Dead Space (2016) – A Movie A Day 2021 #48
Dead Space (2016) – A Movie A Day 2021 #48
So, I was browsing through Tubi as I find myself doing quite often these days, and I came across a Chinese movie titled Dead Space with the following plot synopsis.
“One by one, a group of friends die in their nightmares. The last two decided to figure out why but they must not fall asleep until they do.”
Sounds familiar, right? Well, the movie art looked looked kind of neat, and I enjoy a good rip-off, so I decided to give Dead Space a watch. What I discovered was absolutely a rip-off. Specifically, it’s a remake of the 2010 A Nightmare on Elm Street remake but with a much lower budget. A much, much lower budget. But is Dead Space any good? Well, if you’ve listened to the review my buddy Joey and I did for the Nightmare (2010) remake over at The Last Theater (here’s the episode!) then you know how I didn’t much care for that movie. Now, imagine taking the script for A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010), running it through Google Translate to convert it to Chinese, and making a movie off that Chinese script for about $150. Do you think the result will be better? No, probably not. But as a curiosity, I enjoyed the movie fine.
I won’t bother explaining the plot here, because it’s almost exactly the same as A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) down to the way people die and some of the aggravating plot twists. The problem is, something seems to be lost in translation. Dead Space is about twenty minutes shorter than Nightmare (2010), and even though I couldn’t tell you exactly what was left out since it’s been a while since I watched Nightmare (2010), Dead Space definitely felt like it was lacking a lot of connective tissue that was holding the just-okay scenes of Nightmare (2010) together. Dead Space feels like it just meanders from scene to scene in order to get to the next image it wants to try to recreate.
I mean, I guess I can commend the filmmakers on making a movie, but it feels more like a project put together by a fan who wants to learn how to make movies, not something to be taken seriously. I suppose it might have been localized for a certain market, but just like any movie, why not just watch a subtitled version of the original (or the original remake in this case)? I’m only speculating about the reasons for how and why Dead Space got made though, because I can’t find any information about its background. All that said, I guess the movie did what it was a supposed to. It got published online and nerds like me have seen it, so good job filmmakers!
There’s not really much else to talk about with Dead Space without just nitpicking the choices made by the filmmakers. I’m sure a lot of the differences between this and Nightmare (2010) were just due to budget constraints. The acting, directing, editing, and everything else are fine in a b-movie way, but none of its bad enough to be super cheesy and fun. It’s just alright. Oh, and why the title Dead Space? I know I complained about the title to another movie called Dead Space recently, but it makes even less sense here. Yes, there are dead people, but what space are they referring to? Maybe the title is another unfortunate causality of Google Translate.
I do need to mention one more thing before I go. The killer. The characters in the movie talk about the killer’s burned face, but what the filmmakers decided to go with instead of burn makeup is a knockoff version of Heath Ledger’s Joker makeup. It’s a bizarre choice that makes absolutely no sense. I’m sure the real reason was, again, the budget, but there’s not even a line in the movie that gives a reason for his white face, wide red smile, and black eyes. It’s so strange. At least his Freddy glove looked good.
So would I recommend Dead Space to anyone? No, I wouldn’t. I thought it was interesting just as a curiosity, watching to see how close they would follow the Nightmare (2010) script and how they would handle some of the scenes I knew would be difficult to pull off. I can’t see myself ever watching it again though.