DEAD BEFORE THEY WAKE Review: Nathan Shepka Infiltrates Evil Sex Traffickers In A Near-Lifeless Crime Drama
Dead Before They Wake is now available on Digital Download
I’ve come across the work of director Nathan Shepka prior to this year but his latest, Dead Before They Wake is my first real dive into his work. Shepka stars in the film which he also shares co-directing duties with Andy Crane, from a script Shepka wrote as well as produced under his own banner.
The film is much ado with the kind of real world-driven storytelling in which human and sex trafficking is the underpinning that propels the story forward. Shepka plays Alex, a nightclub bouncer who is also known for doing favors for the right price, and people. Evan (Sylvester McCoy) is one such individual who approaches Alex one evening with a job offer: To search for a missing 14 year-old girl who is believed to have been enveloped into the city’s labyrinthine underworld of child sex trafficking.
Going forward, we learn that her captors happen to include a gang of ambitious pimps looking to expand their operations with the help of who they believe is a wealthy and prospective business partner. The film also introduces us to Gemma (Grace Cordell), Alex’s love interest and a teacher who also ventures into other uncommon means of income.
What follows in Dead Before They Wake is a predominantly slow-burn crime drama that sees Alex pounding the pavement as a relatively unknown, albeit expectant client of the suspects he believes have imprisoned the girl. As Alex grows closer to the truth, so does the danger, and the climatic fallout that ensues is an explosive, albeit cataclysmic one.
Shepka aims pretty high in narrative storytelling, featuring interwoven and complex relationships, and profiling the incriminating glimmers of just what makes pedophiliac and rapey monsters tick. As such, Dead Before They Wake brings plenty of layers with disturbing context, with imagery that doesn’t push the envelope too much and keeps things a little over suggestive amid some of the violence, graphic allure, and heavy subject matter. Begrudgingly though, the film’s indigestibility in most areas is much ado with a little more the usual setbacks of indie production.
The acting, the cinematography, and even the action – just short of watching Shepka in character go haywire with a bat on fools’ heads or slit throats – is unbearable to watch. The tone of the action borders between Beepkeeper and Bourne with execution that makes the choreography look more rehearsed than it should. The action is ambitious, but showcased in pretense, and there are maybe six action scenes in the space of 115 minutes as well, which doesn’t do much for a film that bodes as nearly lifeless for its duration.
I found myself tuning out a little more than I thought I would, so I won’t compel anyone to endure Shepka’s film if your tastes aren’t dissimilar. Dead Before They Wake isn’t the most stimulating and recapitulates with a discernibly bleak finish, but if you’re keen on giving an indie filmmaking Scot his due, consider yourselves humbly invited to check out Dead Before They Wake, as long as the experience doesn’t leave you as anemic.
