Deadline (1980) User Reviews

Sheer madness

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 19 October 2020]

Vinegar Syndrome has a near-magic touch, finding movies that once gathered dust in the back racks of mom and pop video store horror departments and restoring them and doing their homework, getting the filmmakers to contribute and be interviewed so that the fullest picture of what they made can be finally displayed.

Deadline is a great example of what they do.

Writer Steven Lessey (Stephen Young, Soylent Green) is a horror writer who wants to be seen as an artist but is only known for his bloodier stories, such as The Executioners, a film in which children tie up their grandmothers and set them ablaze, or the shower scene bloodbath - quite literally - that opens the film or the gonzo psychic goat that forces a man to shred his own arms off or the appearance by Rough Trade as a band empowered by German scientists to make people explode via their bowels or the children clawing their way out of their mothers. His imagination is quite horrible in all the very greatest of ways and Deadline is at its best when these moments of insanity blast into the frame and by the very end, threaten to overwhelm reality.

While all that art against commerce war is going on inside his head, his marriage is falling apart and the horror of his writing intrudes into his children's lives in a very shocking way. His agent responds by plying him with coke and women of loose morals, which leads to a brawl while watching his latest film that decimates the fanciest of houses before the drama leads to its foregone conclusion.

Deadline is a film that shocked me in parts and stayed with me way longer than I thought it would. It's crazy seeing it in such high definition, as this is the kind of film that belongs marked with tracking issues. While he has worked mainly in television, I've heard that director Mario Azzopardi has also made a fact-based film called Savage Messiah which is the equal of this film.

This is everything you want from a horror film, whether you simply want an effects-based shocker or something that makes you think about the people who create the horror that helps you escape. Make it your own film. See it your own way.

Intriguing Little Gem

[delbruk · 7/10 · 8 August 2003]

Make no mistake this is a good horror film. It has some nice chills, good amount of gore and some disturbing moments that will be with you after the film has ended. But Azzopardi has attempted not just the usual horror flick here; he has fashioned an allegorical gem based on the debate over violence in the media using a horror writer and his family as the focus. Azzopardi has also crafted a post modern film which is self-commenting, non-linear, and offers no definitive resolution for all of his characters which can tend to instill an unsatisfying or muddled ending. However, this film should be viewed as ahead of its time in its treatment of the subject matter and original way of presenting it. The style of the film owes much more to the Italian horror masters (Argento, Fulci, etc.) than it does to North American cinema as Azzopardi, made his mark in Canadian cinema. It should also be noted that while the film is allegory, it was apparent to me that Stephen King was the basis for the main character (even his name is Stephen) and pre-dates any self-referential treatment (The Dark Half) from King by almost a decade. In this regard, the film remains highly original in theme and still well worth watching. Bottom Line: good horror film that will evoke Italian cinema but you must be willing to put the pieces together on your own...a thinking person's horror film.

Hot mess

[ofumalow · 5/10 · 16 April 2016]

This weird Canadian quasi-horror film, about a writer of horror films whose life is falling apart at the height of his commercial success, is disjointed and crude in many respects. By accident, it winds up being pretty much exactly what the protagonist bemoans he's being forced by market pressure to create over and over again: A crass exercise in gory genre nonsense unimproved by much in the way of guiding intelligence, logic or ideas. Still, it's not at all your usual horror movie, and the ways in which it's bad are kind of interesting in themselves.

The dominant element in "Deadline" isn't its horror content (though there are plenty of scenes from the hero's fictional work arbitrarily tossed in, involving killer nuns, bloody shower deaths, et al.), but its shrill misanthropy. The protagonist isn't an especially sympathetic figure—he's often defensive, egotistical and rude—but the movie makes sure everyone around him is much worse. While he may neglect his children somewhat in his obsessive attention to work, his awful wife (who has no such commitments, unless apparent infidelity counts) neglects them out of sheer boredom and selfishness, then rails at him for being a bad parent. She's a one- dimensional shrew. Equally shrill and obnoxious are his producer, his new movie's prima-donna star, the students who criticize his work as worthless exploitation when he's given a university award (though he secretly knows they're right)…nearly everyone here is demanding, shallow and parasitical. Even his kids are directed to act in a sort of constant-tantrum mode, though admittedly we're meant to understand that this is the fault of bad parenting.

