Clive Barker‘s stories often feature fleshy abominations and nightmarish hellscapes, but there’s a lot more to his writing than supernatural terror. His real skill as an author is in exposing the unmistakably human desires and anxieties behind these horrors and forcing us to reckon with that inner darkness. While we’ve seen several films that successfully translate this human side of Barker’s terrors, often directed by the writer himself, there is one underrated Books of Blood adaptation that perfectly distills why the author is a Master of Horror without the need for otherworldly threats. Naturally, I’m referring to Anthony DiBlasi‘s underrated 2009 feature, Dread.
Like the short story, Dread is a psychological thriller chronicling an ill-fated fear study conducted by a group of college students. In need of a thesis project for his Film degree, Stephen (played by Twilight favorite Jackson Rathbone) partners up with the mysterious philosophy major Quaid (Shaun Evans), who suggests an ambitious project documenting the source of people’s deepest, darkest fears. With a little help from fellow student Cheryl (Hanne Steen), the group begins to investigate the titular dread behind their volunteers’ assorted traumas, though it soon becomes clear that Quaid is planning on using their subjects as guinea pigs in his own sociopathic experiments.
While the film deviates from the original tale by rearranging certain plot points and motivations, it’s still incredibly faithful to the existential undertones of its source material. On paper, this premise may sound like yet another example of 2000s “Torture Porn,” but the characters and backstories are believable and detailed enough to allow for a more personal exploration of fear and its origins. Fortunately for us horror hounds, that doesn’t make things any less frightening. There may not be any cenobites on display, but there’s plenty of appropriately horrific imagery to remind you that this is still a Clive Barker story. From trippy axe murders to moments of emotionally charged body horror, Dread derives its scares from both psychological turmoil and physical suffering, succeeding as a genuinely unnerving scary movie (something akin to a more cerebral version of Saw) and an intimate character study.
The film is admittedly a bit too edgy for its own good at times, containing a few instances of pretentious dialogue and some questionable needle-drops, but a collection of solid performances mostly makes up for this. Evan’s tormented yet charismatic interpretation of Quaid results in an almost-sympathetic antagonist, even as his obsession with fear leads him to torment his own friends. Rathbone also makes for a compelling lead, with his doomed friendship with Quaid becoming the true heart of the story.
Of course, the movie’s most powerful scenes are carried by Laura Donnelly and Hanne Steen as Abby and Cheryl, with both characters being forced to face their own traumatic memories during Quaid’s misguided attempts at “therapy”. Abby coming to terms with reactions to her unique birthmark is exceptionally cruel, but Cheryl’s stomach-churning confrontation with her childhood memories is one of the film’s depraved highlights, proving that no supernatural boogeyman can compare to the inner horrors of the human mind.
It’s this added character work that makes the inevitable suffering so hard to watch, as these believable traumas make the victims seem like real people instead of disposable “Torture Porn” fodder. In fact, Stephen’s car accident story is based on a real incident involving the director, and the film’s down-to-earth approach to real-life horrors like sexual abuse and bullying make for a surprisingly mature experience. On the other hand, Quaid’s trauma feels a lot like an exploration of the emotional aftermath of a Slasher flick, making some of the same points as Rob Zombie’s Halloween 2, where a lone survivor is forced to cope with the knowledge that the source of their pain is still out there somewhere.
The film student angle also adds a dimension of meta-commentary to the story, with the characters’ reactions to the fear study hinting at some of the strange reasons why us horror fans are so enamored with fear in the first place. We can’t help but watch as these poor college students become trapped in an almost operatic tragedy, culminating in a gut-wrenching finale that’s even more disturbing than the ending of the original story, but no less meaningful. This also leads to one of my favorite final lines in any horror movie, though I’ll avoid spoiling it for first-time viewers.
Not everyone will appreciate Dread‘s low-budget indie aesthetic, with handheld cameras and dark, grainy footage making it clear that this isn’t a large studio production, but I actually think that the gritty visuals help with the film’s dreary atmosphere. The grimy urban photography really grounds the story in a familiar American college town despite the fact that the movie was shot in London (which is fitting for a Clive Barker adaptation). The no-frills aesthetic also enhances some of the film’s surprisingly effective moments of violence, adding another layer of filth to already-disturbing situations.
Curiously, the movie contains some subtle references to Barker’s other works, as Cheryl can be seen editing a sequence from 2009’s Book of Blood film, and Quaid’s eerie portraits (painted by Nicole Balzarini after a contest where horror fans were selected as models) are done in a style reminiscent of Barker’s less-surreal artwork. The director even had plans for another Barker adaptation with Pig Blood Blues, though that project sadly never materialized, making this the closest we ever got to a Books of Blood cinematic universe. At the very least, DiBlasi went on to direct the John-Carpenter-inspired The Last Shift, which is another criminally underrated thriller.
Ultimately, I think Diblasi’s Dread is one of those rare adaptations that improves on the source material by expanding on it. The original yarn may have been a short but sweet dive into fear-induced madness, but the film manages to also make us care about these characters as we follow them down the rabbit hole. It may not be a perfect movie, but the existential terrors of Dread will linger long after the credits roll, and I’d rank it up there with the best Books of Blood adaptations. I only wish Barker would tell more stories where the monster under the bed happens to be one of us.
That’s why I’d recommend Dread to any connoisseur of fear. Because if you don’t go out and find the beast, sooner or later the beast finds you.
