''Reeker'' (released in the Philippines as ''Dead People 2'') is a 2005 American
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
slasher film
A slasher film is a genre of horror films involving a killer stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools like knife, chainsaw, scalpel, etc. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a ...
written and directed by Dave Payne. The plot centers on a group of young adults who are stranded in a desert
oasis
In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environmentrave in the desert. When Radford leaves the room, Trip steals all of the pills. He meets with his friends Cookie, Nelson, Jack (who is blind), and Gretchen. The group then stops at a diner where Trip, not believing Jack is really blind, jokingly tricks him into using the women's restroom. When he realizes his mistake, Trip admits to Nelson that he stole the drugs he currently has, and Nelson reminds him how insane this dealer is, explaining he's even killed someone before. Trip simply passes it off as a legend. The dealer then calls Trip on his cellphone and says he is aware he stole the drugs because he caught him on his computer webcam and says he wants the drugs back, and Trip agrees to meet with the dealer at Area 52, Kelton in 2 hours or he is dead. The group then leaves the diner. The group notices an overturned car on the highway, which they dismiss as an abandoned accident.
Gretchen discovers that Trip is carrying drugs and stops the vehicle to kick him out. While parking at the side of the road, the group notices a short, but strong tremor. Gretchen agrees to take Trip back to the diner, which has been abandoned. The car runs out of gas and breaks down, so they decide to stay at the Halfway Motel next to the diner. Learning from the radio that the highway has been closed, Trip decides to walk down the road for help. Jack and Gretchen pitch camp outside. After a close call with the drug dealer Radford at another stop, Trip escapes and meets a man named Henry driving an RV, who is looking for his missing wife. He goes with Trip to the motel and sets up camp there. Trip doesn't tell his friends about his run-in with Radford, but warns them to be careful.
Looking for signal reception for his mobile phone, Trip releases from a rubbish skip the still-living head, torso, and arms of a truck driver, who then crawls away. Henry then meets Trip and discovers they both are seeing the dead people. While in his camper, Henry collapses, seemingly suffocating as a dark figure moves through the trailer. Still looking for reception, Trip is attacked on the roof by a hooded figure. Cookie is killed while sitting in an
outhouse
An outhouse is a small structure, separate from a main building, which covers a toilet. This is typically either a pit latrine or a bucket toilet, but other forms of dry (non-flushing) toilets may be encountered. The term may also be used ...
by being dragged into the hole.
Nelson is almost dragged under his bed, but pulls himself back up and jumps on top of the bed. He takes his sneaker off and drops it on the ground, watching as it is shredded. He then tries to escape by jumping through the window, but fatally cuts his throat on a shard of glass. Gretchen and Jack discover Nelson's and Henry's bodies, prompting Gretchen to look for Trip and Cookie. Jack encounters the creature but escapes when Trip, who has lost an arm, shoots at the figure with his gun. Trip is overpowered by the creature and dies.
In reality, an RV crashed into Gretchen's car after Trip stepped out to call for a ride, at the moment when they experienced the tremor. None of the group had noticed the RV, whose driver was Henry. His wife, Rose, explained to the officers on the scene that Henry suffered a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which m ...
and lost control. The car that the group saw leaving the diner was, in fact, their own.
Each of the deaths at the hotel were reflected by their own deaths in the car: Cookie died from internal bleeding; Nelson cut his neck when he was thrown through the windshield; Trip's arm was severed gripping the cell phone, and he died from blunt force trauma. Gretchen survived the crash because she was wearing her seat belt and Jack, despite receiving a massive head injury and a broken arm, also remained alive in the car. Radford, who had been stalking Trip, witnessed the accident and attempted to assist; hence the visions of him at the motel and highway.
In the final scene, Gretchen and Jack briefly discuss the fact that neither has any recollection of the accident, and no mention is made of the incidents at the motel. Jack comments that, for a moment in the crash, he thought he could see Gretchen, offhandedly mentioning the color of her eyes.
