Dead Man Down builds buzz without critics assist

A friend of mine who adamantly refused to go see Django Unchained with me has been asking what I know about Dead Man Down telling me that it ‘looks bangin.’ Then this morning another buddy sent me a link to an interview with Terrence Howard. Neither of these guys even watched the Oscars, so they’re not endorsing Dead Man Down for that reason. But the buzz is interesting. A controversial youtube video called “Elevator Murder Experiment” has gone viral with over 2.6 million views, and even though 93% of readers responding on Rotten Tomatoes say want to see it there are no legitimate mainstream reviews at all yet on RT or metacritic. Dead Man Down is directed by Niels Arden Oplev, making his American film debut alongside former collaborators Noomi Rapace and composer Jacob Groth who wrote the score for Oplev’s first adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The screenplay is by J.H.Wyman writer/producer of Fringe, one of the few shows on TV that can genuinely be called exciting. Cinematography by Paul Cameron who won a BAFTA (with Dion Beebe) for the crisp oily glisten of Collateral. Colin Farrell, Noomi Rapace, Terrence Howard, Dominic Cooper and Isabelle Huppert lead a top-notch cast. So why the lockdown on reviews? I’ll find out with my friend tomorrow. But part of the answer may be that anticipation for Dead Man Down is building just fine without reviews.

The Terrence Howard interview and Elevator Murder Experiment can be seen after the cut by anyone who has the energy to click to another page.