User Reviews

**SPOILERS** Not all that bad slasher movie from Austria that has the added attraction of the breath taking photography in and around the little town of Ebensee and Lake Traunsee where most of the action in the movie takes place.

The horror starts just after a number of friends graduated from high school and are about to go on their long awaited summer vacation. Getting a text message on their cell-phones telling them that they have only three days to live looked like a sick joke at first. It's when Martin, Laurence Rupp, disappeared from a local disco where he and his friends including his girlfriend Nina, Sabrina Reiter,were dancing the night away that the sick joke became a stark reality.

Going to see the police Nina is told by the top, and what looks like only, cop in Ebensee Kogler (Andreas Kiendl), who just happens to be Martin's brother, that he probably got himself drunk and shacked up with a girl he met at the disco. As it later turned out Martin was knocked unconscious, when he was in the disco's mens room, and dumped in the middle of Lake Traunsee where he ended up drowning with a concrete weight attached to his legs!

This was repeated later in the movie when Nina was also knocked out cold, from behind, and was about to share the same fate that her boyfriend Martain did. A blooded and battered Nina ended up escaping with the help of fellow student and #1 suspect in Martin's murder Patrick, Julian Sharp, who ended up taking her place: In being murdered by Nina's hooded assailant. It was during her confrontation with her would be killer that Nina got a good look at him and realized who he was. And with that Nina also came to realize why he was so determined to murder her and her friends and at the same time have Lake Traunsee become their final resting place and watery grave!

Unlike most US slasher movies "Dead in 3 Days" refrains from having the teenagers in it look and act as if their totally unaware of why their being targeted by their unseen killer. In fact it was Nina, not the local police, who soon realized why she and her friends were being stalked and hunted down. This was all about something that happened some ten years ago on of all places a frozen Lake Traunsee.

The movie also kept the blood letting, so important in US slasher film, to a minimum. In the one scene that the movie did resembled US slasher movies-in the savage attack on Alex played by Nadia Vogel-it was as horrific, if not more so, then any you would see in movies like "Halloween" or "Friday the 13th" and any of its some dozen sequels.

***SPOILERS*** The surprise ending of "Dead in 3 Days" was in fact a lot like the ending in the original "Friday the 13th". As it soon turned out the killer was totally unknown to those of us watching the movie until he, or she, made his first appearance at the very end of the film!

I couldn't help be reminded of my home country of Canada as I watched this solid teen thriller. My home and native land was responsible (thanks in part to American execs with money to invest in tax shelters) for some of the most memorable slashers to come out of the 80s (and the 70s with Black Christmas). Happy Birthday To Me, Prom Night, Terror Train, My Bloody Valentine just to name a few. Another poster mentioned that this film couldn't be compared to the best 80s slasher flicks because the pacing was too slow and spent too much time on characterization... um... have you seen 80s slashers? With the exception of crappy Friday the 13th movies, the best 80s slashers made you care about the victims in peril, and for the most part, the actors playing the teenagers could actually act (probably because they were all 30 playing 18). This movie was huge surprise and I couldn't have cared less that the blood and gore was at a minimum-the fish tank scene was all anyone needs for gore content! I don't see the comparisons to I Know What You Did Last Whatever... unless you count the drinking and driving and running over something, but it was a deer, not a fisherman, and Bambi's family didn't come after the teens. Every great slasher flick usually utilizes the same formula, someone is killing them one by one for sins of the past. I think this is the first one that actually doesn't reveal the sin until the very end which I thought was quite effective. I loved the interactions the teens had with their parents as well, something not often seen. I also enjoyed not knowing who or when someone would die, all the members of the clique had their moments in the spotlight and a FINAL GIRL or GUY could have been any of them. And not to give any SPOILERS away... but the actor behind the killings..... WOW!!!! I had every conviction that the killer's identity was completely plausible. Do yourself a huge favor, if you enjoy the slasher genre for characters, suspense, a good mystery, and terrific atmosphere, then rent 3 Days Dead! Take it from a hardcore slasher fan!

