On paper "Dead and Gone" truly sounded like an entertaining and potentially imaginative new zero-budgeted little horror flick. The basic plot description is original, the remote forestry settings are marvelous (with echoes of "The Evil Dead" and David Lynch's "Twin Peaks") and the trailer clearly indicated a mixture of black comedy, splatter and psychedelic plot twists. Unfortunately, however, the finished product is an utter mess of a film that turned out boring and ridicule instead of inventive and compelling. It's difficult to point out what exactly went wrong here, but debuting writer Harry Shannon and inexperienced director Yossi Sasson obviously lost their grip on the screenplay right from the beginning. The intended effect of 'is all this happening for real or just occurring inside the protagonist's mentally unstable mind' is never reached and Quinten Jones' performance is far too weak for anyone to care about his gradual descent into madness. He depicts a lowlife actor married to a much older wife who's in a permanent state of coma following a plastic surgery gone awry. The wife's family refused to include Jack in the testament, so he saw no other option than to kidnap her body and hide in a secluded mountain cottage. This happens to be the same cottage where an entire family was brutally slain nearly forty years ago and, on top of that, the closest neighbors are either homosexually perverted delivery boys or desperate sex-craving female deputies. As Jack slowly loses his mind, his wife awakes from her coma and mocks him. Eventually he has no other choice than to pull the plug on her, but the mean-spirited shrew keeps coming back in further evolved states of decay. "Dead and Gone" is primarily a very boring film! The story repeatedly follows Jack's irrelevant and pointless daily routines of running through the woods, draw hideous designs on his porch, chop wood and bicker with his chain-smoking dead wife. The cottage's sinister past is hardly even referred to anymore after the opening credits and Jack's interactions with the deranged locals seemingly just serve as time-filling footage. There are so many other interesting aspects that remain unprocessed, like Jack's liaison with the family attorney or the bizarre war traumas of sexy deputy Kate. "Dead and Gone" features nothing even remotely resembling an horrific atmosphere or nightmarish imagery. Usually, low-budgeted independent horror flicks like this have to rely on grainy cinematography and/or deeply perverted insinuations, but this movie looks and feels as it was made by freshly graduated film students who wanted to do everything nicely by the book. The make-up effects are often downright pathetic and evoke laughter instead of frights. If this was meant as homage to the original "The Evil Dead", then Sam Raimi definitely shouldn't feel honored. The acting performances are miserable, with the one notable exception of Felissa Rose as Jack's attorney. Fans of nonsensical Z-grade horror smut will certainly recognize her odd face, as she was the one and only Angela from "Sleepaway Camp" in 1983.

Forty years after a man kills his wife, children, and himself, Jack Wade (Quentin Jones) brings his ailing wife to the secluded cabin to kill her, because she's a famous actress and he doesn't have any money. As he spends more time there alone, he starts slipping into insanity, and soon his well thought out plan becomes his living nightmare.Boring! Nothing new, nothing exciting, nothing original, nothing worth remembering. It's a movie you'll forget you saw 20 minutes after watching it. The only cool thing was the addition of Felissa Rose as Jack's attorney (and wannabe love interest), since she's a staple in horror movie history (see "Sleepaway Camp" and you'll know what I mean).

Perhaps I shouldn't be writing a review as I had to turn off after about forty minutes due to the total lack of originality, terrible pacing, and the incredibly poor attempts to copy Japanese horror shock tactics. In addition the acting was largely terrible with the exception of the female lead who was interesting and likable both in appearance and acting style.I couldn't decide what was more wooden, the cabin or the leading man who I was surprised to find was an experienced UK TV actor (although I'd never seen him in anything) and not a friend of the director who had never acted before. Ironically the character he played was an artist who had a shot at Hollywood stardom and blew it because he "sucked" at acting, I suspect real life will mirror art.CGI was quite good for such a low budget film however prosthetic effects looked like body parts from shop dummies.Despite all the negatives the visual style and lighting were particularly good as in places was the editing although the use of Matrix style speed ramping was completely out of place given the nature of the story.As is becoming the practice with such films I suspect the other rave reviews are from people connected with the production (when will I learn not to believe them). Maybe this is why I'm being so harsh, you people have to stop doing this I simply can't believe anyone with any knowledge of modern horror could give this film a positive review.

Dead And Gone may not be popular with teens who gobble up horror flicks through free downloads and want to see a lot of gore and sex.It has black comedy well blended in the horror. Its exceptionally well directed, cleverly written, with an inspired use of light and color and big budget special effects.The film is unexpectedly beautiful to look at. And Yossi Sasson creates a unique pacing of syncopated shocks that are really frightening.The acting is good and the leads are hot looking. Kyle Gass is hilarious as a TV minister. And Robert Herrick plays this giant gay hillbilly. I wont say what it is, but the scene where stuff is oozing out of his mouth is totally gross and laugh out loud funny.The script was written by Harry Shannon, who is a cult horror author for a good reason. I'm a big fan of his books and he didn't disappoint me.This movie is for a more mature audience, no matter what their age. There is a lot of character development and a real plot. No teens screaming for an hour.I recommend it.