Bloodtype Online

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 

    Upon sitting down to watch Already Dead I had the impression that I would be watching a movie along the lines of Death Sentence or The Brave One; another modern day revenge thriller. To a certain degree this was the case, the lead characters family is attacked, and yes he does look for revenge, but the makers here have taken the story off on a quite different, and nasty, tangent. 

    Thomas Archer (Ron Eldard) is enjoying life, he is doing well in his job and has a cute as you like family, it's almost sickening. Unluckily for him though life is about to throw all this into turmoil after an intruder kills his son and attacks his wife in their home. He quite understandably is shattered by these events, events made worse by the news that the police force aren't going to do anything about it.  

    He is eventually guided in the direction of a therapist (Christopher Plummer) in order to try and help him come to terms with these tragic events. For once though therapy seems to be absolutely no help, and in a part of the movie that is just a tad unbelievable, the therapist informs Thomas that there is another way he can be helped. There is an agency that, for a price of course, will find the perpetrator and allow Thomas to have his way with them; he can basically get the revenge he so desperately craves. 

    This is the main premise for this quite effective movie, especially when the doubts start to set in. Does he have the right person? Is revenge really what he wants at any cost? 

    The story isn't quite as linear as you might expect, with us joining the action well into the course of the events. Flashbacks fill us in the further we get in the movie, which works quite well in the grand scheme of things. 

    At its heart Already Dead is a quite nasty film, the premise, the execution, the whole shebang really, with only Eldard being the slightly sympathetic character. Unfortunately I don't think he has the strength to carry off the role successfully, and at times comes across as lost within the brutality of the events. A shame as I do think he is a quite good actor, but some of the decisions his character makes only serve to make him look incredibly naive and just a little dumb. 

    The movie itself though is quite well made, with influences from Hostel and Saw, as well as the aforementioned revenge flicks, being quite apparent. Even with those quite blatant influences it still manages to retain its own identity for the most part and does ask quite a few questions of the viewer. Along with these questions though it does fail to leave a few matters unresolved, and I had more questions at the end that I feel the makers should have answered which would have made this a more complete movie. 

    Already Dead is a dark and in places very violent movie with more than enough surprises to keep you entertained. It won't blow you away, but as far as modern revenge thrillers go it is certainly worth watching. 

-Jude Felton