CUFF 2020: Dead Dicks Review

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc with the world as a whole, prompting the cancellation of countless film festivals including this year’s Calgary Underground Film Festival. As a result, many festivals have turned to a digital model to continue to present their lineups. To keep up with our latest digital CUFF coverage, click here.

Dead Dicks is an interesting watch, proving that the talent behind it could have very successful careers ahead of them. Its weird and silly premise was ripe for plenty of humor and compelling drama. While the film does explore these in effective ways, the two never seemed to mesh in a natural way. It may be uneven tonally but there was a lot of charm and entertainment to be found here. The film is a hard one to talk about without giving anything away as it saw a woman named Becca get an upsetting phone call from her suicidal brother Ritchie before proceeding to rush to his house only to find him alive and well while also surrounded by copies of his dead body. Though its two leads of Horwin and Harris. as Richie and Becca respectively, work well together and the cinematography is nice, its low budget nature was fairly evident in other areas.

Dead Dicks serves a nice slice of genre filmmaking whose indie nature adds a special charm unlike a lot of films. Its premise is an ingenious one, providing a lot of wit while providing an interesting dialogue about the human condition. The film for the most part addresses mental illness in a truly cathartic and powerful way which could be perceived as problematic as it may trigger some vulnerable viewers by arguably giving them the wrong message. Meanwhile, the film does take the issue of suicide seriously as it opens with the suicide hotline number, imploring anyone to contact help if they are feeling suicidal. While it’s clear that the intentions of the filmmakers was not to create something that would cause harm, however, its broader aspects may be harmful for some. This fact alone makes this a tough choice to recommend despite all the positives it has going for it.

In the end, with so much potential with the talent involved, the film’s problematic nature will unfortunately be a sore spot which is a shame.

still courtesy of Fantasia Festival

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Brett Schutt

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