Deadline (I) (2009) User Reviews

Creepy, in many ways

[napierslogs · 6/10 · 5 January 2011]

"Deadline" is a very creepy film in many ways. The late Brittany Murphy looks like death, at least partly on purpose as her character, Alice, is very sickly but this is no way to remember her. It was literally like watching a diseased ghost, and that realism was too much for me.

A writer in a remote house with psychological problems hears and sees strange disturbances but is it all in her head or is somebody, or something, trying to kill her? The story has been done many times before, and this wasn't a particularly good rendition of it. That's the main reason why the IMDb rating is so low. The filmmakers even seemed to get confused with the ending. They gave us a resolution but they hadn't quite worked out all the details.

The film itself though, was very well shot. They set-up a creepy atmosphere from the very beginning and never let up. Subtle camera work kept up the same suspense level throughout. This film was made on a low-budget and they made it well.

Recommending this is tricky. I was faithfully terrified - not so much because of the storyline but because of what I was watching. Brittany Murphy was so pallid and anemic, it was scary. And the atmosphere and slow moving camera shots were done so efficiently well, significantly better than most horror-thrillers that I have seen. If you want to be scared from a well-told story, you won't find that here. If you want to be scared from the realism, then you just might want to take a look. If I knew what I was getting myself into, I wouldn't have watched it. And yet, at the same time, I'm glad that I did - I like seeing low-budget independent films made well.

Focus your fear.

[hitchcockthelegend · 6/10 · 11 June 2012]

Deadline is written and directed by Sean McConville. It stars Brittany Murphy, Thora Birch and Marc Blucas. Music is by Carlos José Alvarez and cinematography by Ross Richardson.

Recovering from a psychological breakdown and required to finish a screenplay for a deadline, writer Alice Evans (Murphy) retreats to a remote Victorian house. Once there, though, mysterious goings on begin to accompany her. Undetered, Alice begins to unravel the terrible secrets of the house. But at what cost?

One of the last films made by Brittany Murphy before her sad and untimely death, Deadline (poor title) is mostly friendless in the world of the haunted house sub-genre. Yet in spite of its flaws and tired old set up of premise, it's hardly one of the worst of its kind. It's all very low key and thriving on moody mystery atmosphere, both things which are aided by better than average music scoring and photography. Performances by the cast, in what is purely a six character piece, are very committed, managing to make the thin script more palatable. There's a couple of jolts placed within, while the scenes involving Birch and a clearly unhinged Blucas are genuinely creepy.

Its reputation tells us that it's just too low key for some, and for sure it brings nothing new at all to a well populated formula. While the outcome is infuriating and has proved to be unforgivable for many a sub-genre fan. But with expectations set at low this rounds out as a decent enough time filler for those who like atmosphere laden haunted house pictures. 6/10

One of the dullest ghost movies I've seen.

[The_Dead_See · 4/10 · 19 December 2009]

The actors do at least try hard with this dull-as-dishwater ghost story with a by-the-numbers script and uninspired directing, but alas it's not enough.

The film doesn't really have flaws significant enough to point out, but nor does it have anything really positive going for it either. There's virtually no attempt to weave anything interesting into the work. Every camera angle, movement, and even the set-design of the house are as predictable as the plot and dialogue. The scares are mild to non existent, the "mystery" is telegraphed so far in advance you can practically write the conclusion in an sealed envelope at the outset and pretend you did a magic trick to your friends. By the time the end credits roll you're already forgetting the movie.

Writer/director Sean McConville seems to be far out of his depth even creating a simple four-character ghost story. According to IMDb listings, this may be his first attempt at a movie... in which case we could probably cut him a little slack, but holy-hell he needs to try harder with his next attempt.

Guess the writer had to meet the deadline...

