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Five friends
receive obscure text messages on their
graduation day saying that they will be dead in three
days. They figure that it's probably a prank and
go out to party. The same night, one of the friends
disappears and is later found drowned in the Ebensea.
Who could have done this? And were the text messages
true? Will they all be dead in three days?
Dead in 3 Days (or as it's originally called, In 3
Tagen Bist Du Tot) is, as far as I know, Austria's
first real slasher film and had a decent box-office
run in its home-country. You can probably guess from
the title that this is Austria's answer to "I Know
What You Did Last Summer" as the two movies are very
similar. Only, Dead in 3 Days ended up feeling like
more of a thriller than a horror flick - which is
never good when it comes to slasher films.
The premise is very basic. Five friends who have just
graduated from college receive text messages that say
"You'll be dead in three days" (yes, very original).
And sure enough, it doesn't take long before a killer
in a raincoat (again, very original) starts killing
them off one by one. The only real difference between
this and "I Know What You Did Last Summer" is that
instead of hitting a man with their car, they run over
a deer (which really didn't have anything to do with
the movie itself).
From the moment that the first person is killed to
the final scene, this is an average, clichéd slasher
romp - but it is pretty decent actually. I think we
all know that debutants in the horror business tend
to put out some of the worst movies out there (The
Legend of The Red Curse, 22 etc), and while Austria
has indeed produced some horror movies before, they're
still rookies and I think that this turned out far
better than it probably should have.
First of all we have some extremely suspenseful scenes
with a couple of good scares. Then we have the beautiful
cinematography which captures the beauty of the Austrian
scenery brilliantly. We also have a stellar cast with
relatable characters, and finally it's a high-budget
teen slasher flick - and you all know that I'm just a
sucker for those. Naturally, more gore and a higher
bodycount would have made this a much better movie
but I can understand why they didn't dare to have too
much gore in it as it would have been difficult to
attract the mainstream audience if it would have been
too gory (it was the same with Cold Prey).
I still feel as if they could have pumped just a bit
of originality into the story though as it relies too
much on things that we've seen before. I've said it
before, and I'll say it again - if you're gonna do a
rip-off, make sure that it's better than the movie
that you're ripping off. Unfortunately this is not
the case for Dead in 3 days, but it's still a fairly
entertaining slasher flick so check it out if you've
got the chance - just don't expect any real gore.
A decapitated head, a slashed throat and a dry
impalement. It disappointed me in this department.
Teen rock music, teen rock music and more teen rock
music. Hmm, I wonder which audience they were targeting.
Jokes aside though, the soundtrack is decent but
nothing out of the ordinary.
I applaud Austria for daring to make a slasher movie
despite the fact that the slasher wave is long gone,
but I'm disappointed that they didn't dare to make it
the least bit original. In the end, Dead in 3 Days is
a forgettable but mildly entertaining slasher movie
and due to the brilliant cinematography and stellar
cast, I'm willing to recommend it.
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