Of course eventually, after a tragic event, the writer hero snaps tether and can no longer distinguish beyond his imaginary horror and real life. This is supposed to be his mentally unhinged reaction against a world that continues to press him into ever-more-violent, disgusting, soulless (but lucrative) creations, insensitive to his disillusionment and trauma. Like everything else in "Deadline," however, this is handled in such an over-the-top, simplistic way it can't be taken seriously.

The film's writer-director Mario Azzopardi only made one feature (in his native Malta) before this, then went on to a very long, still-active mainstream career in (mostly) Canadian TV. Given that, it's hard not to see "Deadline" as a likely last gasp of artist-as-an-angry-young-man spleen. (He was just 30 when he made it, though for whatever reason the film wasn't released for another five years.) It's a fairly incoherent statement of that type, but it sure has a lot of rancor to vent. The earlier horror stuff is so pointedly gratuitous it's possible it's just there to create a commercially viable package. But the loathing directed at the film industry and at the hero's wife is so central here that one can only imagine Azzopardi had suffered some not-atypical embittering career setbacks and a very bitter divorce when he conceived this movie. No idea if that's true, but it's as good an explanation of "Deadline's" peculiar, vehement, watchably odd content as any. It's like a slicker, less grungy equivalent to Abel Ferrera's concurrent (in filming if not release) "The Driller Killer," which similarly poses as a horror movie but is mostly an expression of the filmmaker's griping that nobody appreciates a real artist, and how awful people are in general.

Attention-grabbing departure from reality.

[EyeAskance · 16 October 2003]

This overlooked analysis of a man spiraling into madness is surprisingly brainy, and skillfully realized on meager rations.

A horror novelist's dark fantasy world collides with his personal reality, causing a landslide of hallucinatory dementia within both his family life and his his professional endeavors. A very ominous and disorienting Canadian-made nightmare oozing with abstract, disturbing imagery, DEADLINE also benefits from able performers and edgy directorial flourishes. These refinements, conjoint with a conceptually alluring premise, catapult this film above and beyond most horror menu side-orders. As an extra bonus, the legendary new-wave band ROUGH TRADE makes a welcome appearance, just as they were charting with the single HIGH SCHOOL CONFIDENTIAL.

7/10...definitely worthy of a rental, if not a purchase.

Interesting but flawed

[udar55 · 5/10 · 17 December 2005]

This Canadian film is often sold as a horror film but it is actually a twisted drama. Stephen Young stars as Steven Lessey, a successful author and screenwriter who is having a bad case of writer's block. The works he has profited from don't satisfy him now and he is searching for "true horror" to write about. As the film progresses, his personal life begins to unravel alongside a series of hallucinations.

DEADLINE is a mixed bag. Its biggest flaw is that there are no likable characters in the film. Young's character is a jerk and his wife is just as bad. I couldn't care less what happens to these self centered people. Director Mario Azzopardi also makes sure to distance mainstream audiences by filling the scenes from Lessey's head with extremely graphic gore. It is well done but probably sends the audiences looking for a drama running. However, the film does make some interesting statements on the influence of violence in cinema and some of the hallucination scenes are truly haunting. Cindy Hinds, the young girl from Cronenberg's THE BROOD, co-stars as Lessey's daughter.

horror enters the life of a horror writer; lots of blood, and some real-life horror

[FieCrier · 6/10 · 17 February 2005]

Entertaining horror movie that offers gore, and a little hypocritical criticism of gore. Pretty well done.

A mass-market horror novelist who also adapts all his works for films is having trouble on the set of his latest film, as well as writing the next book or screenplay he's contractually obligated to do. His wife and three kids are neglected, and he is abusive to her when they are together.

When he lectures at the university he used to teach literature at, several of the students in the audience criticize his works. He's reminded of what he used to teach, and what he'd said to the director he works with when he first got into films: that once they were successful, they'd do something different. He thinks he's ready to write something different, but the director wants to stick with stuff he feels will sell.