[mkay-549-110495 · 2/10 · 30 October 2009]

We've had more than enough haunted house movies as it is, so Deadline would have had to come up with something pretty original to keep a guy weary of the same old creepy mansion routine happy. The story - writer moves to old creepy house where strange things happen caused by some probably violent event that had occurred in the place - is not. The main character's background - of course something terrible happened in her past, too, coming back to haunt her - is not. The shocks - chairs moving, doors closing, floors cracking - are not. The secret - did something violent happen to the couple who used to live here before Brittany Murphy's character - is not. I'm not going to comment on the ending but you see where this is going. The only gimmick is a video camera Murphy finds in the house with tapes that explain what happened here before. Well, in the 70s they usually found tape recorders in those haunted houses as the home video market wasn't exactly booming back then. Just adding some new technology, however, doesn't make a story refreshing, more so as the tapes - which take in a large part of the film - are uninteresting and didn't make me care what happened to Thora Birch's character. Murphy and Birch don't find much to do with their roles, while Birch's psycho husband is rather annoying than menacing. the direction is not so much bad as just as uninspired as the story. Some scenes feel rather cheaply made; without Murphy as the lead you could think you're watching a low-budget made-for-TV movie.

Completely unfocused.

[aerispitcannon · 2/10 · 29 November 2009]

I have to agree with the first comment posted about this movie... zero character development with even less writing. The actors did all they could, but the movie still came up short of even evoking such a strong emotion as boredom out of the viewer.

You are strung along for the entire movie, thinking you get to "figure out the mystery", only to discover at the end that nothing was real. Or was it? Was Alice (Brittany Murphy) simply unstable or was she suffering from PTSD? Was there ever a David or Lucy? TOTALLY UNCLEAR. You are left believing that Alice not only made the entire scenario up in her head to finish a screenplay, but was also seriously creepy in her personal life. It honestly made no sense at all.

Only watch this movie if you plan to use it as background noise.

You've seen it before, only better.

[Yakrakus · 3/10 · 24 November 2009]

I went in with high hopes but low expectations. Given the cast's past bodies of work, I was hoping for a watchable film at the very least. As it turns out, the film is unoriginal and dull. It's one of those films were the director seems to think long drawn out scenes of mundane activity somehow equals "building tension". I found that I could actually watch extended sections of this film in fast forward and not miss a plot point. This is because quite a few "tension building" scenes don't actually lead anywhere. We're given plenty of chances to watch Brittany Murphy walk slowly from point A to point B, only to discover that nothing is really happening at point B, followed by a cut to a different scene. The performances are passable and the cinematography is adequate, but the script is uninspired at best. The movie did keep me guessing till the end, but only because I wasn't sure which clichéd twist they were going to use. We've all seen the twist ending employed here before, but when taken with the rest of this film, it still almost seems nonsensical. And if you've ever seen a made-for-TV thriller from the '80s, you've heard the score before. Seriously, listen to the music over the opening credits and try not to smile at that last line. Overall, this isn't the worst film I've ever seen, but unless you're trying to keep a complete Murphy or Birch film collection, watch something else.

Snore.

[whitneyfwalker · 4/10 · 14 November 2009]

A writer Alice (Brittany Murphy) gets dropped off by a friend at a spooky Victorian house, to be alone for a week to write. Her friend drives off leaving Alice alone to explore the house and as she does she finds mini video cassettes of the former residents, a young couple, going about their daily lives. The rest of the movie jumps between the present, the author in the house, and the past, what is happening to the couple's lives by watching the tapes. Even with the dual story line there is no character development, at all. There isn't a reason to even care about what happens to them. You don't know what their goals or hopes are, or their past. Except in a the simplest of references. Like: "He had a history of depression". So when the movie jumps between past and present you don't even want to even bother to try to and figure it out. And Brittany Murphy has the complete inability to keep her mouth closed. As in, lips together, so it looks like she is gasping for air like a fish out of water. She wanders through the entire movie with eyes bugged out and lips apart, brow furrowed (not literally of course with the advent of Botox) and saying nothing because this takes place in an empty house there really isn't a lot of dialogue. I am wondering what the point of this movie was. I really am. No conflict, mute fish-like characters, no plot really or story...hmm. I gave it a 4 because the camera work and production was decent and the bad acting was due to a sophomoric script. This isn't even a good rainy day desperation I will watch this, because nothing is on cable type movie. And Thora Birch was in this so I mistakenly thought it would improve. There is a last gasp at the end to try to scare you but seriously. After an hour and 10 minutes of nothing it is kind of hard to recover. And these movies with the tired plot line of people who are mentally ill and/or on medication is so old. EVERYONE IS ON MEDICATION. Statistically 50% of the US is, so why this should be significant to any plot is beyond me. In short, watch this only if you run out of Ambien.

Better than expected....