A man hangs himself. Five youths, just graduated from school, hit a deer while celebrating in exhilarated spirits, while driving down the road in their SUV. A tragic incident involving a kid who drowned after falling through a fragile sheet of ice due to the attempt at securing a puck while playing ice-hockey with five other children. A warning to the five high-schoolers who put the deer out of it's misery that they will die in exactly three days. All these plot elements converge by the film's end, establishing the motive for why a mysterious predator is targeting the young adults just fresh out of high school, exasperated at surviving and optimistic about the future.

The film's setting(..a city surrounded by giant, snowy mountains and water)is beautiful, the camera-work striking, and the acting good. But, the film treads familiar waters and the story-line isn't even remotely original. The killer wears a black slicker and leather gloves, there's a brief amount of nudity, and a bit of graphic violence(..one murder sequence, featuring a victim's head immersed in a fish take, her throat tearing into the sharp edges of the aquarium, is particularly grisly)which might please slasher fans, because Dead in 3 Days features the familiar aspects all too common in the genre. The conclusion has annoyingly stupid behavior by the three remaining principles(..not excluding a really dumb decision of a younger sister to one of the group who follows after them)who up and decide to return to the lake house where the first victim was found tied to a rock used to hold him underwater. This lake house is of major importance to the plot for it pertains to the dead kid whose father was so grief-stricken he decided to take his own life. A blatantly obvious red herring is provided, but I have a feeling his dismissal from the plot won't surprise anyone. How the three remaining survivors aren't able to defend themselves against the killer who stands idle in this cold-blank trance-like state is really rather contrived. Obvious influences include One Missed Call(..the foreboding text message to those targeted)and I Know What You Did Last Summer(..youths involved in the accidental murder of an innocent).

After a close-knit clique of kids graduate from high school, their lives are still boring until they all get the same creepy text message, "You'll be dead in 3 days" (hence the clever title of the film). They all ignore what they think is a message from their creepy school mate Patrick (Julian Sharp) who is too much of a suspect for a movie. While the kids get kidnapped and murdered, the film doesn't show use the killer's face right away as the main suspect changes. The twist is nothing new to American audiences.

The film moves at a slow pace and is more of a serial murder mystery than a hard core slasher film. The swearing seemed forced and out of place, almost like Spock in "Star Trek IV".

My DVD defaulted to the German language. I needed to go into the set up and change it to English.

F-bomb, brief sex, brief nudity (Julia Rosa Stöckl,Nadja Vogel)

Joyous high school students are celebrating their recent graduation. A big dance is planned and a short vacation trip to an Alpine lake. A group of the students become concerned when each receives a text message warning of their death in three days. Most believe it is a sick joke from a fellow classmate that has a vendetta...and if so, who and why? Things get real serious when a student is found dead. Now surviving students fear time is running out before they figure out the motivation and identification of the killer. The cast includes: Sabrina Reiter, Julian Sharp, Julia Rosa Stockl, Laurence Rupp, Nadja Vogel and Karl Fischer.

Five friends fresh from graduating high school all get a text message saying they will be dead in 3 days. One by one this starts coming true with Martin (Laurence Rupp) being abducted and drown in the local lake. Nina (Reiter) finds his body and she is taken next from her home by the killer. She almost has the same fate but is rescued at the last moment. After another of the group dies in a gory death which ends in decapitation, the police want to know if the three of them were ever involved in anything in the past. They obviously lie and realize they were. A boy died in an accident many years ago and the group feels it could be his mother attempting revenge. Part slasher film, part mystery, this Austrian film has a fair amount of gore and a creepy killer until the reveal at the end. Everything is handled well by Director Andreas Prochaska and there is some suspense as well, still, the movie lacks punch and nothing is very memorable when it is over. You could do a lot worse than this if you are looking for a newer slasher film to feast on, there's just nothing here that stands out.

