"We are all going to fu&$%ng die!" Prank calling leads to a massacre. Yep, that is pretty much the motive for a psychopath wearing a winter coat (the kind of coat a participant in the Iditarod would wear), wielding a steel ax (I admit, the ax is cool-looking), is on the pursuit of college kids attending a party held at an impressive mansion. The festivities include drinking and hook-ups, along with non-stop swearing. The opening has kids playing "75", a prank calling game requiring those participating to keep the victim on the opposite line on the phone for 75 seconds. They prank the wrong fellow and he proceeds to interrupt their parents' party, butchering all the adults in attendance before the police arrive. Ten years later, the children, now young adults, are next to be selected as ax victims, having witnessed the bloody onslaught to their parents. At the party of the film, 75 is played once again and like before the killer is contacted, torturing some poor soul for the stunned, rowdy college crowd, soon learning of their location, intruding upon them with ax in tow. You know the rest. Formulaic, generic, familiar slasher—the content and characters are as obnoxious and annoying as you'd expect. My user reviews for these movies sound repetitive like a broken record recycled over and over because what I am watching is repetitive like a broken record recycled over and over. The slasher genre as a whole fails to produce imaginative story-telling and I don't expect much when I watch a movie featuring young people butchered by psychos, but there's always a desire to be surprised. It doesn't happen often, but occasionally a slasher movie comes along that challenges the status quo regarding a not so depressingly ordinary plot delivering interesting characters instead of the usual dimbulb dunderheads. Presented by Flavor Flav's Nine Tails, which should tell you all you need to know about how this film will likely turn out from the get-go. Of course, there's a twist regarding the mastermind behind the newer murders and the ending, as detectives (including veteran cop Rutger Hauer, positively wasted and almost forgotten as the final rampage takes up the final twenty minutes) try to find the remaining kids, scattered about after adoptions sent them to different locations, actually aid the psycho, will likely be sure to infuriate many viewers (obviously designed to do so). Yes, there's the typical barricade of group in bedroom, bickering that leads to punches and shouting matches, and the stupid decision to split up which leads to members being picked off one at a time (most of the deaths occur off-screen, with a couple of decent beheadings the main attractions for an otherwise tiresome slasher that offers nothing fresh or innovative). "Dead Tone" is just another slasher destined for burial into obscurity, Hauer's presence in the movie, no matter how muted, the draw for many viewers in the future.

"Dead Tone" opens with a group of young children making prank phone calls while their clueless parents party and carry on in the other room. With one of the phone calls, they reach a psychopath who isn't at all happy to be bothered with their childish banter. This puts a damper on their game and they decide to go to bed. A short time later, the telephone rings. When one of the kids wakes up to answer it, he is greeted by an axe-wielding psycho- path who proceeds to murder his parents and their friends. Flash forward 10 years to a group of college students who decide to spend the weekend at the rich jock's secluded mansion for some partying and sex. All is going well when, while drunk, they decide to make prank phone calls as a game. The rule: you must keep the person on the other end for at least 75 seconds. Needless to say, they (again) reach a psychopath who ends up showing up at the secluded house with his trust axe.The Good: "Dead Tone" is a slasher flick through and through. There is no lame attempt at comedy or self-referential moments. In fact, in resembles something that came straight from the 1980's, where slasher films were only interested in one thing: getting a bunch of teenagers together in an isolated setting and killing them off brutally. The killer, though a rip-off of the "Urban Legend" killer, is quite brutal and it doesn't take long to realize he means business. The production is top-notch and the acting is fairly decent (Rutger Hauer gives some credibility to the film). For the most part, the action is fast paced and there is no real boring parts. Once the killer arrives at the mansion, the killing and action doesn't let up. The Bad: The script is clichéd as all get out and I swear I have some some of the exact lines uttered in this film said in countless other slasher film. Additionally, the film is VERY formulaic--it is like the screenwriter and director took a cure from "How to Make A Slasher Film in Three Easy Steps." We are even subjected to the "let's stop at the creepy old gas stations where we can get a few false scares while one of the characters ventures into the incredibly filthy bathroom and the be warned by the equally filthy and creepy gas station attendant before we speed off a tad shaken" scene. Really, the filmmakers offered absolutely nothing new to the genre and, again, this film could really be a combination of about twenty five other slasher films I have seen lately. The ending is predictable and a tad silly and unbelievable. Oh, and the main blond girl isn't that great of an actress and is definitely the weak link in the cast.Overall: An entertaining 80's style slasher film that you just might enjoy if you go into it with no expectations. The action is brisk, there are some decent death scenes for gore hounds, and the production is nice. However, it is clichéd and you will roll your eyes at the predictably of some of the scenes, particularly the ending.Fright Meter Grade: C+

This was a fun and entertaining slasher with brutal and bloody slayings but it was extremely unoriginal with a lot of dumb characters running around like chickens with their heads cut off. The whole concept has been done to death now and it tried too hard to be like a film like Scream or Urban Legend and it ended up more like a weaker version of Valentine. This film looked like it was made in the 1990's and it should of been released in that era because it might of done better because that's when this type of film was hip but now it's just not that scary or that suspenseful I mean it just failed at it though there was a couple of jump scares here and there but they were cheap. In the end there wasn't anything clever about this slasher at all and they could of done a better job with their material but I guess they wanted to rip off slashers of the 90's, very uninspired and pointless in the end and they left it opened for a sequel but I say don't bother. Overall Dead Tone was dead as a doorknob, BRAINLESS! It was kind of fun though while it lasted but not much thrills can be found in this slasher. Skip it or watch it if you haven't seen any of the slashers of the 1990's. More of a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This movie has a quite good promising concept for a genre movie. It's a slasher in which lots of people are getting killed randomly by a serial killer. Like many genre movies before the movie uses phone-calls as its main concept. It's something which always works out well for horror/thriller movies. Nothing wrong with the phone-class but everything else about the movie is just way below par.I purely watch these kind of movies because of Rutger Hauer. Even though the movies are always horrible, his presence still gives the movies always something special. But like always, his role is far too small. Perhaps if he was the main lead the movie would still had been more bearable. It now is as if he plays in a totally different movie himself and has nothing to do with the main plot-line of the movie. Like his scenes were shot at a totally different phase of production. I bet he never ever even met most of the other actors and crew members involved with the movie.One of the movie its problem are its characters. The movie is a slasher, so of course it features a bunch of university students, played of course by a bunch of actors who are close to- or even older than 30 years already. None of them are however likable or memorable. They are basically all the same and a bunch of typical stereotypes. I don't even know who all these characters were and what their names were. There are just too many characters in it and most of them are just asking to be killed.The movie its story also just doesn't ever seem to get off the ground. The first halve of the movie is filled with many false scares. Way too many. The scare moments of the movie because of this start to become really ineffective. It even makes the movie more comical like at times than an horror movie. Not sure if this was the point of it all. It was Brian Hooks first and as of yet only directed movie. Besides that he also played the main lead and served as a producer and writer for the movie. He's obviously not the most talented person around in the business.When the movie becomes more of a slasher and horror/thriller movie the movie becomes more watchable to watch for the genre fans, despite being formulaic and predictable with it all. No, it's just not the most exciting or scary genre movie around but there are also definitely worse of out there. The genre fans should be able to appreciate some of the gore and violence of the movie.The movie soon however starts to get worse again as it heads toward its ending, when the movie is trying to be clever by trowing a couple of twists (what else is new?), which are just too far out there and don't work out well for the movie as a whole.5ive/10enhttp://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/