[sanjr1 · 5/10 · 5 February 2010]

The first thing I noticed about this movie was it's soundtrack. It's barely there. I mean it's there but it's so quiet you don't realize that you've been listening to it until it blasts out for a sec or two & then goes back to lurking just below the radar. It adds to the sense of dread that permeates this movie. Brittany Murphy doesn't look well at all in this movie & I hope that's because of the needs of the character & not because she was sick. She is effective though. So is Thora Birch in her part. I can't say much more about it without ruining it but I will say it might be a ghost story or a Psychological thriller. That is up to the viewer. I have my opinion but I'm not going to bore you with that. You know what they say about opinions don't you? Oh, by the way this is one of the quietest movies I've ever seen. Ever. It adds to the atmosphere greatly. Give it a shot, you might be surprised....

Ending bombs out

[BronzeKeilani26 · 6/10 · 31 October 2009]

+Starts off with good potentials to be a great thriller but it bombed out midway. They should have kept it on the realistic side but it started losing its grip when the director started chopping scenes & than putting to much on it. It caused the plot to become chaotic, confusing & so unrealistic. Brit suspects someone else is in the house so she goes looking around sometime after midnight. Next were looking at an intense scene with Brit scoping out a small dark rm, than the audio goes sky high at the fall of a chair, making us jump out our seats. The scene abruptly ends & now were looking at Brit in bed waking up on a bright sunny morning like nothing happened. Why few directors like shooting those types of scenes is beyond me when those are the movies that flop. They had a good, unique storyline with a good killer twist but messed that up at the very end when they suddenly attempted to take it in a "LAME" & senseless direction. I guess it was meant to be a 2nd out-the-blue killer twist at the end but instead it left everyone moaning in disappointment, complaining about how weak the movie was, etc, etc. It would have been a half a-- decent story-line if they would have showed the killer's body proving that Brit's character was telling the truth, which was the original twist. Like I said, the film had potentials to be a good thriller w/ great acting but completely flopped due to the script+ +

Murphy does her best with such a lackluster script

[movieman_kev · 5/10 · 27 April 2012]

Brittany Murphy is Alice, a writer in her early 30's who moves into a spooky old Victorian mansion in order to be alone to work on her book as well as distance herself from a traumatic nervous breakdown. But no sooner is Alice settling in, that the house is getting the worst of her imagination courtesy of strange noises and nightmares. Now Alice, already in a fragile mental state, must deal with that as well as an ex who recently got out of prison.

I found myself enjoying this film much more than I thought that I would've, thanks in no small part to a nice atmospheric soundtrack as well as a surprisingly adequate subdued performance by Murphy. All of this is almost (but not quite) enough to make up for a pretty clichéd and heavily predictable storyline. The late Britt does the most with what little she's given.

My Grade: C

A very, very unfair and unjust low score for this film...

[lathe-of-heaven · 8/10 · 11 December 2011]

First off, if really slow, atmospheric films that don't have a lot of action bore you, then this movie is NOT for you! Period. All you have to do is see the review here titled 'Snoozer, with a Stupid Ending' Point proved (well, at least if not actually 'proven', strongly suggested : ) Here is the deal; IF you are indeed going to make one of these really slow, moody films that on the surface come across as super simple, then you HAVE to do them well or forget it. The movie was beautifully photographed, VERY well paced for the material, and the acting was excellent. Do you realize how MANY frigg'n ways there are to screw something like this up? A lot! So, I honestly felt that it was put together quite nicely.

Now, without spoiling anything, I just wanna say that something that I really appreciated about this film is that this 'kind' of movie (which you will understand, sort of, at the end) USUALLY is very heavy handed with the 'reveal' in the sense that they usually make it blindingly obvious. However, what I like about this one is that at the end, yes, something is strongly suggested, BUT still, things are left to be interpreted in a number of different ways (as clearly seen in some of the discussion comments below which you should absolutely NOT read before seeing the movie!)

So, basically like I said, IF you like this kind of very slow, moody film where there is a very good atmosphere that builds gradually and creates a good mystery, and you don't necessarily NEED a lot of action or explanation, THEN yes, you should enjoy this movie...

