
background narrative about Mary McBaine) sets in far too late and is
horribly clichéd, and the actual showdown is rather a letdown. To be
fair, there are much worse ghoststories around, but that doesn't make this
one any better.
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