Dead End Road (2004)

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The acting in this movie is really good.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

What to say about "Dead End Road"...Lets just say that Edgar Allen Poe would have been so ashamed. The acting, writing, effects, and everything in this movie was just horrendous. That doesn't even do justice! This movie was the biggest piece of garbage I have ever had to sit through. That is also why I stopped it about 20 minutes before the ending because personally I didn't care what happened to the characters. I have seen bad but this was definitely the worst. I got hyped up for this because I am a fan of Poe and this was just bad. Just bad. What upsets me more is that you can't rate films with negative numbers.

This homemade horror movie tells the story of a dude who kills people using the motif of stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The local police have bungled the case for a few years, so now the FBI has taken over. They know exactly who the guy is, but apparently no one has thought to swing by his house, because that's where he's hanging out, running around in his vintage clothing and torturing the random locals. So FBI-chick gets kidnapped, which involves her father, the former lead investigator from the local police. To top it all off, a pack of wacky college kids have decided to camp out at the house and smoke a bunch of weed.Mostly, the FBI agent winds up shrieking and running around like a little girl, and not a single one of the burly college boys thinks to just stop and take a swing at the wimpy Poe-boy. Mostly overacted and sometimes underacted, Dead End Road reeks of a low-budget, cast-with-friends production that has silly points too numerous to cover.

I don't know why that there is such backlash against this film. Being a horror fan of the slasher variety, I recently picked this title up at Blockbuster. After viewing it, I can offer the following: it delivers on its pretenses. Fans of the genre will not be disappointed: it offers gratuitous nudity; campy dialogue; and creative, excessively violent death scenes. Most of the acting is sub-par (especially the "kids"), but this can be expected from a horror film as the producers commonly employ the inept to keep costs low. It should be noted, however, that there ARE appearances from some actors that are quite competent: those that are acutely observant will notice such character actors as Dee Wallace Stone from E.T. and Anita LaSalva/Robert Leeshock from Earth Final Conflict providing solid work. The lead actresses are nice on the eyes (especially when they're naked) and they serve their purposes efficiently. This film doesn't try to be anything that it isn't. It's obvious that the director intended it to be a fun, escapist film aimed at the horror/troma junkies and he succeeds with aplomb.

IF you love movies about fruity dudes who prance around with a top hats and canes while spouting off random line of poetry while stabbing their victims then this is the movie for you!!If you like movies where it looks like the whole thing was shot with a camcorder, and when people get disemboweled their internal organs are made out of baked ziti an marinara sauce this movie is even more for you!! And if you simply love movies where the acting and dialogue sucks so much that it makes you feel dead inside, then for God's sake run to the video store right now and buy this movie right now!!! Hurry go before it sells out!