Deadhouse Dark Review (TV Series, 2021) #31DaysOfHorror
content warning: blood, gore, foul language, self-harm, mental wellness, medical footage
Deadhouse Dark is an anthology series on Shudder. It is a connected miniseries surrounding dark web horror stories. All of the episodes use cellphones, cameras, computers, and technology as a storytelling device for dark, unsettling horror.
Each of the six episodes is written and directed by a different person, based on creator Enzo Tedeschi’s ideas. This anthology series from Australia spans a wide variety of styles to consistently great results.
Without going into spoilers, I have to commend Deadhouse Dark for how it deals with potentially triggering subject matter. One episode ends with a credit screen encouraging you to seek help if you need it. They provide information for three crisis counseling organizations—two in Australia, one international. I have never seen another horror property do this. This is good. This is progress. This is what responsible horror looks like.
“Halloween” kicks the series off with a found footage story told in real time. A pair of young women leaving a Halloween party find a massive car wreck and a distressed woman wandering around the road. The woman, dressed as Carrie, refuses their help, screaming about something still being out there. The two women in the car call for help and keep driving.
The draw here is the dashcam footage angle. You get to see what happens in real time, mostly. Some of the footage is broken and you never quite get a clear view at some of the action. The sound design is excellent, suggesting everything you need to know to fully grasp the terror of the episode. It sets up the dark web angle well, as you’re really not supposed to have easy access to shocking footage of deadly motor vehicle accidents and their fall out.
Without spoiling anything, I’ll point out that it’s not just a snuff film, despite what the found footage angle sounds like. It’s a clever play on the sub-genre and the reliability of what you see from what should be an unbiased source in a horror story.
“No Pain No Gain” is the story of a teenage runner willing to try anything to get to the top of her sport. An renowned endurance and fitness coach contacts her online after a surprising loss with an offer to train her. The tasks seem simple at first, like running 50 laps or doing a squat workout. The trainer is on top of her, demanding precision and unyielding dedication to anything he asks. Then the requests become more extreme as her phone constantly buzzes and rings with new tasks and punishments.
This short has a strong and disturbing voice down to the core. The trainer who isn’t there in person but has total control of everything you do is a shocking concept. It is a more extreme horror story about giving up control.
I give major credit to writer/director Megan Riakos for what she does with “No Pain No Gain.” The subject matter of this episode could be incredibly triggering. The lead character agrees to an increasingly unhealthy fitness and nutrition regimen and is even coached to physically harm herself. The episode feels scary and safe. There is nothing glamorous about what the character is doing. She stops to question the program every step of the way. There are also clear consequences for the actions she is coached to take and no clear imitable pattern to what she is doing. What you do see is almost entirely suggestion, not clear visual instructions of how to do this at home. This is how you responsibly create horror about this kind of subject matter.
In “The Staircase,” a team of YouTube mystery hunters investigate a recent medical/criminal emergency in their neighborhood. The host somehow stole the phone from the comatose victim in the hospital, giving the crew all the evidence they need to find the exact location and cause of the problems. Then they hear a cry for help from deep within an abandoned building.
This is a hybrid found footage short, combining glitching camera footage from the YouTube shoot with more traditional footage of the investigators exploring the condemned structure. It’s a great tactic for a story about disorientation and the unknown. The fact is you can hide a lot of seams with a clever camera angle or darkened corner when you don’t solely rely on that for your scares.
“The Staircase” is claustrophobic and tense. The sensation of being lost is built into the production design, which, again provides great cover for the dirty business happening off screen to make this piece of weird fiction work. This is the kind of horror that keeps me up at night.
In “A Tangled Web We Weave,” a man getting ready for a date is convinced there is a rat in his house. His building manager cannot find any evidence of it, but she does leave him with a few traps to lay around just in case. The rat is far more bold when David is alone, staring him down and taunting his every effort to succeed.
“A Tangled Web We Weave” is like a darker, living version of Hannah Barbera cartoons. It’s hard to call this episode horror/comedy. It’s aiming for those beats, but is incredibly dark. What would seem silly in a cartoon is obsessive and even upsetting in this context.
I would be surprised if anyone picked up on the exact twist in this episode, but I wasn’t entirely surprised when it happened. I knew something had to breakthrough unless the story boxed itself into a corner. There’s a structure to this episode that is built from classic horror. That form has lasted this long for a reason and it’s still effective here.
“Mystery Box” is intended to be the lynchpin of the series. This is the episode about the woman finding the dark web box you’ll see in the official description of the series. A package with a phone inside arrives on her doorstep and won’t stop ringing. She’s terrified.
This is another one that it’s best not to be spoiled on. The levels of realization are really well done. “Mystery Box” isn’t a framing device for the anthology as it doesn’t surround the other episodes. It’s a compass to help you navigate the rest of the series and understand what you’ve actually experienced.
“My Empire of Dirt” is about a death midwife. Her job is to help people die peacefully in their own homes on their own terms. Her newest client is struggling with all she lost out on in her own life having to care for her own mother in her final days.
This episode is as sad as it is scary. The dying woman lives in utterly unsanitary, high level hoarder conditions. She is incapable of surviving on her own and is in a lot of pain. Worst of all, she’s being haunted by something in the distance. This is something we get to see, but the death midwife does not. It’s a great source of tension, as we don’t know what is real and what isn’t by the end.
Deadhouse Dark is a scary anthology series. It leans dark, both in visuals and subject matter. The episodes on their own are short enough that the comparative lack of levity isn’t too bad individually. Watching the series all at once can be a bit intense, even overwhelming. It’s horror that doesn’t shy away from horror.
Deadhouse Dark is streaming on Shudder.
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