This film simply isn't for everyone. For example, I'm quite sure that there are MANY people who absolutely LOVE the 'SAW' or 'HOSTEL' films; quite the polar opposite of this film to be sure. So, in that case I wouldn't feel right reviewing those films because that is just NOT my type of film at all. (However, the makers of 'SAW' went on to make a couple of excellent Horror films, where people are NOT tortured or forced to do awful things, that I totally loved! ['DEAD SILENCE' & 'INSIDIOUS']) I think it is the same with this one... Likely, MOST of the people who have seen this movie and then come here and say 'Gee, that was REALLY stupid and boring' would fall into the same category: that it just isn't THEIR type of film, that's all.

The movie isn't WILDLY fantastic or anything, just solidly well made; as a matter of fact, it really reminds me of another VERY similar film that I saw not long ago (I can't remember the title right off) But it was WAAAAAAAY more subtle than this one! It was similar where a woman (seemed like it was a REALLY well known actress too, perhaps Marisa Tomei, someone like that...) was staying in a remote house. And you just keep seeing this guy standing there in the room with her but she doesn't see him; there are LONG periods without ANY dialog at all. It just about ALL is based on mood and atmosphere. It was great too, but perhaps much more 'artistic' in it's approach and a bit more complex and layered in it's story than this one. This one here I would say was more directly psychological...

But, there is one thing I can promise you...

This movie is indeed much, MUCH better than it's current 4.x rating...

Liked it

[rubyrexstudio · 7/10 · 4 December 2022]

I liked the vibe of the movie, it was like and old nostalgic haunted house movie. It was pretty good!! I mean, don't expect a masterpiece but this movie was enjoyable and doesn't have a lot of gore. The acting was good and I liked Brittney Murphy as always. I am very confused about the ending in a way...Like she told her friend she was an angel? So that means everything was in her head? Yet Alice was wearing a "Lucy" Necklace? Very strange...it's like they didn't want to commit to a non fiction horror movie and just said, "oh well screw it, let them figure it out for themselves" Thanks for making me type this long pointless review LOL.

So unbelievably dull...

[MissLeopard83 · 3/10 · 29 December 2009]

I couldn't believe how dull this movie was. It was a disgrace to all the good ghost movies out there with it's cheesy suspense music and bumps in the middle of the night. Honestly, it was a pain to watch until the end. There was one point in the movie where I thought they had used "What Lies Beneath" as inspiration because there is a scene where the ghost is shown in the tub and saves the main character from being killed. The music is done to death (pun intended) in this movie. I can't count how many times I thought, "Why are they playing scary music when nothing scary is happening?" It was supposed to be a horror flick, but the only thing horrific about it is how long it lasted. It starts out with a horrible story of Alice who has evidently gone through some trauma with her ex-husband and needs to get away, but you don't find out the whole story until the very end, and then it changes main characters! It was frustrating! If you do watch this movie, be prepared to be bored.

Depressingly Predictable

[Rathko · 2/10 · 2 March 2010]

I'm certain that somewhere in Los Angeles there's a machine that is able to combine random genre clichés and churn out screenplays and storyboards for studios. For a few extra bucks, it will even make casting suggestions. 'Deadline' is a result.

Spending a few nights alone in an abandoned Victorian mansion must be high on most people's list of things not to do. Not so Alice, who jumps at the chance to shut herself away in the spooky old house in order to finish a long-overdue manuscript. Even doors opening on their own, screams in the night, and an abusive boyfriend fresh out of prison can't convince her to seek someplace a little closer to civilization. Hell, she can't even turn a light on when walking around at night. Taking such an implausible scenario as its starting point doesn't bode well, and it can only go downhill from there. Possessing all the scares of an episode of 'The Ghost Whisperer', the complete lack of creativity or originality is depressing.

An extremely boring ghost story/psychological horror.

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 3 November 2015]

It's sad to think what has happened to once promising actresses Brittany Murphy and Thora Birch: Murphy is dead, and so is Birch's acting career. But while the exact cause of Murphy's death is still something of a mystery, the reason for Birch's fall from fame is obvious… it's down to bad career choices like this one.

Deadline stars Murphy (looking far from her best) as screenwriter Alice, who travels to an abandoned Louisiana house to try and finish a script on time; while there, she experiences several strange events that lead her believe that the house is haunted, before discovering a box of video tapes that reveal precisely what happened to previous occupants Lucy (Birch) and her obsessively jealous husband David (Marc Blucas).

