You’ve got to crawl down before you can crawl up…

While Dead Dicks admittedly has an awkward and uneven tone it ends up being a pretty good gore fill ode to the ravages of mental health and how far we’ll go for those we love.

After Becca receives a distressing call from her suicidal brother Richie, she rushes over to his apartment and finds him alive and well – surrounded by copies of his own dead body.

If Canadian indie horror could have its own version of a PSA then Dead Dicks is probably it as it goes somewhere most audiences never would expect.

The writing/directing team of Chris Bavota and Lee Paula Springer admittedly stumble while setting up the action but it all unfolds in such a way that we can’t help but be intrigued.  Allowing a good chunk of it all to play in reaction shots from our leads (rather than SFX) is a strong signal of indie filmmaking where they accentuate the positive, saying to hell with the rest.  It’s a little too ‘talky’ in the first act, but once it gets to the crux of the matter in showing the horrors of being trapped in your own psychosis and having to help loved ones who seemingly can’t help themselves, then it becomes a really engaging piece of cinema.  It’s a credit to both Bavota and Springer who have taken something that’s a little goofy on the surface, but actually has something more serious to say the closer we get to the end.

Stars Heston Horwin and Jillian Harris actually carry the dynamic of the movie well once it all gets going and that’s why Dead Dicks works.  Once you get past the absurd of it all, it actually had something unique in the genre to say.

Dead Dicks screens with the short film Sky So Blue which is a demented little home invasion story that gives audiences a fresh and unique twist.  Director Tyler Williams puts a real shine on a very good looking short film that pairs well with Dead Dicks.