Scenes from the above storyline are intercut with scenes from either the author's movies, or ideas he has for movies. Movies are also shown within the movie, as when part of one of his films is screened for the students, and he shows another at a party. They're pretty bloody for the most part!

The pressure of having to come up with a new work, trouble with his family, and a horrific event that happens within his family take him to the breaking point.

A love letter to... THIS SICK INDUSTRY OF MONEY MAKERS!!

[Fernando-Rodrigues · 5/10 · 2 October 2021]

It has an interesting idea that doesn't translate well into the movie. Editing has some problems too, and the acting isn't as captivating. At least it tries to sail through different ways using a common trope in horror movies and even delivers some interesting discussions about the relation between audiovisual works and violence and its impacts on society.

Clips from the twisted imagination of a struggling horror author!

[Coventry · 6/10 · 12 February 2009]

"Deadline" is an obscure, inventive, intriguing and occasionally very engrossing little Canadian-produced horror sleeper, but at the same time also difficult and even somewhat risky to recommend to fellow genre fanatics because it is certainly an awkward and downbeat movie. Basically a dysfunctional family drama and a portrait of downwards mental spiral, "Deadline" also boosts a whole lot of sickening and extra-gratuitous violence and I'm really not sure if people will appreciate this combination, let alone the robust and sudden changes in tone. Even though the gory bits undoubtedly form the best and most memorable part of the film, they clearly serve no purpose other than fill up space and attract wider audiences. Steven Lessey is a horror author whose previous scripts were hugely profitable blockbuster hits. So now, and obviously, Steven's producer nags around his head for a new script. But Steven wants to do something different and struggles with a writer's block. Being obsessed with this work, Steven doesn't notice how his wife becomes a frequent visitor of drug parties or how his neglected children play deadly games they've seen in daddy's movies. The sick & twisted horror fragments are either clips from Steven's supposed previous films (like a marvelous scene involving a black goat and an agricultural machine) or potential new concept for his new script. Particularly these fragments are outrageously demented and uncompromisingly shocking! Some of them really ought to be elaborated into a full-length horror movie, like the idea of suicidal fetuses and especially the idea of little children tying up and setting fire to their own grandmother. "Deadline" is pretty good but it could have been a lot better. In the hands of that other super-talented Canadian director David Cronenberg, for example, the processing of these themes and ambiances would have resulted in the ultimately petrifying cinematic nightmare. Still, writer/director Mario Azzopardi definitely didn't do a bad job. The atmosphere is admirably moody and the film is literally stuffed with unsettling imagery. "Deadline" is an interesting film, to say the least. Proceed at your own risk

I don't want to identify with horror.

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 1 May 2023]

So says a young man early in the film. A classful of of promising adult writers of varying ages interview horror film writer Stephen Young, slamming him for his exploitation of gore, and it's obvious that all that interests him is being a commercial success, not an artistic one. He has all sorts of family problems, and no wonder. In his fantasies are women drowning in a tub full of blood, a man being sent to slaughter as a vindictive, demonic sheep looks on, and a mother set on fire in her bed by her own children.

Watch at your own peril as this is completely gory, but discussions about what creates valuable art is a definite highlight. I can do without the excessive flowing of blood, severed limbs and the slicing of flesh for the man slowly chopped to bits. I've watched many slasher films of grindhouse movies recently, and this is by far the most visually vile. But I give it a higher rating because of the artistic discussions that lead to arguments. The soundtrack is loud and headache inducing, and there really isn't any purpose other than to overflow the screen with blood.

Writing Can Be Hazardous To Your Health, Part 2

[Vomitron_G · 6/10 · 23 November 2011]

What a curious and weird Canadian production this turned out to be. About a horror screenwriter on a slow descent into depravity while trying to come up with his next screenplay, all this under pressure of his producer. There isn't much of a story present to carry the film, but other things manage to do this. First off, there are plenty of scenes portraying the kind of fiction our writer writes about. We're talking some graphic scenes of gore & bloodshed here, so be prepared for that. Then it seems this film tries to raise some issues about these topics. Like why write about such extremities? Like a producer that's only interested in having his screenwriter deliver what sells: sex & violence. Soon our writer can't get another coherent scene on paper anymore, and his mind starts deteriorating accordingly. His cynical wife isn't of much help. He starts having violent outbursts. His kids get scared. Then comes alcohol, drugs, women. Not sure what to think of this film, as it all seems so pointless in the end. But it was, uhm, an interesting watch.