However, with Alice having recently recovered from psychological problems stemming from a troubled relationship, could everything that she is experiencing be symptoms of another breakdown caused by the stress of producing a new script? Well, duh! The whole ambiguous 'is there really a ghost or is she mad?' plot line is terribly trite, and with dreary direction from Sean McConville, who aims for 'atmospheric' but only achieves 'stupefyingly dull', Deadline is one hell of a chore to stay awake through.

SadSadSad

[jessicambradford · 1/10 · 21 November 2010]

I just watched this horrid film 2 days ago. At no point did I think this was in any way good. The only reason I suffered/survived the whole thing was that I was trying to see if maybe it was one of those slow at first and then gets good movies. I was wrong. I spent the last two days trying to figure this movie out. The way it ended, it all made NO sense to me. Then as I was reading other reviews to see if anyone felt the same, or if someone had understood it and explained. Thankfully, someone did explain it. Sort of. It was more of a 'theory', but I'll go with it, since it made sense to me after I thought about it. Basically, Alice goes to the supposed creepy house to finish a screenplay, her 'girlfriend' drops her off and then leaves. Alice starts seeing/hearing weird things in the house. Alice finds a box of tapes and starts watching them. Uses them to write her screenplay. Witnesses a murder on it. Turns out a lot of what we saw, happened in her head. She was reliving repressed events. After, unfortunately remembering the movie, Alice called Rebecca at one point and asked her to look up information on David and Lucy. At the end, when Alice calls Rebecca again to tell her that David is in the house, Rebecca has no idea what Alice is talking about and says "I haven't talked to you in over a week, I've been worried about you." And that leads me to believe that the conversation with Ben didn't happen. For one, if Rebecca hadnt heard from Alice all week, she didn't really tell Alice that Ben was out of jail. Which lead me to believe that Ben isn't really out of jail... And he couldn't have possibly known where Alice is, nor could he have gotten her number.

From what I gathered, Lucy=Rebecca, Alice=David... and Ben seems pretty unimportant...but maybe he plays Davids mom or the one that 'David' thought 'Lucy' was cheating on him with? Who knows.. If you notice, at the beginning of the movie, when they're in the car, Alice has the video camera and is recording Rebecca. At the end of the movie, Rebecca goes downstairs to look for David, she finds only the video camera on the floor and on the tape she sees herself on a bed, just like when Alice first found the tapes and it showed Lucy on the bed and David recording her. There was so much and nothing at all going on in this movie at the same time.

Another "snoozer" with a really stupid ending

[trainmaster-1 · 4/10 · 24 January 2010]

I managed to get all the way through this really poor movie, thinking that at the end the writers would at least have the decency to explain what it was all about. For some reason, movie makers like to leave cliff-hangers where the audience leaves the theater, or walks out of the room at home, scratching their heads and wondering "What the ??? was that all about"? This turkey managed to survive a weak plot and not be Tooooooo bad until the final scene. The writers did not see fit to explain whether Alice was just writing about her own experience and imagining all the videos, or if it was all true and she wrote about what was on the tapes, nor did it really explain why she was scared of being laid on that bed at the end of the show. The true nature of the relationship between her and REbecca was never explained. Were they lesbians? The only thing that ever was explained was Ben. At least she allowed his call where he apologized and told her he'd leave her alone. But, the writers managed to screw everything up by putting in the final scene and left everyone hanging way out in the breeze. Nothing was confirmed or explained. And, the writers left us with a new element of Rebecca on still another video, lying in that bed. I think writers who write scripts with this little explanation should be sued by the watchers and forced to explain themselves, AND THE PLOT!

Slow moving haunted house thriller.

[poolandrews · 3/10 · 26 April 2012]

Deadline starts as a novelist named Alice (Brittany Murphy) decides that the best way to finish her latest book & meet an impending deadline is to isolate herself in the middle of nowhere & completely immerse herself in her writing, she agrees to stay at a huge country house owned by a rich producer & her friend Rebecca (Tammy Blanchard) drives her out there. The house is huge & old but very comfortable, Alice hears noises one night & follows faint footprints on the floor upstairs to a room where she finds a box with lots of videotapes inside. Alice decides to look at some of the tapes & sees the previous residents of the house, a young newly married couple named Lucy (Thora Birch) & David Wood (Marc Blucas) who at first seem very happy. As Alices continues to watch the tapes it turns out that Lucy is pregnant & that David is insanely obsessive & jealous so when Lucy wants to leave him he reacts angrily. Alice delves into the mystery & discovers that both Lucy & David are listed as missing persons, meanwhile the ghostly sounds & unexplained happenings grow more frequent...

