THE DEAD CENTER: What’s Beyond The Grave?

The Dead Center follows Daniel Forrester (Shane Carruth), a psychiatrist drawn to a John Doe (Jeremy Childs) and the mysterious, and dark, circumstances that surround him, while a medical examiner (Bill Feehely) attempts to figure out what led his patient to disappear. When bad turns to worse, and something more sinister reveals itself, they must try to deal with the fallout as things quickly get out of hand. Spoilers ahead for specific plot details.

Slipping onto the scene at 2018’s L.A. Film Festival and not arriving in full until a little over a year later, Billy Senese’s The Dead Center arrived with a quiet bang among a crowded market of indie thrillers. Senese’s sophomore effort, a follow up to 2014’s Closer To God, plays like a labyrinth where every turn is a new mystery and every answer is a new question, and while it may not stick the landing entirely The Dead Center gives an engaging look at death and the things that may lie beyond it.

Mysterious Circumstances

Like any good mystery, The Dead Center never quite reveals its full hand. Bits of information, presented in a slow trickle, clue us in but never truly open the door entirely. And it doesn’t need to, really. Senese’s gritty, low-budget aesthetic, Duensing’s cold and separated cinematography, and short and intense bursts of something sinister carry this for its short, maybe even too short, runtime. Senese’s sensibilities in capturing dread and suspense consistently is commendable, even when it doesn’t entirely work.

Scenes lend themselves to this direction, specifically a series of attack scenes which are short, intense, and clouded in a thick fog of unknowingness. They’re at the core of the story, our John Doe giving into the darkness that spirals within him, and effectively play at ideas to come. Add on top of this how it plays parallels between Forrester’s and Edward’s journeys into the unknown and their own discoveries as the raw final third approaches, and Senese’s skills as a director seem as genuine as ever.

That being said, it doesn’t always work. The first two thirds of this film, slow and ravishing effectively leads up to the final third mentioned earlier, which is quite the spectacle and seems to be the result of previous buildup,but something seems lacking. It mostly ditches it’s previous psychology to delve into a deep insanity and nearly ruins the Twilight Zone vibe it seemed to have going for it. But while it doesn’t quite do that, the point still stands that it feels underdeveloped as a plot and as a group of characters, which feels nearly crucial to the overall quality.

Forrester

Our protagonist, Daniel Forrester, as a character is conflicting. On one hand you have Shane Carruth’s wonderful performance and his descent into near madness. Going from wanting to understand and help the mysterious patient to wanting to stop him is a great turn, all be it maybe one that was cut too short. Which seems to be the issue, as character development following Forrester and his (somewhat trite) past feels rushed through the second act to connect point A to point B.

This film’s 93 minuteruntime is far too short, not allowing for the effective slow burn to really burn down completely. It’s not detrimental overall, it gets across point A and point B well enough to function despite its shortcomings, but a cut of this film that was maybe 30 minutes longer could have brought this into clearer waters, without sacrificing pacing or a lack of mystery in the story.

The Dead Center: Conclusion

What The Dead Center may bring to the table isn’t anything particularly new, but it’s a small gem unwilling to compromise, taking every twist and turn with a factor of the unknown on every corner. As riveting as it is fresh it’s a slow and dreadful burn that, despite its detrimentally short run-time, manages to be one of the more intriguing, effective indie thrillers as of recent memory.

The Dead Center is now in theaters and on Digital VOD.