Watch Diagnosis: Death For Free

Highly Overrated But Still Good

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This movie started out really funny, but seemed to lose its sense of humor in the second half. The opening scene in the classroom, the diagnosis, and the beginning of the trials were all great. Then it felt like the movie became a conventional low budget horror. Brett was great as some sort of medical worker who was more interested in hitting on the teenager, and he had one of my favorite lines ever ("This is what we call...the good s---"). The lead actor seemed to be playing the early scenes with just the right balance of self-centered callousness, but seemed to drop the irony half way through. If they could have sustained the tone through the whole story, this might be one I would watch back. As it is, I would probably only watch the first few scenes if I ever queue it back up.

I found the entire flick to be comical, although there're a few gory scenes. Probably that's because of the lead character Andre(actor Rabyon Kan) who's mostly scared and frequently hiding behind his new-found love Juliet(actor Jessica Grace). I find that really sissy :)Suze Tye as the villainous nurse is quite scary. I'd dread to have such a creepy person helping me with my medication, even if she has a hot body! The climax was unconvincing. I could not digest how the ghosts finally got some power only when our lead characters finished solving the puzzle of the double murders.Verdict: Silly, silly creep show.

Years ago, when Peter Jackson was just breaking in to the film business, it seemed like New Zealand might be poised to be a hotbed, albeit a small one, of horror film activity. Bad Taste and Braindead seemed like the beginning of something major. They were, only they were the beginning of Jackson's long and award-addled career. It didn't really mean too much for New Zealand horror. Just a couple of years ago another Kiwi horror comedy came out and created a bit of a buzz itself, Black Sheep. A horror film about killer sheep? Sign me up! And, it is a fun little movie - one that I recommend you view with some friends and a good sense of humor.Last year, Affordable Films released New Zealand's latest horror-comedy Diagnosis: Death. They tried to capitalize on the popularity of their country's own Flight of the Conchords and included Brett McKenzie, Jemain Clement, and Rhys Darby. Full disclosure: I love Flight of the Conchords - the show, and the band. The only problem is that these guys are probably in the film for a total of five minutes between them. Yeah, it's a cocktease.The film itself, a horror-comedy, is surprisingly light on both horror and comedy. It stars Raybon Kan (apparently he's a New Zealand stand-up) as a school teacher that is stricken with a rare form of cancer. He goes to a weekend drug trial to test out new, experimental drugs that may be able to cure him. Sounds reasonable enough, but wait, there's more. It turns out this hospital used to be...wait for it...a MENTAL INSTITUTION! dun-dun-dun. And, as if that wasn't enough, some famous author supposedly killed herself and her child in this very same ward! The movie is basically a ghost-story-mystery thing disguised as a comedy. The laughs are few and far between, the revelation at the end is predictable, and the horror is cheap and stupid. That said, the two minutes of screen time that are alloted to Rhys Darby had me rolling - he's basically playing Murray as a doctor. I was able to watch it with a friend and we managed to enjoy ourselves by adding our own, MS3TK-style commentary to the film and rewinding the Rhys Darby's final scene (he gives a great look at the end of it) multiple times. Fortunately, they keep things fairly light and every once and a while the jokes will land so you should be able to get through the film.Because we were able to enjoy ourselves while watching, I'll give it a 5 out of 10, but it really doesn't deserve anything higher than that. I advise you not to buy this one. It may be worth a rental if you are a big Conchords fan or would like to watch something light and silly with some buddies on a weekend. I advise against watching it by yourself, too, as you'll have no one to crack wise with.5/10

I deserve to have the word "sucker" tattooed on my forehead. I'd just finished watching season 2 of Flight of the Conchords and was in need of more. Stumbled across an advert for this film and immediately ordered it.Jemaine appears in precisely one scene (about 2 minutes) Murray appears in 2 scenes (about 3 minutes in total) Bret appears in 5 or 6 scenes as a peripheral inconsequential character.Truly awful pedestrian plot not worthy of a TV movie. I can only assume that the three starts of FotC got suckered into making this movie themselves.Really, don't bother with this. I gave it 3 stars and I think in retrospect I was being very kind. At that point I still had 20 minutes to go.