Written & directed by Sean McConville this fairly sedate & unmemorable haunted house thriller is not to be confused with the similarly titled horror film Deadline (1984) which also deals with a writer losing their grip on reality but I feel that's more of a coincidence rather than this being any sort of remake, while not the worst film I have seen Deadline just isn't very good. The basic story isn't that original, someone who wants isolation moves to an old house in the middle of nowhere & starts to experience supernatural phenomenon before investigating the properties past & find some nasty stuff out, or in the case of Deadline maybe not since Alice is know to be mentally unstable & it might all be in her imagination & she may be suffering another psychological breakdown, yes that's right another one! The script takes it's time & then takes it's time some more, it's a good hour into this 80 minute film before things pick up & the horror aspects kick-in. While the opening hour is watchable enough I suppose not much happens & I can't get my head around the fact that despite the tapes not being numbered or dated & are placed in no particular order in the box Alice manages to watch them all in perfect chronological order! Coincidence? Luck? Who cares? The twists & turns are alright, they don't really save Deadline & make it special but they do prevent it from being a total waste of 80 minutes. If you have a particular liking for slow paced & sedate haunted house thrillers then Deadline is perfectly serviceable, just don't expect anything amazing.

Deadline is well made for what it is, the main house is old but maybe isn't that creepy, I would certainly be more than happy to stay there as it looks very comfortable & well furnished. There isn't a cobweb or Rat in sight! There's no blood or gore, there are a few jump scare moments that most will see coming & aren't that effective to be honest. The whole film is just so average, I can't really say it's bad in any aspect other than it's forgettable & I didn't really like it personally that much. The fact that script concentrates almost entirely on one character for it's duration can be a problem because if that one character isn't absorbing it becomes hard to maintain interest & Alice is rather dull & bland.

Filmed in Louisiana this had a supposed budget of about $1,800,0000 & looks nice enough throughout. The acting is alright, the late Brittany Murphy looks tired here & not that healthy while the once promising Thora Birch seems to have been reduced to taking anything she can get these days.

Deadline is a passable haunted house thriller at best & a forgettable slow moving snoozer at worst, I can't say I hated it but I can't say I liked it much either. Fans of the genre may enjoy it more but I can't see most audiences getting too much pleasure from it. Don't put much effort into seeing it is my advice.

Very tense psychological horror...

[MovieGuy01 · 7/10 · 10 October 2009]

I found Deadline to be a very tense and creepy kind of horror film. I is about a girl called Alice, 32, a writer who is recovering from a psychological breakdown. She moves to a remote Victorian house to convalesce and focus on finishing her book, so she can get it done in time for a deadline that she must meet. Not long after her arrival, mysterious noises and strange happenings, cause her imagination to go crazy. Alice is frightened but intrigued to find out what is happening. Alice goes to go down into the cold, dingy attic where she finds a shoe box filled with mini-dv tapes. There is a terrifying secret that lies behind the tapes. I found a real creepy atmosphere around me while i watched the film. MUCH RECOMMENDED.

A nightmare in nightwear

[bashfulbadger · 2/10 · 3 May 2013]

Mmm, a nervy girl with mental problems and on medication, decides on a whim, on hearing that the psychotic ex who's been stalking her has just been released from jail, that the best course of action would be to isolate herself in a huge, spooky, remote house without any transport. The premise alone is illogical enough to make most viewers put this back on the shelf.

But my excuse is that it was on Five in the afternoon and, once I'd elected to give it a go, it was too hilarious to stop watching.

The pace of the film verges on the glacial. Brittany Murphy, looking wan and pretty and rather like a ghost herself, wanders around in some sexier equivalent to pyjamas, wondering how she got herself into this nonsense. It starts to seem like nobody in the whole world ever moved so slowly. I can hear the director instructing her, 'Walk into the room slowly', then urging, 'No, Brittany, slower! Slower!' She sits in a tub and gazes mournfully off to one side. For hours.

