★★
A socially awkward teen bonds with a group of misfits who plot to abduct the school's arrogant rich kid until their kidnapping scheme turns deadly.
Classification: 15
Even with stylish colour soaked visuals and a true-crime element to the dark proceedings, very little about Mikhail Red's thriller can sustain its tension or intrigue. Following a standard kidnapping plot narrative inspired by a real-life abduction involving an arrogant rich kid being captured and ransomed by four students lower on the social ladder. Brief themes of privilege, social insecurity, masculinity and bullying are woven into the character's stories as motivations but Red continuously undercuts his film by relying on conventional comedy setups. Breaking immersion and realism as Dead Kids fails to succeed as a black comedy alongside as a thriller.
There's no ratching tension to the film even after the kidnapping of bully Chuck Santos, with the build-up in the first act establishing main characters, the titular "dead kids" as outcasts at school who Santos targets. Mark Santa Maria is recruited into a plot by student Charles Blanco and his friends to kidnap Santos and with Mark struggling for money and seeking the attention of fellow classmate Janina, agrees. Clad in visually distinctive masks, they abduct Mark and then the film looks to find humourous ways for the gang's plan to go awry rather than have the characters dramatically suffer for their actions. Red doesn't seem to want to commit to any sort of morality throughout the film making the dramatic action all the more disconcerting and alienating. Dead Kids is unable to make its protagonists likeable or interesting as Mark, Blanco and the rest are foul-mouthed, insecure idiots who are way over their head with the film never investing in the emotional struggles.
You don't feel dread or panic in the film, with the pitiful escalation more of a result of story points that have the kidnapping event feel comical; one the character's girlfriends getting involved and blackmailing them or fumbling to restrain Santos when he tries to escape. For all of Santos's bluster in the first act, he ceases to be a character the moment the bag goes on his head and he's shoved in a closet. The characters and audience get no sense of psychological comeuppance, the "dead kids" never seem to grasp the hypocrisy of their actions only focusing on the money and continuing to act like jackasses. The bullied don't confront the bully, they just become the bully and there is no lesson to learn from any of it besides not to indulge in the stupidity of peer pressure. There are a lot of logical inconstancies with Blanco's plan and it just continues to pull audiences out of the drama. A convoluted side plot involving Santos and Blanco's fathers are used to try and create a tangible ransom story thread but the believability to the film at this point has gone out the window. Like Pain & Gain, there seems to be no real respect to the reality of the real-life tragedies, and Mikhail Red merely wants to use the events to give weight to his substanceless script.
One of the more interesting elements to Dead Kids is how the Philippines has two official languages; Filipino and English meaning that all the characters are switching between the two during insults, freakouts, tender moments and exposition. It does little to break the monotony over the scenes but speaks to the character's erratic thought processes as they jump between languages. Gabby Padilla, Khalil Ramos, and Jan Silverio stand out because of how they try and make the failing comedy more vibrant through their bilingual performances. You can buy the characters as believable teenagers but not the story they're experiencing. Tonal inconsistency fails the film as when hard-hitting drama and repercussions do strike it feels unearned and even more regressive to the truth behind the inspiration.
Dead Kids isn't confident in what it wants to be as Mikhail Red can't commit or execute either genre with any compelling flair and leaves much to be desired in terms of accuracy. Mycko David's cinematography alongside the performances can keep audiences engaged but it's all to a lost cause as the limited stylings do little to give the film real gravitas.
Director: #MikhailRed
Release Date: December 1st 2019
Available exclusively on Netflix
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Synopsis from Internet Movie Database, Images from Netflix
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