A 2003 French horror movie directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Fabrice Canepa.
On his way to visit his in-laws with his family on Christmas Eve, Frank Harrington decides to try a shortcut, for the first time in 20 years. It turns out to be the biggest mistake of his life.
Not to be confused with the 1937 crime film by William Wyler, or the Broadway play from which it was adapted. It is also distinct from the Dead End web cartoon.
This movie provides examples of:
- Abandoned Area: The road is empty, except for a single shack full of what seems to be hunting/equestrian paraphernalia. And there's only one other car.
- Alien Geometries: The road continues infinitely, and attempting to walk off it just leads right back to it.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- All of the main characters, except Marion, were killed in a car crash and implied to be mangled in horrific ways. The Lady in White is heard begging to be rescued at the other end of Laura's phone call, suggesting that she was trapped in the wreckage and slowly died.
- Along the road, which might only be a dream, the characters suffer cruel deaths as well. Brad is mangled, Richard is burned alive, Laura suffers a traumatic head injury that leaves her brain exposed, and Frank somehow ends up hung from a tree. Even the baby is badly mangled.
- Dead All Along: The end of the movie has Marion waking up in the hospital after the rest of her family died in a car crash after her father fell asleep at the wheel.
- Developing Doomed Characters: Part of the fun of the film is how obviously screwed these people are. If you're a fan of horror movies, the obvious configuration of a Perfectly Happy Family on Holiday Vacation who all fit exaggerated stereotypes right off the bat is basically a glowing, neon sign that says "These people are going to die". The movie is really more about who these people really are.
- Don't Go in the Woods: The forest the road cuts through. It's actually just a desolate Small, Secluded World that loops on itself in every direction, and leaving the road for the woods is a great way to die.
- Enemy Rising Behind: At various points, but the Black Car always drives past the survivors with the victim visibly trapped in the back, the audience usually sees it headlights-first behind somebody.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Richard thinks that all the watches stopping at 7:30 and the endless road means there is some alien activity going on which is not even remotely close to the truth. Later in the movie, Frank decides that the car must be on a military road, which is less entertaining, but still obviously wrong.
- Going in Circles: The titular dead end. There is no end to the road.
- A House Divided: The film starts with the family already annoying and snapping at each other, but no more than one would expect near the end of a long drive. The ordeal they go through on the road and the trauma it causes fractures them further. Patience runs thin, arguments get more heated, and their barbs go from being annoying to actually hurting.
- The Immodest Orgasm: Laura's is probably one of the
most hilarious and most revolting ever put to film. After getting the back of her skull chopped off, she reaches to investigate the wound and touches her exposed brain matter.. which she begins masturbating. Which would just be the regular kind of disturbing, except she's been subtly implying that she's been deeply frustrated sexually for years the whole movie, and she shouts her husband's name and says "Oh, finally!" as she climaxes to death. - Improbable Infant Survival: Subverted with Amy, the dead baby carried by the lady in white, assuming she was ever really alive to begin with.
- Offscreen Teleportation: The Lady in White frequently appears and disappears in the blink of an eye while the black car keeps suddenly driving up behind the family.
- Or Was It a Dream?: The films leaves us wondering if Marion was dreaming the whole thing, or if she truly witnessed the downfall of her family.
- Poking Dead Things with a Stick: Upon the discovery of Brad's corpse on the side of the road (that is kept entirely offscreen but the other characters treat as a horribly gruesome, shocking, and incredibly gross sight), Frank picks up a stick and pokes at the remains, prompting questions from Richard.Richard: What is he doing?
Laura: He's trying to get Brad's phone.
Richard: ...With a stick!?
Frank: You got a better idea?- With Frank's efforts with the stick failing to yield results, Richard takes it upon himself to reach in with his hand and retrieve a blood-drenched cellphone with a severed ear dangling from the antennae.
- Sliding Scale of Comedy and Horror: Mostly lurks on the horror side, but bounces into comedy at unexpected moments.
- Someone to Remember Him By While Marion already knew before the events of the film, she reveals that she is pregnant after Brad dies.
- Stay on the Path: Richard is killed when he goes off into the woods on his own. And later on when Frank and Marion try to walk through the forest, they end up back at their car... except on the other side of the road, somehow.
- The Stinger:
- While it's assured at first that Marion simply had a traumatic nightmare following the death of her family at the titular dead end, the ending shows a Dr Marcott treating Marion in hospital, and then getting into the black car seen throughout the film when its driver offers her a lift home. It makes the ending a lot more Mind Screw-like.
- A post-credits scene shows two clean up workmen finding Frank's bucket list, which he wrote in the dream.
- Too Dumb to Live: Masturbating and smoking pot while your family is lost in the woods is a good way to end up on the wrong end of the morality scale.
