Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Dead Awake Blu-ray Movie Review

A good under-the-radar picture earns a fair Blu-ray release from Millenium Entertainment.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman March 28, 2011

It's better to be late in this life than early in the next.

Dead Awake is a good low-budget picture that strives to find meaning in its story that speaks on the importance of life even in the tragic wake of death. Director Omar Naim's (The Final Cut) picture more often succeeds than it fails, despite his somewhat wishy-washy heavy stylization that only seems to hinder rather than help the film, not to mention giving off a "trying too hard" vibe that comes off as just too dark and too gritty. Still, Dead Awake -- stylish faux pas aside -- ends up as a smart and thought-provoking picture that's probably best categorized as a Supernatural Thriller but that really works better as a dark Drama that centers on the human condition, man's ability to overcome the past, understand death, and from it find a new bearing in and appreciation for life, both in his own and in that of others. It's certainly not the best film in this category, but the story bears out a genuine heart and sense of purpose, and the excellent cast pulls it together and meshes it into a finely-tuned final product that's both well worth a watch and ripe for post-screening discussion.

Dylan looks back on his life.

It's been ten long, agonizing years since former high school standout football player Dylan (Nick Stahl, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines) lost his parents in a car crash, but his mother and father were not the only things he lost that night; aside from alienating himself from his highschool sweetheart, Natalie, he also lost his desire to go on. Dylan has been living in obscurity, plodding along and making ends meet by working a go-nowhere job at a funeral parlor run by a gregarious Irishman (Brian Lynner) with a good soul and a love of drink. When one of Dylan's former teammates dies and the funeral is held at his employer's funeral home, practically all of his high school classmates show up to pay their respects. The invisible Dylan, long since dropped out form society, believes that, were he to die, nobody would attend his own wake. He and his boss set out to test that theory. They plant news of his death in the local obituaries, but Dylan is proved wrong; his wake doesn't attract a full house, but it does bring his ex-girlfriend Natalie (Amy Smart, Crank 2: High Voltage) and the mysterious Charlie (Rose McGowan, Planet Terror), a junkie who, like Dylan, is a lost soul looking for a place and purpose in the world. Dylan's stunt leads him down a path of personal redemption, making it his mission to revive the life he'd lost for ten years and, maybe, help another person in desperate need of a friend and a way out of a dead-end existence.

Dead Awake is more defined by its style than its substance, at least until the later stages of the film when the story better comes into focus and is able to, through sheer force of will, overcome the movie's inherently dark, depressing façade. As its story develops, Dead Awake plays out with a somewhat visually and thematically clunky, off-the-beaten-path kind of feel; the story can be a little discombobulating -- there's never any real clarity until closer to the end as to what, exactly, the film is and where the story is going -- but the journey towards the answers still proves to be a worthy endeavor, though the bulk of the movie never reaches the same level of intoxicatingly meaningful thematic relevance as does the picture's final 15 or so minutes. Indeed, Dead Awake manages to built itself into a better movie as it approaches its climax; various revelations come surprisingly, even though the final revelation feels a bit tacked on just for the sake of getting another twist in there. Still, the film's overreaching theme of life through the lens of death is one that's not necessarily original, but one that's always good for something a little more serious, thought-provoking, and meaningful than more generalized entertainment. Dead Awake never meshes into a complete masterpiece of a movie, but it's good enough to serve as fairly scrumptious food for thought that finds the value of death -- real or imagined -- in adding greater value to life.

Dead Awake is also carried by three relatively strong performances that accentuate the film's plot line and themes of life and death and what to make of them. Nick Stahl, one of the more underrated actors of the past decade or so, delivers a noteworthy performance as a lost soul who is looking for answers, even if he doesn't know what questions to ask. He gives Dylan a sense of purpose even as the character more or less aimlessly lives through the film's first act and slowly finds those answers thereafter. He emotes a sense of quiet desperation quite well; he brings to light a character that's kept in the darkness, understanding that it's the journey rather than the moment that matters most in Dylan's life. The sense of somber loss -- the heaviest and most dangerous of the pains gone, replaced by an ever-present sorrow -- is palpable throughout, and Stahl's strong performance shapes Dead Awake into something a little better than even the script promises, giving the character the balance between dispirited and, ultimately, motivated to discover some greater purpose in his life and, little does he realize at first, in the lives of others. Stahl is flanked by two actresses turning in solid performances; Amy Smart is wonderful as Dylan's old flame, but Rose McGowan is maybe the film's best, playing a challenging part that's necessarily shrouded in mystery until the very end, the actress clearly understanding the purposes of and playing smartly with all the subtle nuances the role demands.

Dead Awake Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dead Awake's 1080p, 1.78:1-framed transfer delivers a gritty and overwhelming dark image. Sourced from what appears to be a 16mm print and obviously filmed on a low budget, Dead Awake looks about as good as it source material allows, which places it below the average studio release in terms of raw eye candy sort of appeal. Black crush is a constant problem throughout, though considering just how dark a picture Director Omar Naim paints, it's hard to find too much fault in this area. When it's not slathered in darkness, Dead Awake favors a cold, gray color scheme that reveals a heavily faded texture, with a handful of scenes almost appearing as if black and white. The image is slathered in a heavy amount of grain, so no unwanted noise reduction has been applied here. Details are solid when the darkness fades away; everything from facial textures to the lines on bedsheets are nicely reveled. The image suffers through a few bouts of heavy white speckling, but generally, the heavy and natural grain is all that's swirling around the frame. Dead Awake isn't exactly a pretty movie, but Millenium's Blu-ray release isn't too bad considering the overwhelmingly bleak source with which it has to work.

Dead Awake Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dead Awake comes alive on Blu-ray with a healthy Dolby TrueHD 5.1 lossless soundtrack. It's fairly representative of the average low-budget Thriller/Chiller/Drama sort of track, delivering a solid but not necessarily memorable listen that offers a robust low end, good clarity, effective surround use, and steady dialogue. The film opens with a haunting, foreboding tenor that culminates with a car crash that's expertly handled off to the left side of the soundstage; the heavy crash followed by the hissing of slowly released gasses is nicely done. The film employs various hard, Horror-style cues and effects throughout, making fine use of the subwoofer and the surround channels to deliver a fairly encompassing experience. Various additional sound effects -- even the obligatory downpour and distant booming thunder -- lack the crystal-clear real-life transparency that come with the top-tier tracks, but this lossless presentation is effective as a well-constructed budget mix that's satisfying at every turn.

Dead Awake Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

All that's included is the Dead Awake trailer (1080p, 1:31) and previews for additional Millenium releases.

Dead Awake Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead Awake isn't quite as good as it should be -- the direction and visual style are both a little too overwhelming and the plot is occasionally too confused and uncertain of what, exactly, the movie is -- but beyond those lie a fine story of finding life in the wake of death, whether that death is real or imagined. Backed up by several strong performances, including two standout efforts by Nick Stahl and Rose McGowan, Dead Awake winds up being a fine little movie, one of those under-the-radar buried treasures that, even if it could use some refinement, still makes for a rewarding experience in its final state. Millenium's Blu-ray release of Dead Awake features a serviceable 1080p transfer and a good lossless soundtrack but no extras. This release is easily worth a rental, but, considering the absence of any real extra content, fans and collectors might want to wait for a drop in price before picking it up.