Dismal – Fearmakers Studios' 2010 Cannibal Horror

Feb 14, 2011
Hari Navarro

Dismal – 2010 Independent Horror - © Fearmakers Studios

Deep within an ancient swamp that stretches for over one hundred thousand acres a macabre meal is on the boil.

So lets get the obvious out of the way first, Dismal is unfortunately titled. It wouldn’t have mattered if this were the stand out indie horror of the year someone would have still leap at the chance to twist its name against it. So is it dismal? No, not entirely. Ironically, considering the films many side orders of human body parts, it’s a stew. It’s one of those films that presents as a strange concoction that both piques the senses and then abruptly and infuriatingly denies them.

Thematic elements within the film jostle for position and compete rather than complement. A case in point sees some truly evocative swampland cinematography having to duel with window-wiper style scene transitions that seem lifted directly from a corporate Power Point presentation. It might have worked for George Lucus but even then it was a gimmick, and one that doesn’t travel well.

Gary King Directs from a Script by Bo Buckley

There is a ‘feel’ that comes to genre films that adhere to even the most trivial of their plots intricacies. Productions that string together their fantastic leaps in plot logic in such a way that even the absurd seems possible. This is a flow that Dismal only partially rides. Sporadic scenes of suspense are truncated as they run into sequences that stretch on well past their worth. A character is attacked by a mysterious club-wielding maniac and suitably clambers back to base camp. Upon warning his less than frantic friends the scene then grinds to a halt as they debate the pros and cons of making an emergency radio call. This disengages the audience and in horror that is a crime from which few recover.

Keen followers of this Texas Chainsaw brand of 'swampbilly' mayhem will no doubt cringe at the films flimsy hold on genre protocol. Dismal ticks all the boxes with its hot girls, horny guys, tree sex, none-too-bright cannibals and rickety backwater cabins, but having them merely show up for work is never enough. They have to be able to shuffle off their clichés or at least attack them with something bold and fresh.

The Shape of Better Things to Come?... ‘You Got Dale's Word On It’.

As has already been said the ingredients to an interesting mix were present its just that something was off with the cooking. Sometimes it is the acting that is lacking but here, although fluctuating it did for the most part eventually hit its pace as the film progressed. Newcomer Lydia Chandler (Dana) particularly impressed, no more than when the camera managed to capture her wracked with fear and waiting her turn within her captors ‘living’ pantry. Hers was an interesting performance in that it evolved to a point at which she really did embody shades of the screaming queens of horrors past.

Stand out performance also arrived via a ludicrously over-the-top turn by Bill Oberst, Jr., here as Dale the sometimes ranger. Madder than a sack of rabid weasels his performance alone is worth navigating the films easily consumed 90 minutes.

So even if it did lapse at times Dismal had by its end grown on me. Its flashes of promise never really dulled its flaming inadequacies but they did intrigue me enough to want to see more. Though hopefully the good folk at Fearmakers Studios will next time shy away from the cheap and nasty digital effects that they so ineffectually dabbled with here. Distracting and nasty (not in a gored way) they will probably for many define Dismals lowest ebb. A fun jog through the woods nonetheless that offers up a film that is a long way from the worst of its kind.

Dismal is now available on DVD after a run on Time Warner Cable, Comcast On Demand and Showtime.