The Reel Review
While cleaning out the home of his recently-deceased mother, William uncovers an old ham radio that belonged to his father who had died when William was just a boy. After turning it on, he starts hearing a mysterious male voice over the radio as he strikes up a relationship with an agoraphobic woman, Eva, in this indie horror/thriller.
Kevin and Vickie Hicks, who respectively directed and wrote this film, star as the lead characters William and Eva. Their acting is well enough for a very low budget film, but the production values, and in particular, some of the abrupt and cloudy sky scene transitions, are distractingly clunky, amateurish and just plain lazy. Just a bit of creativity would have gone a long way.
The biggest problem with this film, however, is the snoozer of a story – it is a real slog, with way too many sedentary talkie scenes and almost no action. And when Dead Air tries to pull off a twisty ending it just comes off as hackneyed and silly, an unsatisfying waste of time, like watching a lot of… well… dead air.
REEL FACTS
• The phrase “dead air” is a broadcasting term, where nothing is going on – radio silence or a dark television screen. It is a broadcaster’s worst nightmare.
• This Dead Air is not to be confused with the 2009 horror film Dead Air directed by and starring Corbin Bernsen, about zombies taking over a Los Angeles radio station.
• Kevin and Vickie Hicks have created several other low budget films, including Behind the Door, America’s Beach and Doppel.
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