Scott Whyte
Scott William Whyte (born January 8, 1978) is an American actor best known for his role as Chris Anderson on ''City Guys''. He has also appeared in television series such as ''That '70s Show'' and ''Just Shoot Me!'' and the films '' D2: The Migh ...
as Trip
*
Arielle Kebbel
Arielle Caroline Kebbel (born February 19, 1985) is an American actress and model. She has appeared in various television series, including ''Gilmore Girls'' (2003–2004), ''The Vampire Diaries'' (2009–2017), ''Life Unexpected'' (2010), ''90 ...
as "Cookie"
*
Michael Ironside
Frederick Reginald Ironside (born February 12, 1950), known as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He is known for playing villains and "tough guy" heroes, and has also portrayed sympathetic characters.
E ...
as Henry Tuckey
*
Eric Mabius
Eric Harry Timothy Mabius (born April 22, 1971) is an American actor. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, with a degree in cinema studies. After working in theater productions, Ma ...
as Radford
*
Marcia Strassman
Marcia Ann Strassman (April 28, 1948 – October 24, 2014) was an American actress and singer. She played Nurse Margie Cutler on ''M*A*S*H'', Julie Kotter on ''Welcome Back, Kotter'', and Diane Szalinski in the film '' Honey, I Shrunk the Ki ...
as Rose Tuckey
* David Hadinger as The Reeker
* Les Jankey as Trucker
* Carole Ruggier as Mom
* Paul Butcher as Kid
* Steven Zlotnick as Officer Bern
* Christopher Boyer as Officer Mansfield
* Wesley Thompson as Officer Taylor
*
Alejandro Patiño
Alejandro Patiño is an American actor.
He has guest starred on several television programs including the recurring role of Ralph, Gabrielle Solis's new gardener, on the ABC series ''Desperate Housewives''. Other appearances include ''House'', ...
as Velez, The Medic
Production
Release
''Reeker'' premiered at the
South by Southwest Film Festival
South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, ...
on March 13, 2005. It was later screened at the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was ...
on April 19 that same year, as well as the Screamfest Film Festival on October 21.
In the Philippines, ''Reeker'' was released as ''Dead People 2'' on March 7, 2007.
Home media
The film was released on DVD by
Fox
Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush'').
Twelv ...
on Oct 23, 2006. It was later re-released by Showtime Entertainment on Sep 25, 2007.
Reception
On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...
the film has a rating of 54% "Rotten" based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' critic John Anderson wrote called it a "glossy, gory takeoff on the teensploitation slasher flick that might just shock skeptics by scaring up crossover success." Peter Bradshaw from ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...
'' gave the film a negative review, awarding the film 1 out of 4 stars, stating, "You'd be a millionaire if you had a pound for every low-budget horror like this in existence, photographed like this, in this desert locale, and with this ending".
Kim Newman
Kim James Newman (born 31 July 1959) is an English journalist, film critic and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's '' Dracula'' ...
from ''
Empire Magazine
''Empire'' is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. The first issue was published in May 1989.
History
David Hepworth of Emap, the publisher of British music magazines '' Q'' and ''Smash Hits'', among other titles ...
'' awarded Reeker 4 out of 5 stars, praising the film's characterizations, and well used setting, old fashion monster. In his review he writes, "Despite the title, this is no stinker, the opposite, in fact, offering superior scares to recent offerings from the likes of Rob Zombie and even Eli Roth".
Dread Central
Dread Central is an American website founded in 2006 that is dedicated to horror news, interviews, and reviews. It covers horror films, comics, novels, and toys. Dread Central has won the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award for Best Website ...
also offer the film similar praise, stating, "Reeker is worth both a look and a buy. Even better? Dave Payne is back and working on No Mans Land: Reeker 2 so hopefully there's some more smartly written gore soaked hi-jinx in our future! Let's hope that lightning can strike twice". Marc Savlov from ''
The Austin Chronicle
''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...
'' complimented the film's direction, acting, writing, "If all rave preparties were this much fun, Fatboy Slim might still have a career". In their book ''Horror Films by Subgenre: A Viewer's Guide'', authors Chris and Kathleen Vander Kaay praised the film, calling it "A clever supernatural film that takes the conceit of the slasher framework and uses the set-up in a fresh and original way."
Sequel
A sequel titled '' No Man's Land: The Rise of Reeker'' was announced on July 15, 2008. It was released on DVD in the U.S. on October 14, 2008.