Dead End (2003 film)

The Harrington family - Frank, Laura, Richard and Marion, as well as a friend of the latter, Brad Miller, on Christmas Eve go to Boston, to Laura's mother, to celebrate her holiday. For the past 29 years they have been driving there on the highway, but this time Frank decided to shorten the path, and drove an unfamiliar road through the forest. The night was already thickening, and people weary of a long journey began to overcome sleep. Frank, who was behind the wheel, also succumbed to a jerk, so that, having driven out onto the forest road, he nearly collided with a car moving towards him, but managed, as it seemed to him, to dodge the collision. Meanwhile, the car, which he nearly crashed into, disappeared from the scene.

Harringtons continued to ride. Frank began to worry - the forest road was supposed to shorten their path, but everything was not visible on the highway exit. Only a lonely house on the side of the road, and not a single pointer. Along the way, travelers pick up a young woman in a white dress, with a fresh scar on her forehead and a baby in her arms. Taking her for an accident (the woman stubbornly does not answer any questions), they try to call for help, but the signal disappears from mobile phones. Then Frank decides to give the woman a lift to the house they drove in, hoping that she could get through from there. Marion gives way to a stranger, and she remains to wait on the road. When they get home, the company splits up: Frank and Laura inspect the building, Richard leaves to masturbate in the woods, and Brad remains in the car with the woman in white. He tries to talk to a stranger, asking about the child, and tells her that Marion is going to make an offer, not knowing that she is meanwhile considering how to say that she wants to break up with him. The woman finally answers: she says that this is her daughter, and her name is Emmy, and she is completely cold. Brad wonders how she breathes, completely covered with a blanket, but the woman with a smile replies that this does not need to worry, because her daughter is dead. Brad, not believing, opens the blanket, and sees a bleeding mess instead of the child’s face. Frank, Laura and Richard hear Brad's scream of horror, but when they run to the car, they discover neither him nor the stranger. At the same time, a black Cadillac drives past Marion walking along the road, in the back window of which she sees Brad begging for help. She reports this to her parents, and together they set off in pursuit. But it's too late: on the way they find Brad, or rather, what is left of him. (post: the body in the film is not shown, but judging by the words of the heroes, it was turned around with an ax or chainsaw)

Marion loses his senses when he sees the remains of his boyfriend. Overcoming disgust, Richard pulls out his mobile phone from the bloody mess that Brad became, and Laura tries to call 911 at him, but he hears on the line the voice of a stranger in an accident with her child, begging for help. Frank decides to go to the police, but on the way he comes across a sign on a certain Marcott, not indicated on the map. The situation is aggravated by the fact that all the clocks got up at 19.30, and Richard builds speculations about the intervention of aliens. Marion, who didn’t recover from the sight of Brad’s spoiled body, sings "Jingle Bells". Soon Harrington again forced to stop, because on the road is an empty pram. Frank begins to freak out and drink the whiskey he got from one of the presents, Laura tries to console him, and Richard worries about his sister, who has not yet regained consciousness. Finally, the family embarks on the journey again, having previously removed the stroller from the road.

On the way, Frank tries to turn on the radio, but instead of music or news he hears a child crying distorted by interference. The couple quarrel, recalling how they spent last Christmas, when Marion suddenly says that she is pregnant, and Richard - that he smokes narcotic grass. Harrington again forced to make a stop, punctured the wheel. While Frank changes him, Richard goes into the woods to smoke, and stumbles upon a woman in white. The stranger kisses him, biting off his lower lip, and then takes off his dress, and the guy recoils from her in horror. Soon, the same black Cadillac passes by Harrington's car that he took away Brad, but this time he takes Richard away. Frank, Laura and Marion set off after the kidnapper, but only find on the road the mutilated (and judging by the words of the heroes - strongly burnt) body of Richard.

Seeing his dead son, Laura begins to slowly go crazy, and claims that Richard is not Frank's son, but a certain Alan Rickson (who, as it turns out later, is Frank's old friend). Having pulled out all the presents from the trunk except for the shotgun for Laura’s brother, who Frank and Marion decide to leave for self-defense, they load Richard’s body there, after which the thinned family goes on the road again. Laura begins to overeat, and has to stop again, as she is vomiting from overeating. While Frank and Marion are discussing what to do with Laura’s insanity, she takes out a shotgun, mistaking him for a toy, and shoots Frank in her right thigh. Father and daughter are building versions of what Marcott is and why they still haven’t reached him, although they have seen signs several times, and come to the conclusion that Marcott is a naval base. Laura, who slept after the shotgun incident, wakes up and says that she sees some people in the forest, and Frank and Marion hear sounds remotely resembling voices. Seeing her friend Janine among the ghosts (deceased, according to Frank, 20 years ago), Laura jumps out of the car. Frank immediately slows down and rushes to look for his wife, but she disappears. But in the distance a damned black Cadillac appears. Frank shoots him with a shotgun, and the car drives back, and instead Laura comes out of the darkness. A huge wound gapes in her neck, but she talks as if nothing had happened - until, raving, she falls on the asphalt and dies. Frank desperately tries to shoot himself, but Marion dissuades him from this step, recalling his child and the fact that he is the only one left with her.

