Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie Review

A capable little Horror movie earns a decent Blu-ray from Shout!

Reviewed by Martin Liebman October 23, 2011

Property is respect, respect you just can’t buy.

Boxers and strippers and vampires, oh my! Dead Cert is a little Horror movie somewhat in mix-and-match style of From Dusk Till Dawn, Zombie Strippers, and Snatch that centers on a feud between English strip club owners and Romanian vampires. Sounds simple enough, and it is. Dead Cert isn't going to be much more than a blip on the Vampire movie radar screen, but it's a satisfying, if not wholly predictable, little movie that doesn't go overboard on the gore, instead choosing to weave together a decent plot that has no real surprises up its sleeve, right down to, and including, the "da da dum!" clichéd final shot. Still, it's a relatively painless and watchable little flick that will satisfy genre fans looking for something new to sink their teeth into.

Are you really dead cert that I'm dead?

Former boxer Frank "Dead Cert" Frankham (Craig Fairbrass) has stepped out of the ring and into the business world. He's fixing up a gentleman's night club that's going to be his big ticket after his retirement. But before the club can really find its stride, he has a run-in with a group of Romanian "gentleman" -- led by the mysterious Dante Livenko (Billy Murray) -- who offer to him a proposition: their man will fight Frank's man for extremely high stakes. If Frank's man wins, Dante will pay Frank two million pounds. If Dante's man wins, Dante gets the club. Frank agrees to the terms when Dante proves amicable to increasing the potential payday by a million. Unfortunately, the fight doesn't go Frank's way, and when the Romanians prove to be poor stewards of Frank's old club, he decides to take it back in force, but runs into an opposition he can't possibly defeat.

Dead Cert isn't a completely original movie, but it's mostly well executed and capably entertaining. Director Steven Lawson paints a nicely atmospheric picture that uses shadow and harsh light to good effect, framing the action and drama in such a way so as to only enhance the broader and more subtle elements alike with a polished precision. The script is neither invigorating nor disappointing; it's fairly generic, really, but effective within context. It does, however, pull together nicely when the action transitions from something resembling mafioso drama to straight vampire action, and the two halves merge seamlessly together, with the twist coming not unexpectedly but instead with a bit more of a contextually sound substructure given the events leading up to it. It's all very well put together; the end product isn't all that, but for good solid entertainment it's hard to find much fault.

But if there's one questionable area in Dead Cert, it's the relatively flat character development. None of the primaries feel completely fleshed out; they're given names, backgrounds, attitudes, and allegiances. Is that enough? In a movie like this, the answer is "yes." Dead Cert is rightly focused on plot and action first. The lack of superior characterization hurts it, but it's not a debilitating wound. The entire movie is just generic enough to skirt on by with all the corners it cuts, which includes both character development and broader, more intense, more grotesque special effects. The movie works well enough with what it has to offer. It doesn't strive to be its generation's great Vampire flick, but by setting its sights a bit lower -- content to only deliver a baseline entertaining little Horror movie -- it all works quite well and in good Horror movie harmony.

Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Dead Cert arrives on Blu-ray with a decent, but underwhelming, 1080p Blu-ray transfer. Fine detail fluctuates from excellent to questionable; facial and clothing textures can be very strong, but the image can also go incredibly flat and soft where all but basic structures and shapes appear visible. Fortunately, the former is the rule while the latter is mostly the exception. Colors are good, though the image is generally dark and bathed in dominating blue and red lights inside the club. Black levels are sketchy at best; they're solid without evidence of crush in places, but terribly washed out and dotted with heavy noise in others. Banding is cause for slight concern, too. More often than not, Dead Cert looks good, but it is definitely not without some regular problem areas.

Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Dead Cert devours sound systems with a full-fledged DTS-HD MA 7.1 lossless soundtrack. The music accompanying the opening titles is excellent; it's also the sonic high point. At film's start, the music plays with a rich, full experience that takes advantage of all seven speakers; it's smooth and satisfying, spacious and aided by those back channels, but not dominated by them. While the rest of the track is good, it's never quite that good. Heavy music in the club never quite finds that rawness, that spaciousness, that true enveloping sensation that places the listener on the floor. It's still energized and big, but not quite as convincing as the early music. Surround channels support some heavy ambience, for instance a driving rainstorm near film's end that leaves the listener all but wet. Action scenes play with the appropriate levels of strength and clarity. Dialogue remains center-focused and always clear, even in the noisy club scenes. This isn't the world's best soundtrack, but it does, overall, a very good job of supporting the movie's many sonic elements.

Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Dead Cert contains an audio commentary track, a thirty-minute "making of" documentary, and the original trailer.

• Audio Commentary: Producer Jonathan Sothcott and Stars Billy Murray, Craig Fairbrass, and Lisa Mcallister deliver a serviceable group commentary. Its nicely balanced between serious information on technical and story elements and humorous insights and stories from the set. There's a bit of the inevitable talking over one another, but viewers who really loved the movie will get a fair bit of value from it.
• Making of Dead Cert (480p, 29:52): Cast and crew talk up the plot, the characters, the work of the cast, the process of shooting various scenes, and more. This is a solid making-of piece; it's not necessarily memorable, but it's thorough and a good companion to the film.
• Dead Cert Original Trailer (480p, 2:30).

Dead Cert Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dead Cert doesn't usher in a new era of Horror movie excellence, but it's a serviceable and entertaining little ride into a seedy world where sly vampirism and tough guy underground types square off in a battle for respect and territory. The idea is fine and the execution is fair; the movie delivers as advertised, never going above and beyond the call of duty but certainly never flubbing its own meager goals. Shout! Factory's Blu-ray release of Dead Cert features good technical specs and a couple of extras. Definitely worth a rental.