Dead Sea

Well, after months and months of failed attempts to catch Brandon Slagle's Dead Sea at one of the local conventions, I couldn't wait any longer. So I bought the DVD online and patiently waited for it to arrive. Now, from the cover of the DVD and the description of the film, one might either write this off as just another corny attempt at a 'Creature Feature,' or mistake it for one of it's intentionally cheesy counterparts like Piranha or Sharknado. Neither of which is accurate. In fact, Dead Sea is a story about a small town and the dynamics of the people who have inhabited it for their whole lives. And even though the villain of the film is a 'monster,' this film focuses more on the evil that lurks within the people that we call our neighbors. The DVD is available for purchase online at Amazon and other retailers.A marine biologist is sent on assignment back to her hometown to investigate the mysterious deaths of thousands of fish in an inland salt water lake. But when she arrives, her past quickly begins to catch up with her. From a strained relationship with her father to her old classmates disdain toward her return, everything reminds her of exactly why she left in the first place. But as startling revelations make their way to light, the towns dark secrets become exposed. And in the end, Victoria is left wondering whether the real monster lies below the surface of the water or deep inside the hearts of the residents of the small town.Mr. Slagle's film is beautifully shot, using an occasionally vibrant color scale against the extremely bleak backdrop provided by the location itself. There is a sense of despair in every frame, and the setting itself induces a deep feeling of claustrophobia. And more than anything, I appreciate the decision to leave the monster almost entirely to the viewers imagination, which is what separates this film from feeling like a 'B-Movie'. But that isn't the only thing that sets this one apart, the script itself is remarkably well written and actually quite poignant at times. There is a scene between Victoria and her father toward the end of the film that plays like an emotional punch in the gut. And the cast is fantastic, with a stand out performance from Alexis Iancono as the highly damaged Victoria, who returns to town only to quickly remember why she left in the first place. Brandon Slagle is cold and unfeeling as Kier, though as the film progresses and we learn the reasons behind his disconnection, it's almost enough to make us empathize with him. And the always amazing Devanny Pinn is wonderfully apathetic as Auriel, a young girl much like Victoria, who feels trapped and desperate to find a way out.My only small issue with this film was in the post-production, and it isn't even really an issue as much as a matter of taste. For me, the dialogue sits a little too low in the mix, which forced me to rewind a few times during the film because I was afraid I had missed something. I recently read an article where director Christopher Nolan defended the decision to mix his dialogue in the same manner on Interstellar, and I can appreciate an artistic choice as such. It does, however, make it more difficult for me to fully immerse myself in a film. That being said, this did not take away from my enjoyment of the movie as a whole, and I would still highly recommend Dead Sea for any fans of the genre. Order your copy today. Cheers.Grade: B.- Leo Franciswww.thechildrenofsamhain.com

This is the most boring film I ever watched, I almost fell asleep not even half way through the movie. My biggest complaint is the cover art shows more of the creature than the film does. The creature doesn't even have five minutes of air time and the "star" of the movie, James Duval, has maybe ten minutes on film. Why give an actor top billing when he doesn't even get 10 minutes on film?!?The entire overseas army segment could have been left out of the movie. The only purpose it served was to lengthened the movie, which would have been more merciful if the movie was shorter (less boredom). Amazon should have a no star rating just for this one.This next statement may contain SPOILERS. Supposedly the townspeople could not leave the town, yet two of them joined the military and left overseas. Granted, they did return, but how and why did they leave? There was not a military draft, so the two men joined voluntarily and left the town. The entire movie was a waste of time. Unless you have no need for your time or money, I would not even rent this one.The movie is from Origins Releasing and I have watched other movies from them and found them entertaining. Granted they are not going to win any Oscars, but they are worth watching, especially Supercollider and Vampyre Nation.

A complete and total waste of time. Amazon really needs to review its review system, to allow people to post zero-star reviews.Let's start with video quality. While the color and sharpness were fine, the frame-rate throughout was like watching something over a 2400k modem. Lots of jerky stop-start stuff, like they'd accidentally filmed in fast-motion and needed to slow it down.As to the actual story, well, take the most repulsive characters ever, mix in a "something-something-monster" plot that makes no sense, never show the monster, and leave with a "So what happens in 30 years?" question and you've got something to rival "Marina Monster" as something utterly terrible that should have been deleted from the camcorder.Do yourself a favor. You've been putting off replacing the disposal, or one of the ceiling fans. Spend your time doing that, and you'll end up with a working disposal or ceiling fan. Watch this, you'll wish you'd spent the time drinking. The first option is much healthier.Avoid this movie at all costs. It's not bad enough to be funny, and nothing is good enough to waste your time.

This is one of the worst movies I've seen. I admit I was swayed to purchase by the cover and my love of horror/sci-fi.You never really see the creature except for a blurry photo and extremely dark attack scenes.The plot makes absolutely no sense and the story is very weak. I'm willing to give the actors a pass due to the lack of a coherent script.Every 30 years the creature appears and the town folks sacrifice themselves until it's full and goes away. The outside world apparently doesn't notice the uptick in missing persons. Why doesn't someone strap a bomb to themselves and blow the creature up? Lots of violence (even though no one seems to be able to shoot) no sex or nudity. This movie is not worth a free viewing let alone purchasing it.

Huge let down. Usually bad critiques are a little tough. Or, I am more forgiving. Not THIS TIME! What a shameless dud. There is no reason to recommend this flop to anyone for any reason. You will never see it on the Sy Fy Channel or anywhere else because the appearance of a monster, even in the last two minutes of the film must count as some entertainment value. A monster on the cover of a movie filled with nothing but splashing and screaming once in a while does not count as anything but fraud on the part of the seller. If there was a beasty in there it was so weak and poorly shown that I have completely forgotten it. My main regret is the wasted money and time. STAY AWAY!!!! FAR FAR AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a film I brought following a recommendation from Amazon. Wow, it was a complete pile of dog vomit. Poor dialogue and storyline throughout. I was waiting for something exciting to happen but I guess I must have blinked. Don't be fooled in to buying or even watching this DVD from the artwork of the DVD cover. You'll be bitterly disappointed. Suppose to be a horror but you would have more of a fright watching the Simpsons. Avoid watching these pathetic low budget films because they're hardly worth your time.

Usually I rely on the reviews of other buyers on Amazon, but I never wrote one, as English is not my native idiom. But I had to do it on this case, because I was disappointed with this DVD.This documentary is more a amateur vacations movie. The members of the group are almost always posing for the camera and even waving to it. Several times they are included on touristic groups visiting some of the places showed. The camera is always carelessly handheld, with annoying image shaking, scene repetitions and boring in and out zooms. Although the narration is quite interesting, the image quality is fair and the edited scene transitions are almost always using irritating digital effects, as if the editor wanted to use every resource of the video software.And another issue: this film came on a DVD-R (a writable disc) instead of an industrial printed DVD, and this is not stated on Amazon's description, not even in the box. The problem is that DVD-R have a life span inferior to industrial DVD, and are more prone to problems with DVD players. And it is like buying a book and receiving "xerox" copies of it.The only positive point are the scenes filmed on the Dead Sea environment, but even with those we have a hard time trying to ignore the image shake.

I'd seen this around for ages and finaly bought it.......yeah leave it be there no creature until the last few seconds of the film and it not worth the wait the idea for the film is OK but made very badly

Excellent condition and as coment will use again