I did not get this one

[selfdestructo · 4/10 · 17 April 2023]

Too much melodrama, crying, tantrums, and other shrill business for my liking. Easy to assume this movie is a comment on graphic violence's supposed psychological damage on people, as well as children. Ho-hum. The writer in the movie does come up with some twisted story ideas, I'll give him that. But it's all haphazardly edited, and the "twist" ending, if you want to call it that, has got to be THE biggest movie trope about a story involving a writer. This movie (from 1980) does predate new millenium horror, in that there are zero likeable characters.

I'm a big fan of Vinegar Syndrome, but they clearly don't have the clout to get the types of extras that a Scream Factory or an Arrow can pull in. This is the second VS release in a row I've watched where they interview the cinematographer. Both obsessed with "lighting." Does not make for a thrilling conversation. (Update: Clout on the rise)

A horror writer's life falls apart

[Woodyanders · 8/10 · 9 June 2020]

Popular and successful horror writer Steven Lessey (a fine and credible performance by Steven Young) tries to juggle his increasingly messy personal life with the demands of meeting a strict deadline on his latest horror movie script.

Director/co-writer Mario Azzopardi offers an intelligent, intriguing, and provocative examination on the meaty themes of art versus commerce, illusion versus reality, how being a success in a specific genre can become its own trap, and whether one's work offers a trenchant commentary on blight or just only adds further gross insult on top of already existing filth and degradation (Lessey's work definitely fits into the latter category). Moreover, the domestic drama aspect gives this film an unexpectedly wrenching poignancy, with everything coming brilliantly together at the end with Lessey penning a screenplay about the self-created wreckage of his messed-up life.

The sound acting qualifies as another definite asset, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Young, Sharon Masters as Lassey's fed-up wife Elizabeth, Marvin Goldhar as crass and overbearing schlock producer Burt Horowitz, Jeannie Elias as prima donna actress Darlene Winters, Cindy Hinds as sweet and concerned daughter Sharon, Phillip Leonard as angry older son David, and Tod Woodcroft as sensitive youngest son David. In addition, the gore set pieces certainly deliver the outrageously gruesome goods: Disgusting highlights include a farmer being chewed up in a thresher, cannibal nuns eating a priest, and a punk band's blaring music causing several winos to poop themselves to death. An excellent sleeper.

Great Fictional Biopic/ Horror

[gengar843 · 7/10 · 24 April 2021]

Horror writer a la Stephen King has personal problems which in the end overwhelm him.. vignette scenes of writer's imagination include everything from bad-seed kids to demonic priests and nuns, some of this is downright scary!.. in his actual life, the writer experiences problems with his wife (coke-addicted adulteress) and business (hostile relations with producer and star actress), but most of all a public (and private) backlash against his work (reminiscent of the later IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS), which comes to a screeching crash when his children play out a deadly scene from one of his film adaptations.. scarier still perhaps is his descent into depressive madness, with a drugged-out hooker party captivating the line between real and surreal (even though it's real), and the ever-present memory of his dead daughter in his, and our, face, reminding that wealth and fame don't conquer every tragedy.. Stephen Young does a great deadpan job, and the music is haunting, especially the closing theme..

Unsettling But Gravely Serious to the Point of Self-Parody

[jfrentzen-942-204211 · 4/10 · 1 February 2024]

DEADLINE postulates a horror novelist whose gory fantasies intrude on his real life, and eventually drive him mad.

Steve Lesse (Stephen Young) sleepwalks through an unsatisfying lifestyle despite enjoying success from the sale of his novels, one of which is being made into a movie. At a college lecture, he shows an upchuck-inducing movie clip to an audience that complains about the intense ultra-violence in his work. Later, he becomes distraught over incompetence on the movie set, and at the end of the day must face an disgruntled wife. His marriage deteriorates and he has no time for his children.

