Deadfall (2000) Poster

(2000)

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6/10
Remake, Tribute or Plagiarism of 'Evil Dead'?
claudio_carvalho24 August 2004
On her birthday, Dora (Audrey Lowe) and her friends Hope (Kirstin Leigh) and Rudy (Brady Fischer) travel with her boyfriend Stanley (Patrick Lawlor) to the cabin of his uncle, a man who studied superstitions and other supernatural matters, in the woods to spend a couple of days together. Rudy finds a weird box in the basement, and brings it to the living room. Dora opens it and an evil force is released. Rudy is possessed by the unleashed devil, threatening his friends along a night of horror.

I do not know whether this Vince Di Meglio wants to remake or to pay a tribute to Sam Raimi's 'Evil Dead', but I did not see the name of this great director in the credits. Therefore, I believe that 'Deadfall' is indeed a plagiarism of that masterpiece of horror. Anyway, there are good effects and in the end, this is a watchable movie. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): A Força Sinistra' ('The Sinister Force')

Note: On 08 December 2021, I saw this film again.
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Evil Dead tribute, Shot for $13,000
Katatonia3 November 2003
Deadfall is well above your average horror movie that you'll see on the video store shelves. It's obviously a tribute to Raimi's original Evil Dead masterpiece. Some might call it a ripoff, but I am positive it's a tribute to the sub-genre. It was made for only $13,000 and shot on 16mm film. It uses imaginative camera work and bargain special effects to get the job done well. I also enjoyed the music score used throughout the movie, it was a droning ambiance of horror recalling the glory days of the late 1980's. It also does not take itself too seriously, check out the TV for outrageous B-Movie clips used in the movie!

I must say I really enjoyed this movie. It was much better than I expected for such a limited budget film. This is how you can make an professional and enjoyable horror film on a micro-budget. This was the first feature directed by Vince Di Meglio. I am impressed enough to highly recommend this to fans of low-budget horror.
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2/10
o dear
toothij27 January 2006
pure comedy.its gets a score of 2 from me. this film made me laugh even though it is supposed to be a horror film. Watched at the age of 14 with two friends, one was scared, me and my other friend however found the film hilarious for a horror i would say the effects are decent of its time, but the overall throw together of dialogue, plot and mise en scene are poor. one example would be when the chainsaw comes out of the plug, if anybody could possible be scared of this then i pity the fool. it is pure comedy in certain parts and the acting is that of what i would cast in a spoof film.

2 out of 10 is pushing, however i recommend it as i think its a laugh a minute film.
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3/10
Another cheap rip-off B-Horror. Avoid.
Zombified_6607 April 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Though at times quite tense, Deadfall unfortunately never gets it's act together enough to be a good B-Horror. It's main problem is how totally derivative it is. It's almost blow for blow identical in terms of plot to Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, but has none of that films style or bowel-shaking shocks. I hate this theory that seems prevalent in the Horror genre that 'dur-hey, that's doing well, if we try to make the same film people'll love us'. It doesn't quite work like that guys.

Just because you have a small budget doesn't mean you have to spend a small amount of time on the film. The whole of Deadfall gives you the disturbing feeling that most of the movie is taken from the first take of every scene. The acting sucks, the effects are non-existent and the storyline as I previously noted is so derivative that it's almost insulting.

The most aggravating thing about Deadfall is this though. If a little more time was spent on it, or a little less time was spent watching the actors looking terrified then it would probably have been a cool little B-feature. I've watched a lot of low-budget movies, and hey, none of them are exactly Casablanca, but movies like Dead and Dying, 7 Mummies and Curse of the Forty-Niner make sure that the film is still exciting and imaginative despite it's obvious limitations. Deadfall has a serious imagination deficit going on, and given that this is a 15, the major splatter of Evil Dead is the only thing they didn't rip off, and to be honest a bit of comedy gore would have gone a long way to improving matters.

I'm a big fan of low-budget B-Movie horror, and I think the genre has a lot of great movies to offer viewers, but Deadfall is not one of them. Hopefully sooner or later everyone will be wise to cheap rip-offs like this and they'll become harder to market. Unfortunately I don't see that time coming soon.
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3/10
pretty awful
lilmisnawty24 August 2002
Theres really not a great deal to say, this film is about 30 years too late. Evil spirits are accidentally unleashed by four unsuspecting teens, the spirit goes on to possess them, blah blah blah, you really must have seen this all before. In its defence I must say there were quite a few jumpy moments where I had to cover my face and couldn't look, it was these moments that made me not ask the video rental shop for my money back.

If you liked this you'd like the Exorcist.
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7/10
Deadfall
lilsister_243 April 2005
I thought the movie was actually pretty good.I especially like the character "Rudy".I think that it takes a lot of talent to not only write and produce a movie,but to also act in it.I dated Brady Fischer while he was making the movie and had the privilege of seeing hours of footage before Vince and him put it together.I have no way to contact Brady anymore,it's been years and if you could see that he somehow sees this comment I'd be forever grateful.My name is Heather Moore and I am Brady Fischer's #1 fan!My e-mail address is lilsister24@msn.com and if you could please pass it on to Brady Fischer I'd be forever grateful. Knowing the brains behind this movie makes it that more enjoyable.
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Oh my GOD!
sahuagin4 July 2002
Warning: Spoilers
~WARNING~ SPOILERS MAY BE CONTAINED! (Although you shouldn't watch this film so it doesn't matter :D

Well... what can I say? I rented this expecting the worst which is just as well, as that's what I got. Two couples go to stay in a family cabin in the woods (giving it a very Evil Dead premise) and find a scaaaaary box in the basement which of course in the fine tradition of all horror movies, they have to open. They manage to unleash eeeeevil which goes on to possess their friend.

What follows is basically a rip off of Evil Dead - their friends get possessed, they try to kill them (but of course he comes back every time just like in all good "scary" films). It employs pretty cheap scare tactics of BOO! I just jumped around a corner calibre, and clown dolls springing out of boxes...

In all, i'd have to say, don't bother with this film unless you are as bored as I was, it's good for a giggle, but don't expect to be scared ;)
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dreadful.
crazychipmunk6 September 2001
If I could have just written more than a one word review of this film I would just said one thing, "dreadful". However, you have to write four lines worth of stuff for it to be printed. But what more can you say about a film that just steals concepts from Evil Dead and still fails to be any good. Actually this may be a good film to use to show people why the Evil Dead films succeed in being good horror movies i.e. don't expect people to be scared when nothing happens for 50 minutes then one of the characters engages in a poorly staged zombie fight and then have other character fall asleep for four hours to wake up and film out that nothing has happened.

dreadful.
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