Dead Still (2020) Review

Dead Still (2020) Review 5/10

A brand-new Acorn TV Original is ready for its close up; DEAD STILL, a morbidly comic period drama, like never before seen, gets its UK premiere on Acorn TV this summer. Blending mystery and drama with gallows humour this RTÉ and Acorn Media Enterprises collaboration with Deadpan Pictures, written by John Morton and directed by Imogen Murphy (Can’t Cope, Won’t Cope, Red Rock) and Craig David Wallace (Slasher, Murdoch Mysteries), premieres with the first two episodes on 29 June 2020, and two episodes per week arriving on subsequent Mondays.

After an unfortunate accident and waning patronage take their toll, Brock Blennerhasset (Michael Smiley) must take on his would-be actress niece, Nancy Vickers (Eileen O’Higgins), and a new, eager assistant and former grave-digger, Conall Molloy (Kerr Logan) to help keep his macabre memorial photography business afloat. Meanwhile, Detective Frederick Regan (Aidan O’Hare) of the Dublin Metropolitan Police is following a trail of bodies, closing in on a murderer who appears to be cashing in on the sordid market for ‘snuff’ imagery. Unfortunately, the bodies seem to lead to Blennerhasset’s door… so with his trusty assistants at hand, they take it upon themselves to track down the true perpetrator before he strikes again.

DEAD STILL had so much potential, for starters it has a great cast, headlined by the always wonderful Michael Smiley, and an interesting premise set up against a macabre profession of yesteryear. Top that off with terrific photography and spot-on production design and you should be all set for a top-drawer comedy/thriller that’ll have you chuckling along whilst chewing your fingernails with the edge-of-your-seat plot intrigue. Unfortunately there’s neither. The comedy IS there but it feels muted and yes there’s a potentially interesting mystery embedded to the plot’s core but it never really comes alive as it should. Also at just forty-five minutes an episode – with six episodes in total – each episode still feels at least fifteen minutes too long, the pacing and editing makes it a bit of tonal muddle.

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