"In 3 Tagen bist du tot" was a very successful film in Austria. There are some negative, as well as some positive things about it. It is definitely positive that it even was made. For everyone who knows Austrian cinema this has to be a surprise because genre-horror is practically non-existent in Austria. Another thing on the plus side is that the characters are worked out very well for this kind of movie. But as happy as I am that a film like this can also be made in Austria with dialect speaking actors, there still is one big problem: the story. Of course it's hard to be original in this genre where almost everything has been done at least twice, but that's no excuse for a story that's so hackneyed, that it almost made me a bit angry. And I also think they were a bit too cautious in the gory scenes. But I hope that the success of this film will make it easier also for other Austrian talents to get their project financed.

There is a horror in Austria. But it is not a quality horror movie as Austrians try to convince the surrounding world. It is the horror of incredible stupidity and ineptitude of the lead characters that makes the movie practically unwatchable.

Imagine all the bad clichés from the worst possible horror movies. Five teenagers versus one crazy lady, lady wins. The weakest character is equipped with gun but has zero skill or will to use it. Girlies running upstairs screaming. Absolutely random survivals. Super inept police. Zero logic everywhere. You know all these stupid things laughed in "Scream", except for nudity and fun.

The plot is totally boring. No fun. No even slightest surprising moments. No gore to speak of. Pretty much just a waste of time.

Three points for the nice surroundings of the lake. If you love the Austrian and German stories about nice people living in the mountains, you might enjoy it as this is slightly darker version of the same.

This is basically an Austrian remake of "I Know What You Did Last Summer". The basic story idea is the same, some plot details have been changed. Technically it's competently done and the cast is OK. But inventive or original it is not unless you consider that it's the first time this kind of genre film (horror slasher film but not (very) low budget) has been done in Austria. Which was the main motivation to do it anyway as the producer readily admitted at the press conference at the Locarno festival. The film is likely to do well with the Austrian/German youth as they can identify with the teenagers in the film acting out a fantasy usually only available from Hollywood. The film is gory at times but not excessively so.

"In 3 Tagen bist du tot" is an Austrian horror film from 10 years ago and actually one of the most known movie from this genre from German-language territory. This does not make it a good film though. The writer and director is Andreas Prochaska and his movie here runs for slightly over 90 minutes, or slightly under if you don't count the credit sequence. You could certainly call it the Middle European take on "I Know What You Did Last Summer", but I think it is inferior. It is about a young woman and her friends who had a terrible accident in the past involving an innocent child and now, in the present, this accident comes back to haunt them, not in a supernatural form though. It is all about revenge.

Usually, about these films, they can work well in 2 different ways. The first would be that you actually care about the characters and hope they live because they are good people and likable. The second would be that they are so stupid and arrogant that you actually feel for the killer, which could be the case here because of the tragic background story. But neither of the two applied for me and this is why I did not enjoy the movie particularly. There were a couple moments that were decent, but there were also moments that were really bad and in which the characters acted in a truly idiotic manner. One of several examples would be when the boy points the gun at the killer at the end but stands there until he gets stabbed instead of firing one bullet after the other. I would love to say his sympathy made his reaction appropriate, but it just doesn't make any sense to me.

Apparently, audiences and Prochaska thought differently about this film and felt it deserved a sequel. I couldn't agree less. At least, the filmmaker managed to step up his craft recently with the pretty gritty revenge western "Das finstere Tal". In my opinion you should watch that one and not this film here. I do not recommend "Dead in 3 Days". Thumbs down.

This is a nice little movie from a country, which is not that well known for movies in the international movie-scene! ( which does not mean, that their movies are bad!! ) At the end of teenie horror wave here comes a little horror-thriller about 5 young students passed luckily their MATURA ( maybe like finish of High School ), good friends since Primary school. They received messages on their cell's telling "In 3 days you're dead!" One by one of disappeared and get killed.

The acting is good, in Germany released with the "original version" - means Austrian dialect - makes it more realistic, a little charming town in the Alps... But the special effects are totally disappointing and silly. Away of "Less would have been more", if the director would have been avoid bloody scenes, the shock effects would not have been involuntary funny!

The actors told at the bonus material, that the characters here are more deep and well developed, as in American movies. You feel with them, in American movies they would be to superficial... I totally disagree, they are as bad or as well developed, as in every other teenie-horror-movie to!