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The poster image of a set of full, dead female lips turned sideways to resemble another body part, suggests the edge that Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel’s “DeadGirl,” from a script by Trent Haaga, hopes to dance dangerously along. What superficially sounds like another entry in the ledger of “torture porn” movies, “DeadGirl” is closer in tone to “Stand by Me,” or “River’s Edge,” with the freighted figure of a found body suggesting many, many things to the teenagers unfortunate enough to live on. Cutting class, Ricky (Shiloh Fernandez) and J. T. (Noah Segan), a pair of 17-year-old pals, skulk the recesses of a disused sanitarium, discovering a room where a young woman (Jennie Spain), naked, somewhere between life and death, is confined. (A zombie by any other name…) The most squeamish aspect is the black comedy dance around ideas of violating the undead woman. Rape by any other name? The transgressive material is handled with skill and the occasional genuine shock. “DeadGirl” was shot with some of the same type of cameras used for “Zodiac,” a much more discreet movie but with an equally bold look. With Candice Accola, Michael Bowen, Andrew DiPalma, Shiloh Fernandez, Eric Podnar. 101m. Anamorphic 2.40 widescreen. (Ray Pride)
