Dead Cert begins simply enough, with an underground fight being played out in an almost opened strip club. After meeting Freddy Frankham, played by Craig Fairbrass, the owner of this club and all the sundry illegal businesses that go with it the scene flashes to a darkened alley where a shadowed man be-spells a drunk young girl with nothing but a look and a touch. Talk about old school vampire moves; Dead Cert pulls out a move that has not been seen since the early days of bloodsucker films. Shockingly, the movie isn’t known to be a vampire flick yet. The story continues with a bloody shootout between Eddie, one of Frankham’s partners, and a group of local hoods where he just starts shooting random people.
The story continues with Freddy and his brother-in-law Dennis, who is also his fighter, getting the club ready for the big opening. As the club finally opens; a strange group of Romanians show up, under the command of Dante Livienko (Billy Murray). As the creep factor rises, there begins to be tension between the two groups. This tension comes to a head later on when Livienko offers to buy the club from Frankham. Of course, he doesn’t want to sell. The men decide on a gentleman’s wager to be settled on a bout of underground boxing. If Freddy’s man wins, Livienko will pay 3 million pounds; but if Freddy loses; Livienko gets the club. Of course, Livienko’s man wins. He not only beats Dennis, but the man proceeds to rip open Dennis’ neck and kills him. Still, this is not the beginning of the vampire presence in this movie. The first time fangs actually show up is a few minutes later when Livienko sinks his teeth into one of the strippers at the club.
At the funeral for Dennis, the strange old man comes around again promising that he can help to stop the “evil” and the “wolf” known as Livienko. The gang still does not take him up on his knowledge. Fnally after a third run-in one of the people from Frankham’s gang finally listens to what he has to say, even if said man ends up ignoring the “crazy” man. A few more scenes of the gang members, especially Frankham, wallowing in their grief pass but they finally decide to act. To do this, they take back the club and gain revenge on the Romanian gang for “crossing the line”. After storming the club and beating down the bouncers, Frankham’s gang realize that the Romanians are not human, and neither are their girls anymore. They proceed to get slaughtered until that strange old man comes to the rescue, kills a few of the bloodsuckers and saves the survivors of Frankham’s bruisers. He then once again launches int a tirade about what is really going on “here” in the club, enhanced by the story of one of the girls locked in the basement who gives a first hand account.
Down in the basement, it is revealed that one of Frankham’s gang is a traitor and the men decide what to do about it. Also, we finally hear the strange old man’s story. This also means that Frakham’s few are learning how to kill the vampires above. While all of this is going on, a few of the slaughtered are beginning to rise from the dead, while the rest are being snacked on. In another double cross, the men get to face the traitor when he comes to offer peace, take their revenge on the scum. Also, Livienko sent a few people to capture Frankham’s love interest and hold her as a hostage. I wont tell you the rest of the story, and there is about thirty minutes of it, or the twist and betrayals present during this time. However, I will say that in the end there are a few unexpected turns.
Frankly, rather than making a vampire movie with gangsters, the directors made Dead Cert a gangster movie that just so happened to have the added twist of the second gang being a band of vampires. Honestly, it adds a nice twist mixing both the gangster and vampire genres into a believable and entertaining movie. This is especially true when the true nature of the vampires are not uncovered till the last quarter of the film.
The cinematography in Dead Cert was quite good for what is considered a foreign movie, placed against Hollywood standards. The shots were well executed. The directors used a wide variety of styles and techniques to keep the movie both engaging and to add drama and enhance the experience. Another great action of cinematography was the inter-spacing of the different plot points. Dead Cert provided a good balance between focusing on the different characters and stories, without feeling “jumpy” or cobbled together. Unfortunately, there is one major problem in this movie that is inherent in horror movies; the lighting. In an effort to be gritty and scary, Dead Cert is set mainly at night or in dark locations. While this adds to the spook factor, it makes it difficult to follow certain aspects of this movie. Also, the director used different hues of light light to try and promote a certain feeling or “vibe”. This led to a bit of a hard time following a few of the various scenes. Along with this, the special effects are exceptional. I do not mean that they were over the top or insanely “awesome”. Rather, the special effects in Dead Cert were used sparingly and to good effect. The blood was present when needed, but unlike many horror movies the developers did not find the need to use five-gallon buckets of the stuff. I felt that it was believable, if vampires really were slaughtering people in London.
The HD quality of Dead Cert was everything expected, not only from a Blu-ray, but also from a feature film with so many popular actors. The images were crisp clear and had a perfect transition between audio and video. These were seamlessly synched to create a professional work. The colors were vibrant and over the top. In Dead Cert when there was actual “normal” lighting or tintless shots, they were done with a LED (Light emitting diode) type look. The whites had that bluish tint, rather than the yellow of normal sunlight or halogen lights. As for the tinting, it was done to the same standars as the rest of the movie. The colors not only popped, but they were designed and shot to be smooth without a grainy appearance. Frankly, this was a top-notch production, made by professionals with high end equipment.
The special features in Dead Cert are as surprising as the rest of the movie. The Blu-ray not only includes the obligatory trailer; it also contains two additional features. The first feature is the audio commentary with Billy Murray Craig Fairbrass and Lisa McAllister. Also joining in this audio commentary is producer Jonathan Sothcott. They talk about the different attributes of the movie, especially dealing with the actors and what it was like working on Dead Cert, as the scenes are playing. These people also provide some behind the scenes insight of what it was like to star in Dead Cert, and their experiences on set. Another of the special features wits the “making of” video. This was great to understand a bit of the back story and some behind the scenes commentary. It is actually quite different from the commentary, giving more insight and good information. This extra seemed like a great teaser trailer that not only tells about the story, but grabs the interest of people who have not viewed the movie.
Another surprise for me was that the actors all performed admirably. I was quite unexpected with the level of quality and ability inherent in the cast. These were not your usual vampire or horror flick actors. I began to do some research, thank you IMDB.com, and while I was not as familiar with the cast in Dead Cert, their careers were full of well known films. In terms of English actors they are quite popular. The main character Craig Fairbrass, does a bang-up job; both as the reluctant hero and the ass-kicking vampire slayer. He plays both the dramatic sections and the aggressive scenes with great panache. The other notable mention is Billy Murray, not to be confused with Bill Murray. He played the nasty Livienko, as the major villain of Dead Cert. He did a good job creating the feel of reserved, unstoppable evil incarnate.
Unfortunately the major problem I had with this movie, was what many people will love about it. This problem was that it was British in every sense of the word. Dead Cert was chocked full of British colloquialisms and slang. I had a hard time understanding a few of the different words, causing me to re-watch the same scene a few times. Also, the movie was quite slow. It took a long time to build up to the action and the story line; with very few action or horror scenes dispersed within. Frankly, it is everything expected from a good British film; with the word choice and the lead up. It reminded me of the older black and white vampire movies; rather than the common bloody, explosive affairs that are in the American media today. I would recommend this for a fan of British movies or old-school horror movies. Just go in looking for a dramatic horror and not two hours of explosions and blood. Dead Cert had a great twist and mixture of gangster meets vampire that creates a unique viewing experience for fans of either genre.