It's another one of those films that's predicated on the notion that a previous occupant felt the necessity to video every single thing that ever happened to them and that Brittany's character, rather than finding this nauseatingly narcissistic and tediously self-absorbed, would be sufficiently intrigued to watch all this footage back.

Oh, I forgot to mention that she's a writer of some kind (people who stay in old, spooky houses generally are) and supposedly working to a deadline, not that you would know it. I think this may have been for some time in the next millennium.

If your idea of horror is a few creaky doors and some very weak light fittings, you possibly might find yourself ever so slightly unnerved for a nanosecond. Otherwise, be prepared to find this a scream for all the wrong reasons.

Amazing if you actually understand the ending!

[nogeordiegirl · 8/10 · 28 March 2010]

Okay it seems everyone is confused what happened at the end and maybe that was the writers intention but here is my theory. Rebecca, the girlfriend, is lucy. She was with a man called ben and was pregnant but left him to be with alice. Alice was extremely jealous and accused lucy of having an affair with ben. She then tried to drown her in the bath and killed the baby (but not lucy). She has repressed this event. While in the house she re-lives the past only this time she is the victim not the perpetrator! She lives through what she did to her girlfriend lucy. When lucy gets to the house and sees alice has had a breakdown she promises she wont leave her again (as she was about to leave the house when alice drowns her). She then sees her own necklace on alice neck. Later she sees she has wrote a book using the characters lucy and David. When lucy sees the video tape she is watching real footage of herself and alice (who is David!) Is that clear? The conversations alice has with ben and rebecca are in her head. In seeing the movie with this explanation i think it is really clever.

Deadline

[Scarecrow-88 · 6/10 · 12 September 2010]

The late Brittany Murphy(in one of her final roles)stars as a screenplay writer trying to recover from a nervous breakdown at the hands of her abusive boyfriend, Ben, who nearly drowned her, killing their unborn baby. Her producer arranged for Alice(Murphy)to stay at the isolated locale of a missing couple who lived there. Thora Birch is Lucy, Alice's "muse" after discovering some camcorder tapes, shot by her disturbed husband, David(Marc Blucas). David is insecure about his standing with Lucy who tries her very level best to tell her husband that he is her one and only. Yet, David can not accept that such a lovely creature as Lucy could be all his and we witness their marriage's unraveling as she prepares a room for the birth of their child. David is obsessive in recording Lucy's practically every movement and it becomes so consuming she tells him he's smothering her..Lucy is painting a baby chair or brushing her hair and there's David with that damn camera recording every move she makes. This is ideal for Alice, though, with enough material to work with that their life and it's spiral into darkness provides her with a juicy story which could fashion into a provocative screenplay. Though, as Alice begins hearing creaks, noises, sobbing, and other sounds, she wonders if the house is haunted by Lucy, further concerned about the whereabouts of David. Tammy Blanchard is Rebecca, Alice's companion and (we assume)lesbian lover. Rebecca worries for Alice's mental state particularly when phone calls from her reveal that she sees and hears Lucy(and other strange goings-on)around the house. DEADLINE questions whether or not Alice is actually experiencing what she does or if these events regarding Lucy and David are merely parallels to her past trauma with Ben. We start to notice that Alice and Lucy merge in scenes as if both lives mirror each other. DEADLINE is a slow-burning old-fashioned chiller using isolation and psychological damage as a means to tell it's tale of a seriously tormented protagonist. Through Murphy's haunted character(her face conveys instability and vulnerability, in essence, Alice has a fragile psyche barely held together with duck tape). There's never a point in the movie where Alice is shown as mentally strong, and, if anything, the past wears on her face and demeanor almost at all times. Being alone in a house with a possible history of murder maybe wasn't the right thing to do for such a fractured soul as Alice. Rebecca tries, bless her heart, to be an ear for Alice, and wants to help her, but there's too much baggage thanks to Ben. Ben is never shown on screen, but I felt David is a reminder of him..my opinion, Ben and David are one in the same. Though, Ben actually contacts Alice telling her she is free, will this poor victim ever be liberated from the horrors of the past? What DEADLINE does effectively is follow what seems like a cordial, harmonious marriage disintegrate with Alice, unhealthily, watching it deteriorate. The ending, however, is rather fascinating in that it shows Alice perhaps "switching roles" as Rebecca finds a recording of herself asleep, a statement eerily reminding us of what David said as he was taping Lucy dozing.