They move on, and it occurs to Frank to think of wading through the forest on foot. Leaving the car, they make their way through the thicket, and find a fence of barbed wire, and a little further - the light in the distance. However, its source is the headlights of their own abandoned car. It is closed from the inside, and Frank's goose bumps run at the thought that dead Laura turned them on. To calm down, he compiles on a piece of paper a list of "What will I do when IT ends." But evil fate does not give exhausted people rest: they come to the same abandoned house, not far from which they found a woman in white. Frank inspects the house, sending Marion to the lantern, and he sees a stranger. Marion tries to calm him down, but Frank beats her in hysterics, and the girl falls down without feelings. Having regained consciousness, Frank puts his daughter in the car, and himself, armed with a shotgun, goes into the forest behind the shadow of a stranger in white, and disappears.

Marion wakes up in a car and calls his father, but the voice of a stranger announces that he is dead. Terrible shadows appear around the car, frightened Marion gets behind the wheel and drives off. But, not having traveled even a mile, the engine stalls because the fuel has run out. Marion embarks on a further journey on foot, but the sight of her father’s bloodied body suspended on a tree completely robs her of her will to live. Wandering along the road, she finds four bodies in black bags - Frank, Laura, Richard and Brad. A black Cadillac and a woman in white appear, who says that he doesn’t need Marion. She gets in the car and drives off. The next second, a bright light hits the girl’s back, she turns around and sees her family’s car, after which the scene of a collision from the beginning of the film is repeated, but with Marion instead of another car.

Suddenly, Marion wakes up in a hospital, where the doctor reassures her that everything will be in order with her and her child. It turns out that then, turning onto a forest road, Frank fell asleep, and crashed into an oncoming car in which there was a young woman with a child. All but Marion died. The man who discovered them and reported the accident asked Marion about the condition of the hospital doctor who was taking care of her, Helen Marcott, and offered to give her a lift in his car, a black Cadillac.

Bonus Scene # 1: two workers remove small debris from the road, and one of them finds Frank’s charred note “What will I do when IT ends”, in which there are two points - to buy Atari and become the coolest grandfather in the world. He shows her partner, but he throws her out.

Bonus Scene # 2: After the credits, they show photos of the Harrington family from last year's Christmas (preceding the one described in the film).

Work on the script of the film took about 6 years, and the film itself was originally conceived as a thriller with an unexpected final outcome and almost no bloody effects, but later it was decided to make a significant emphasis on the horror component. Paris was originally chosen as the filming location, and the film was supposed to go immediately to DVD and be English. As early as 2000, it was planned, in fact, to start filming with the possible involvement of English-speaking actors living in France. But a little later, producer James Hut, a friend of the directors, became interested in the script of the film and offered to allocate his money for the production of the film. Hut contacted his people in the United States and made arrangements with several producers regarding the filming of the film. As a result, the action and location of the film were moved from Paris to Los Angeles.

Subsequently, filming began in August 2001 and took about 18 days. At the same time, one of the main problems of the filming process was the inability to find a suitable, non-traffic-loaded car canvas in Los Angeles, which is why the directors have already started shooting the film in the desert, altering the script along the way. But subsequently a suitable location for filming the road was found - it became one of the municipal parks in Los Angeles, in which a suitable road was located, which closed at night (the road was quite short and did not exceed 600 meters).

Nominations

• 2004 - Fantasporto - International Fantasy Film Award
• 2003 - Cinénygma - Luxembourg International Film Festival - Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Gold

Awards

• 2004 - Peñíscola Comedy Film Festival - Best Actress ( Lin Shaye )
• 2004 - Peñíscola Comedy Film Festival - Best First Work
• 2003 - Brussels Film Festival - Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver
• 2003 - Brussels Film Festival - Pegasus Audience Award
• 2003 - Doaui First Film Festival - Youth Jury Award
• 2003 - Fant-Asia Film Festival - Jury Prize
• 2003 - San Sebastian Film Festival - Audience Award

• Dead End on allmovie
• Dead End on the Internet Movie Database