‘8 Found Dead’ is an interesting title, filled with great performances and a duo of antagonists who steal every scene they’re in – oddly are the ones you’re left routing for.
The film’s timeline is not linear, chronologically at least, but essentially the film focusses on a remote rental property in the desert. With one group of socialites, two separate couples hoping to party, things are somewhat derailed when they arrive finding its already occupied by an older couple. With all struggling to prove legitimacy to the rental owing to a lack of signal, what starts out socially awkward suddenly becomes something more sinister with all of the would-be party goers being killed throughout the evening.
Now you might think that sort of synopsis would require a spoiler tag, however here’s the thing, because the move isn’t told in chronological order, we also have a further sub-plot, and that’s from the polices perspective as they effectively provide the exposition as they reconstruct the evenings events as part of their investigation.
That, and the title of the movie is ‘8 Found Dead’; sort of gives you a clue when you consider there’s a total cast of 9!
So yes, slightly unconventional, but its familiar enough once the plot gets going, and there’s enough crazy to keep the film flowing at a pace, given the lack of conventional horror kills. I guess for genres this move is more akin to a dark thriller than say a slasher movie – despite its genre tendencies.
As I’ve already illuded to, the plotline is chopped up, and as each set of couples arrive to find the mad couple at different times, this means that pieces of their story are told in an episodic fashion, with each part of the story leaving on small cliffhangers before cutting to the progression of one of the other groups of characters. This really helps keep the film moving at a pace.
The devil truly is in the details and which the performances are truly stellar, especially those of our unhinged couple, the scripting is tight, and at times conversation goes from playful to the wrong side of socially acceptable in the blink of an eye, and the sound design and camera works adds subtle elements which help to ramp up the tension when events go from benign to malign.
Whilst much of the movie is dialogue driven, the film does deliver some violence, although the various bloody after shots are somewhat more graphic than any of the on-screen violence; despite the film attempting to fall in with more traditional slasher style towards the end of the movie. The movie has some decent practical effects, and to be honest I would say that, as you’d expect, the stalk and slash parts do break the movies conceivability a tad – especially one scene towards the end of the film involving the police arrival that I found completely contrived to the point I rewatched it to see if I’d misunderstood something!
That said its far from a deal breaker!
Overall, it is difficult to offer too much critique for the movie without giving up too much about its numerous twists and turns. I would say, however, that the film is similar in context and feel to say ‘Creep’ and the antagonist couple reminded me of the couple in ‘Hounds of Love’ – although ‘8 Found Dead’ is far less depraved than that – and so if you like that real, yet unhinged sort of serial killer flick, then this could be a great choice.