Director Azzopardi, who wrote the script with Dick Oleksiak, contrasts this situation with Lesse's sick fantasies, which play out in his mind as well as in the story proper. For example, a bizarre segment showing the murderous antics of a vampire nun, turns out not to be happening in Lesse's head but as a scene playing out on a movie set.

Once the study in contrasts in set up, however, Azzopardi is content to merely follow Lesse in decline, repeating the is-it-real-or-not routine for 90 depressing minutes. Lesse's wife becomes a drug addict, his two sons kill their sister (imitating a scene in one of his movies), and understandably he cannot deliver his next script on time. The only time the Canadian-made DEADLINE breaks during its own downhill slide is during the little girl's murder, in which Lesse fantasizes he sees her hanging by the neck on a movie screen the moment she dies for real.

If this weren't hard enough to endure, the atrocities rattling around in Lesse's head are variously trite (e.g., fetus kills mother during birth) or nonsensical (man is chewed up in a possessed snow blower). The horror is expertly gross but does not comment adequately on Lesse's real versus "reel" life.

In the final scene, Lesse finally completes his script and points a loaded gun at the camera/viewer. Perhaps he becomes aware of the audience watching the movie DEADLINE, which in turn unreels his self-destruction. In his madness, Lesse attempts to blow us away. This parting shot further dulls Azzopardi's anti-violence sentiment, which had already collapsed an hour earlier in a welter of spraying blood and crunching bone.

Self-Commenting Horror Film Could Use More Resolute Finale

[tutbagsusa · 4 September 2001]

Horror movies that reference their own genre have been more prevalent lately, but it seems they come attached with a certain degree of mordant comedy, signifying that the directors probably aren't completely convinced of their own convictions. But that's not really a problem with this film. DEADLINE is a horror picture that begins like any typical slasher film would, but later becomes more laid back in an effort to reflect on itself from an idealistic point of view. The film chiefly appears to be another examination of the effects of graphic violence in cinema on its viewers, particularly child viewers. The narrative framework for all this is built upon the story of a horror movie screenwriter whose life begins to disintegrate when he begins writing for more violent and more lowbrow productions than he'd prefer. As to be expected, it eventually leads to a collapse of his sanity.

I liked the film for its first two-thirds because director Azzapardi was trying to do something different and even attempting a resonant observation or two along the way. But like so many of these self-referential type films, it paints itself into a corner in the end to where it doesn't really have an ending. It rather just trails off in the final minutes, not knowing how to tie its various story threads. Nonetheless, its worth a look since much of it does hold some promise, at least before the third act.

seduction of the innocents

[jonathan-577 · 7/10 · 21 April 2009]

Well, Godard said that the proper review of a movie is another movie, and at times this reads like a feature-length adaptation of the Marshall Delaney writeup that got Cronenberg kicked out of his apartment. (It even borrows Cindy Hinds from The Brood.) The setup is transparent: Azzopardi, an acclaimed Maltese theater director, finds himself making films in Canada at the height of the crassness boom. So he makes a movie about a slumming intellectual who writes horror films, ba-dumb-bum. It's a bit of a Frederic Wertham job, that's for sure, it unconditionally posits a cause-effect relationship between on-screen violence and the seduction of the innocents. But it works OK if you don't approach it as an absolute moral judgment, but as a fascinating expression of the frustrations felt by artists working in this economic environment: many of them would really rather have been doing something else, and this fact rarely works in a positive way like it does here. And it also partially redeems another Canuck kiss of death, the movie where absolutely every character is a hateful snot. The redemption isn't in the hazy morality, but in the cinematic sense: the insightful but subtle camera placements, the clever use of montage, and the powerful surreal imagery at the end. Also, you can't accuse it of being humorless when the first diagetic film clip we see is of a murderous snowblower manipulated by a psychic sheep! If it weren't so flawed, it probably wouldn't be as interesting.

