The Dead Center is a 2019 thriller about a hospital psychiatrist’s own sanity in uncovering the mystery of a new patient with amnesia.
At the city morgue, a body arrives. He’s unidentified, tagged and put into storage overnight. Not long after, the corpse twitches and comes back to life, escaping into darkness and out of the building, leaving medical examiner Edward Graham (Bill Feehely) a bit baffled. Meanwhile, the John Doe shows up in a bed at a local hospital, though no one there knows he’s dead. Well, once dead. His vitals are clear and he seems fine, though scarred with odd markings and with no memories. He ends up in the care of psychiatrist Daniel Forrester (Shane Carruth), a doctor already on the edge, trying to figure out who he is. On opposite ends of the man’s fate, the two doctors work to uncover a mystery that leads only to more questions.
Starting off with a terrific opening bit, even if we can see where it’s going, writer and director Billy Senese‘s The Dead Center has a smart hook, luring us into his horror trap with some genuine jolts. You feel like you know where it’s going but it takes a creative turn early on that definitely invites some curiosity where the wonder of why things are happening is well earned. That has us following one doctor investigating the case of John Doe as a missing (dead) person and another puzzling over what is wrong with the man causing mayhem in his psych ward.
This is not conventional horror, the slow, simmering approach effective in generating some plausible suspense, with good work from the entire cast, especially Carruth, whose 2004 directorial debut Primer is still considered one of the best in the that genre. He’s only acting here, but is properly grounded and harrowed, convincing as a mental health professional wrung through the bureaucracy, welcoming the intrigue of what John Doe offers. He’s well matched against Jeremy Childs as the reanimated corpse.
I’ll do you a favor and not let slip any further details as the film explores a number of divergent paths, many innovate in digging about the recesses of some familiar landscapes. Senese knows he’s toying around with some well-tread upon areas, including the psychiatric hospital, sticking to a few obvious narrative hooks that do as intended, but manages to give enough presence to the place in keeping it authentic and appropriately disquieting. That’s made all the more bracing by composer Jordan Lenhning‘s excellent work in molding moments of gripping tension.
The Dead Center is better in its first half than second, the search for answers more fun than getting them, a sticking point for many films that do so. Either way, there’s enough experimentation going on here, with the dual doctors on parallel investigations, that merits this small effort a look. Horror is always better when we have to think a little about the why’s and how’s rather than the what. Recommended.