Deadline
Deadline
| 01 January 1980 (USA)
Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream thousands of hit movies and TV shows

Start 30-day Free Trial
Deadline Trailers View All

A horror film about a screenwriter who loses the ability to distinguish between his fantasy world and the real world, with disastrous consequences. As he ruminates on his place in any world and loses his grip, he also loses his wife and his children's respect, and critics tear him apart. The final undoing of this screenwriter is a deadline that must be met at all costs, costs that perhaps are too great.

Reviews
Spoonatects

Am i the only one who thinks........Average?

PiraBit

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

View More
Stephan Hammond

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

View More
Sarita Rafferty

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

View More
sol-

Between an unfaithful wife, children who will not leave him alone and a producer who keeps reminding him of impending deadlines, penning a new script proves challenging for an esteemed horror screenwriter in this Canadian oddity. The editing design takes a bit of getting to used to with the film every so often cutting away from the on-screen action to horror episodes ranging from a blood shower to a woman burned by her grandchildren to an evil goat. As the movie progresses though, it becomes clear that these cutaways are reflective of his thought process and how he is constantly haunted by the things that he has written about, especially at a university conference where students tell him off for "peddling degenerate stuff". This leads to some fascinating discussions as the writer claims that horror is "a way of identifying with things that we might otherwise never identify with". Intriguing as 'Deadline' might sound, it is not the easiest film to warm to, unusual editing aside. None of the characters are particularly sympathetic, especially not the arrogant lead actress in his most recent film and his selfish wife; he is not exactly a model parent either though, and it is at times hard to care what happens to him. The film is, however, quite encapsulating when focused on the horror ideas that haunt him, and what happens to his daughter late in the piece injects much food for thought.

View More
Vomitron_G

What a curious and weird Canadian production this turned out to be. About a horror screenwriter on a slow descent into depravity while trying to come up with his next screenplay, all this under pressure of his producer. There isn't much of a story present to carry the film, but other things manage to do this. First off, there are plenty of scenes portraying the kind of fiction our writer writes about. We're talking some graphic scenes of gore & bloodshed here, so be prepared for that. Then it seems this film tries to raise some issues about these topics. Like why write about such extremities? Like a producer that's only interested in having his screenwriter deliver what sells: sex & violence. Soon our writer can't get another coherent scene on paper anymore, and his mind starts deteriorating accordingly. His cynical wife isn't of much help. He starts having violent outbursts. His kids get scared. Then comes alcohol, drugs, women. Not sure what to think of this film, as it all seems so pointless in the end. But it was, uhm, an interesting watch.

View More
HumanoidOfFlesh

This gory and admirably engrossing Canadian horror is rarely seen and suitably obscure.It tells the story of an accomplished writer of horror scripts,who is plagued by ghastly visions of horror and bloody carnage.His ideas are often outrageous and transgressive.He writes about cannibalistic nuns,satanic goats and murderous children with gasoline.He is constantly fighting with his drug-addicted wife and his three children are neglected.When his small daughter is hanged his life breaks down into nightmarish pieces."Deadline" is about dysfunctional Canadian family and their tortured lives.The film is very gory,but the gore scenes are all shots from various movies Steve did.The acting is great and the atmosphere is sleazy and washed-out."Deadline" hates horror genre,but it works as a grimly effective shocker.8 out of 10 for this obscure horror classic.

View More
Coventry

"Deadline" is an obscure, inventive, intriguing and occasionally very engrossing little Canadian-produced horror sleeper, but at the same time also difficult and even somewhat risky to recommend to fellow genre fanatics because it is certainly an awkward and downbeat movie. Basically a dysfunctional family drama and a portrait of downwards mental spiral, "Deadline" also boosts a whole lot of sickening and extra-gratuitous violence and I'm really not sure if people will appreciate this combination, let alone the robust and sudden changes in tone. Even though the gory bits undoubtedly form the best and most memorable part of the film, they clearly serve no purpose other than fill up space and attract wider audiences. Steven Lessey is a horror author whose previous scripts were hugely profitable blockbuster hits. So now, and obviously, Steven's producer nags around his head for a new script. But Steven wants to do something different and struggles with a writer's block. Being obsessed with this work, Steven doesn't notice how his wife becomes a frequent visitor of drug parties or how his neglected children play deadly games they've seen in daddy's movies. The sick & twisted horror fragments are either clips from Steven's supposed previous films (like a marvelous scene involving a black goat and an agricultural machine) or potential new concept for his new script. Particularly these fragments are outrageously demented and uncompromisingly shocking! Some of them really ought to be elaborated into a full-length horror movie, like the idea of suicidal fetuses and especially the idea of little children tying up and setting fire to their own grandmother. "Deadline" is pretty good but it could have been a lot better. In the hands of that other super-talented Canadian director David Cronenberg, for example, the processing of these themes and ambiances would have resulted in the ultimately petrifying cinematic nightmare. Still, writer/director Mario Azzopardi definitely didn't do a bad job. The atmosphere is admirably moody and the film is literally stuffed with unsettling imagery. "Deadline" is an interesting film, to say the least. Proceed at your own risk

View More