Do yourself a favor and stay away from this atrocity

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 2/10 · 31 March 2012]

A writer (Brittany Murphy) in crisis, trying to develop her new work, goes into an vacant house to stay way from everything, but she enters into a new and dangerous crisis when frightening events start to happen in this place. That place was where her friend (Thora Birch) was murdered by a suspicious and paranoid boyfriend (Marc Blucas), and their moments together, from the good days until the shocking crime were filmed by the killer, and while alone in this place those tapes are the only thing she watches when she's not being terrified by strange visions.

Ridiculous, messy and boring, "Deadline" is not scary, is not interesting, it's nothing but a dull thing that follows the main character alone in this house suffering with what she sees. Most of the time there's only silence and dark images on the screen and there's no way one can enjoy or learn anything from here. You sit there and you're mind is elsewhere thinking of anything but the movie in front of you. But hey, the surprises at the ending were a little bit good but they didn't help the movie in any way.

Lousy script, poor direction and a good cast that goes impressively bad. That's what "Deadline" is all about. What a waste of time! So, if you have a real deadline to deliver something but you got hooked with this film because of the stars in it, please avoid this garbage and stick to your original projects. You'll feel better later. 2/10

I rented this despite the bad reviews...big mistake

[KilRydLoad · 1/10 · 27 April 2012]

Oh, man...lately I've noticed that a lot of movies I like have gotten really bad reviews on IMDb.com. Like the remake of The Hitcher. Why all the bad reviews? I LOVED that movie! Sean Bean's take on John Ryder was unique and awesome! Also, a lot of people on IMDb.com hated Punisher: War Zone, while I happen to think it's one of the coolest movies of all time (I wrote a review on it, too:)) My point: I came to the conclusion that I can't rely on other IMDb.com users to dictate for me whether or not to rent a movie. Everyone has different tastes, and what may be passion for me might be another man's poison. Plus, I really wanted to see one of Brittany Murphy's movies that was put out post-mortem, so despite all the bad reviews on IMDb.com on this, I decided to entice my curiosity. Man, I should have listened. Such a shame. Such a shame and a pity that such a talented actress' life and career ended on this sour note. The movie made no sense at all, the script was completely disjointed, and I'm not kidding you, I literally started falling asleep as I just now finished watching it. If I can keep ONE person from watching this movie and wasting an hour-and-a-half of his/her life, my mission in this review is complete. I don't know how good her other movies post-mortem were, but this is just a tragedy. Now if you want to watch a GREAT Brittany Murphy movie, pick up Don't Say A Word. That movie REALLY showcases her talent. Sadly, the drugs really did a number on her later in her life. Her acting is horrible in this movie...and I'm saying that about someone who was a REALLY talented actress! Seriously, I wouldn't be writing this if it weren't horrible, and it was. Please don't waste an hour-and-a-half of your life watching this. It was that bad.

Without honor or glory.

[filipemanuelneto · 2/10 · 11 March 2017]

This film begins in a rather uncharacteristic way: a young girl who is a screenwriter and is trying to recover from a destructive love relationship decides to isolate herself in an old and remote mansion in order to be able to finish a new script within the deadlines. However, the house hides a mystery surrounding the previous tenants who will tinker with her head. Okay, nothing new here. It's the usual light horror thriller, blending "haunted house" with "psychopathic killer coming to kill the girl", seasoned with "found footage" and served with such a lack of originality that it becomes very predictable and lacks any tension or suspense. How am I going to feel tense or stay tuned to the screen if I know what's going to happen? Things get better when the story of Lucy, the previous inhabitant, begins to develop, giving a dramatic and human touch to a story very empty until then. In a way, we are more able to care for Thora Birch's character than the main one, played by Brittany Murphy. Another problem is the tremendous slow pace, as if the director wanted to "fill the sausage" just to get a movie lasting more than an hour. Combine that with the predictability I've mentioned and you'll understand that it turns out to be boring most of the time. As for the cast, Brittany Murphy does not surprise me or show great interpretive ability (she was never close to being a great actress and the tabloid news about her death can be more interesting than her filmography), Birch complied with which was required of her, but didn't particularly shine. It's not worth talking about Marc Blucas, who played a papier-mâché villain.