Sean Donohue has made a name for himself in the worlds of microbudget and extreme horror. He’s directed the likes of Death-Scort Service, Death-Scort Service Part 2: The Naked Dead and Cannibal Claus. He’s written and produced several more films. However, he changed things up earlier this year with The Hart-Break Killer, a much more restrained and psychological film. Now he’s made his first found footage film, Dead Residence. Is it a return to his extreme roots?
The plot is a pretty basic one for found footage films. A young couple, Patrick (Arius West) and Debbie (Kylie Remlinger) are looking to buy a house and flip it for fast cash. Bill (Martin Grobisen) happens to be representing one that’s perfect for them.
They buy it and commence restorations. All of this is being documented for their YouTube channel. They notice odd things happening, and we see odder ones on the house’s security camera. They find a flash drive with what looks to be footage of murders committed in the house…
Donohue and co-writer Christopher Leto (Seeing Evil, The Housewife Slasher) have written a script that does a good job of delivering what found footage fans want. That’s both a good and bad thing. Fans of these kinds of films will be quite happy with Dead Residence. Those who aren’t are going to be bored.
Because while there is a bit of blood and skin in Dead Residence it’s all at the end. There’s not a lot to hold their attention up to that point. Most of this particular style of found footage films tends to be pretty thin on plot and this is no exception.
We see the security cam footage, but they don’t and continue on unaware. Watching them restore the house isn’t particularly interesting to me, your mileage may vary. A bit of sleaze and violence earlier on would have helped keep more casual viewers interested.
Instead, we get several teased several times with unfulfilled promises of skin. And that’s disappointing because Kylie is quite cute. What we do get is an extended trip to a home improvement store, shots of them painting, etc. Not my idea of fun, but I’m not really the film’s intended audience either.
If you like this variety of found footage films Dead Residence should be an enjoyable hour for you. You can pre-order it via the film’s Indiegogo page. Further details are available via its Facebook page.