The Dead Center (2018)

Director: Billy Senese
Starring: Shane Carruth, Poorna Jagannathan, Jeremy Childs, Bill Feehely, J Thomas Bailey. USA. 1h 33m

For the most part Dead Center seems to be built on the idea of keeping its audience in a perpetual state of WTF tinged with the feeling that something is creepily wrong. Shane Carruth, stars as Dr Forrester, the eggfree shrink who genuinely cares for people and is often pulled up by his superiors for trying to help everyone, his concerns are not budget related but actually trying to make people better. The really interesting aspect of the films that slowly creeps out from between the slowly driven office politics.

Under the skin

A Lurch like character, Michael Clark (Childs) is reanimated and found by authorities and given to Dr Forrester to “cure” he had terrible amnesia and frequent violent outbursts but Forrester isn’t going to give up on this man, no matter how creeped out he is by his stories of dark entities living within him and his desire to destroy all of mankind. It’s painfully apparent that something is up but you’ll be scratching your head to pinpoint what’s happening but Senese really holds onto the cards and slams them down in a stylish manner to wow his audience. One by one the hospital staff begin to die in mysterious ways but could it be possible that Mr Clark really does embody an ancient soul eating being or is he just a serial killer?

I died and i came back and it wasn’t the first time – Michael Clark

There’s an overbearing sense of doom from the outset, not only just from the mortuary settings and casual staff turfing out mental patients, there’s something more ancient and mischievous curling its tentacles on the lives of the living. Alongside the hospital backdrop there’s a plucky Mortician played by Bill Feehley who has a better grasp of what’s going on but this near silent sleuth is always one step behind the action.

The Dead Centre (2018) A psychiatrist is pushed to the edge of his sanity after encountering a patient who's suffering from amnesia after being brought back from the dead and insisting that he's brought a terrible entity back with him. Deeply chilling and disturbing drama pic.twitter.com/nYHzus6H4q

— Admit 1 Film Addict (@admitonefilmadd) November 17, 2022

Rating: 6/10

Related: Primer (2005), Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016), The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (1974).

Lists: Back from the Dead

Spotlight:Shane Carruth

Trailer