Dead As A Dodo

A badly-written, tacky horror film.

Michael Lantieri's first ever-directorial effort truly disappoints. The film begins with a family going to the isolated Emerald Isle where Patrick (Kevin Zegers), a young boy loses his parents to komodo dragons. Found and rescued later, the incident leaves severe scars on him and makes him mentally unstable. In an effort to bring him back to normal, psychiatrist Victoria (Jill Hennessy) takes him back to the Isle. She believes that the surroundings will force him to first remember and then overcome the terrible memories of that ill-fated day.

Written by Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell, the script is both badly written and predictable and the movie can be termed tacky as a whole. It has virtually nothing in it to recommend itself.

The pacing is slow; the movie tends to drag on, which is quite an ordeal especially since it is backed by a practically non-existent story line. The art of detailing, which is so often the hallmark of a good movie, is notably absent here. In fact, during the course of the film, one can actually predict the sequence in with the supporting characters get killed.

The acting is also extremely stilted. The only thing that perhaps manages to rise above this abyss of mediocrity that the movie has drowned itself in, are some of the special effects used to show the komodo dragons. But then again, the photography and editing really pull it down.

I'd call "Komodo" a safely avoidable flick and say that it's not worth either your or anybody else's time and money.

This article was first published on20 Sep 2000.