Horror of Writer's Block

[sol- · 6/10 · 22 July 2017]

Between an unfaithful wife, children who will not leave him alone and a producer who keeps reminding him of impending deadlines, penning a new script proves challenging for an esteemed horror screenwriter in this Canadian oddity. The editing design takes a bit of getting to used to with the film every so often cutting away from the on-screen action to horror episodes ranging from a blood shower to a woman burned by her grandchildren to an evil goat. As the movie progresses though, it becomes clear that these cutaways are reflective of his thought process and how he is constantly haunted by the things that he has written about, especially at a university conference where students tell him off for "peddling degenerate stuff". This leads to some fascinating discussions as the writer claims that horror is "a way of identifying with things that we might otherwise never identify with". Intriguing as 'Deadline' might sound, it is not the easiest film to warm to, unusual editing aside. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, especially not the arrogant lead actress in his most recent film and his selfish wife; he is not exactly a model parent either though, and it is at times hard to care what happens to him. The film is, however, quite encapsulating when focused on the horror ideas that haunt him, and what happens to his daughter late in the piece injects much food for thought.

Fascinating and Memorable Twist on the Genre

[sammymayson · 7/10 · 18 August 2023]

A writer's life spirals out of control due to the controversy over his screenplays, his neglected children, his alcoholic wife, and his own personal demons.

Deadline is a cold, cynical and brutal attempt at a social commentary on the effects of the horror genre on those who watch it and those who make it in the first place. Acting and dialogue are a few notches above the material in most of these sorts of movies, but you get the feeling that the filmmakers were more interested in making a drama than a traditional horror/suspense film with most of the scenes of terror relegated to clips from the lead's films or odd dream sequences or hallucinations.

Even so, many are effective and Deadline should be commended for trying something different. It's best to go into this film with an open mind and not expecting a traditional horror film with all the requisite beats.

I love this film

[BronsonFan · 10/10 · 23 January 2009]

This is perhaps my favorite horror film of all time, the relentless gloom and the downward sparrow of all the characters lives within it. Leave you the viewer feeling exhausted , this strain on your emotions leave you feeling venerable. Through out this we are exposed to a fair amount of random violence. The main character Steven Lessey who is a successful writer that makes his living off writing horror novels , that have good fortune in Hollywood. One occasion shows him doing a questions and answer's at a university , upon showing a clip for his new film , after the audience witness the morbid acts of some of his art. They use it against him, pointing there fingers and asking him how dare he create this senseless violence. Steven tries to justify the metaphors that are the under layer of his work, but as the audience pounces more on him, we witness he has no solid answer's.

It is soon after this, that his art starts to invade his daily life. Being frustrated and under pressure, he takes on a change . One that creates a big weight for all those around him. The children are caught in the middle of all this, and it is very interesting in there part of Steven's fall into the gutter.

I feel that there is so much more I could say about this film, but at the same time , I would risk the chance of giving those who have not viewed it spoilers. So I would rather comment on your need to view this film, if you haven't because it truly is one of the best horror films that I have ever seen. It takes you for a ride and it grips hard the whole time.

Plagued by gory visions.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 8/10 · 16 May 2010]

This gory and admirably engrossing Canadian horror is rarely seen and suitably obscure.It tells the story of an accomplished writer of horror scripts,who is plagued by ghastly visions of horror and bloody carnage.His ideas are often outrageous and transgressive.He writes about cannibalistic nuns,satanic goats and murderous children with gasoline.He is constantly fighting with his drug-addicted wife and his three children are neglected.When his small daughter is hanged his life breaks down into nightmarish pieces."Deadline" is about dysfunctional Canadian family and their tortured lives.The film is very gory,but the gore scenes are all shots from various movies Steve did.The acting is great and the atmosphere is sleazy and washed-out."Deadline" hates horror genre,but it works as a grimly effective shocker.8 out of 10 for this obscure horror classic.

Hidden Gem

[ladymidath · 10/10 · 7 August 2021]

I found Deadline on Tubi and having a love for horror movies from the 70's and 80's, I decided to give it a look. It's not a conventional horror film, the 80's tended towards the slasher genre or the haunted house movies that was popular back then. Deadline is more psychological then straight up horror. The visual horror come more from the movies and stories that the protagonist, a horror screenwriter creates, where the real story lies is in the disintegration of his marriage, his wife being a miserable drug and alcohol addicted woman. They both neglect their three children that indirectly leads to the tragic death of their daughter. They inevitably blame each other and that is when the lead character spirals down.

The grief and breakdown of the main character is what really fuels the movie, the performance of the main actors are very good. The neglectful husband, the shrill miserable wife, the pushy insensitive agent and all the people that surround them.

This is a gem that deserves to watched by anyone that enjoys offbeat horror and thriller movies and want something beyond the usual stalk and slash films.

I do recommend it very highly.

Rather great and disturbing psyche-gore opus

[Bloodwank · 8/10 · 9 September 2010]

Stephen Lesse is a man with dark troubles. A noted horror author and screenwriter, he finds himself hating his work, trying to come up with something more worthy whilst grappling with writers block, a grasping producer and shrill lush of a wife. Something's got to give, and give it does…Deadline sets its stall early on, strained family breakfast giving way to bloody fantasy, and the film sticks to this template, spiralling dysfunction shot through with grisly gore (we're talking some good gross blood and guts stuff here) from the imagination of our protagonist. Its oppressive, truly "feel-bad" stuff, mostly because almost every character is selfish and deeply flawed, but also in the dim view cast on the very genre and mindset of horror, something guaranteed to unsettle and even irritate fans. Sturdy performances keep a tight grip on the audience, there is something of the TV film about the acting, but in the best sort of way, dead serious and committed. Stephen Young essays convincing inner turmoil roiling inside a bitter and hard to like man, Sharon Masters excels at the edge of collapse as his wife, whilst Marvin Golhar brings bleakly amusing oily cynicism as Lesse's producer. Deadline isn't all about dark drama though, it's one of the few films of its time that unsettles by force of its nastiness rather than just atmosphere and anticipation. Few movies I have come across evoke so nicely at times the unhinged feel of the grimier end of pulp horror fiction, the slimy levels from which one can look up and consider the likes of Stephen King novels paragons of literary and moral virtue. Now clichéd ideas worked around nuns, children and at one point a goat are mined for maximum grim effect and the key notion of one of Lesse's novels that gets the film moving into its darkest realms is a concept both truly grotesque (disturbingly so) and somewhat pointless. Which I guess is sort of the point that the film appears to be making on the horror genre, that it's a breeding ground for mindlessly horrifying images that do nothing but corrupt. Its not a view I agree with in anyway and I may be overstating the films intentions (it is a bit muddled), but the abrasive nature of it gives it an uncommon kick. Apart from the moral dimension, the film is interesting just for its look at the breakdown of an artist and the assorted pressures and compromises faced, something that may well have been personal to writer/director Mario Azzopardi. A leading light of cinema and theatre in his native Malta, Deadline was his first English language production, made in Canada with the help of tax shelter for film-makers. It is therefore low budget, and the gorier scenes may well have been added at the behest of the producers (one of them really does jar, you'll see which one), making Deadline a film that appears to reference its own reality in fairly caustic fashion. Apart from his decent handling of the actors and darkly interesting writing Azzopardi has a sure handling of things throughout, suitably suspenseful or intense when needed. Particularly fine is a finale of inspired delirium, very impressive stuff. The film could have done with a shade more coherency and tighter development of its characters and themes, it also misses a trick in not connecting characters and themes closer to its gore sequences. Things are a tad messy then and depressing too, I perhaps could have done with more shading to the characters, perhaps even a little relief? Still, this is rather an ace work on the whole and richly recommended.

Gory, chilly, scary

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8/10 · 4 August 2022]

And also difficult to describe, to analyze the deep purpose of this horror yarn, very bloody, shocking, hard to fully understand. It is Canadian, subtle, somewhere a bit, just a bit intellectual for my basic brain, because I still search what the meessage is in this disturbing, twisted minded piece of work. True amazing torture, meatchopper, slaughter scenes that you will not forget. It looks like a Stephen King's story adaptation, maybe because of the horror writer line. Not for all horror audiences, despite the brutal sequences. But a good film, for die hard fans of this unknown gems.