Screaming Dead

A couple weeks ago TiVo's Suggestions threw up "Screaming Dead" as a newly available movie. When I checked into it, the Details noted that this was a direct to video movie, by the star of epics like "Playmate of the Apes" and "SpiderBabe". So I figured "Screaming Dead" was something along the lines of "Plan 9 From Outer Space" meets "Barbarella". But sometimes that is what you are in the mood for, so I figured 'heck, why not?'.

Somewhat to my surprise, this is a half-way decent movie. Erin Brown (A. K. A. Misty Mundae) and some other hot babes were hired (sort of) as models for a real sleaze bag of a photographer. He refuses to pay his models ("that would hurt the integrity of his work") and somehow manages to sell his photos for 5 or 10 thousand dollars. (he also has a bunch of other 'quirks' that I'll let you find on your own if you decide to watch the movie)

The photographer rents an empty sanatorium and moves the three models into the space. There is a woman who moves in with them, and was mostly there to chaperone the girls (I think). She has little, if anything, to do with anything that happens in the story. There is also a representative of the building owner, who is there mostly flirt with the women during the movie and rescue the girls at the end.

There is the near-obligatory ghost/demon, a couple torture scenes with some laughably bad special effects, and the hero defeats the ghost in a way that has "OK, we're running out of money, let's end things quick" written all over it.

"Casablanca" it ain't, but it is kind of fun if you are in the mood for something mildly interesting but not to challenging.

From the get go i could tell that this movie was going to be like Hell Asylum. It's amateurish with bad acting and cheapy crappy effects. The story is kind of good but of course was never pushed in the right direction. The characters kept saying how creepy and spooky the place was and that it was an old abandoned asylum or something. Abandoned? The place didn't have a spec of dust and it looked quite modern. Bare yes but old and abandoned it wasn't. Whoever scouted for a location for this movie sucked.

I'll briefly give the story. It's about a successful photographer who combines art with bondage and S&M. He's a real sleaze bag and rents a place so he can work on his art with 3 female models and his female assistant but are also joined by a big hulking ug ug kinda guy who works for an estate agency or something and has to oversee this guy for insurance purposes (it's kind of hazy). But needless to say there's an evil ghost in this place.

I watched this while having a few beers and i'm sorry but Screaming Dead is in a word 'dead' and no way could you ever say that this film is so bad it's good! It's so bad it's bad! Apart from a potentially good story gone to waste and nice looking women there's not much good about this movie. There's only one gore effect in it too. I'm giving it an extremely generous 3/10 for reasonable but wasted story, nice looking girls and one good gore effect.

This is a clever little horror flick and clearly underrated. It demonstrates the idea of split personality when the photographer Roger (Joseph Farrell) meets his 'alter ego' Rossiter (Kevin Shinnick). Whereas the photographer only arranges scenes with the girls that scare them, but don't actually hurt them, the devil in him breaks out and then takes the job to the extreme. Transformed into Rossiter, Roger may at last torture and kill.

Some reviews below give me the impression most people take movies much too literally, so I elaborate a bit of the transformation idea. Check out 1:00:47 when Roger discovers Rossiters machine. Fascinated, he pulls the lever and says "this is ingenious"! We shall see Rossiter stand at the machine later just like that. Check out 1:10:41 when a hand seems to reach out of Rogers brain (or rather: mind) and smashes him against the door so that he 'dissolves' into an unrecognizable pulp. But when in 1:16:00 Sam Rogan enters the room, there is no body on the floor. Roger has disappeared - he was replaced by Rossiter.

Roger was still full of excuses (his artistic purposes), fear and restrictions. His released inner demon knows nothing of this and just does what Roger may only have had (wishful or terrifying) fantasies about. The actually scary idea behind the movie is therefore that once you lose control, you'll never be the same again. If that involves covering Misty Mundae in red paint, it may however seem negotiable ;-)

HEY EVERYBODY ITS ME (4) and today we review ...ghost busters 5 ......

here we have a classic ghost meets girl , girl falls in love with ghost .... and torture ensues .....

same director as aracnia? ....a-rack-knee ah ? ...the spider movie in the snow with giant spider monsters ....with the same "macho" guy lead in this film in that one ... you know i like tha guy as an actor in B films .... weird he only acting in like 5 movies or something and i think all from this director too .... he didnt do anything after 2006 acting wise ....maybe something happened ? I dot know i didnt look into it .... but i dont know i think he could have had some kind of series of just him going around being the hero of stuff lol..... i would watch it ....

as for this film .... not NEARLY as exciting as the giant spider one , in fact most of the time hes fighting his own urge to punch a guy lol.... over all story and acting mid grade, the FX are fine because you know what your getting here from the moment it starts ....lighting et , all the tech specs are average so its "fine" across the board .... nothing really special about it .... it COULD have had more atmosphere to it ..... it COULD have had more creepy factor in there ...it could have alot of things but meh its okay lol..... and im not talking bad here ..... just saying its like room temp water ... ill drink it .... and its fine ....

its your basic formula for these films .... hot chicks, weird creepy pervert, hero guy saving them .... add in a bit of monster/ghost and BAM here you go, a fast easy flick ....a old school saturday night cheap thrills kind of deal you would see on "USA up all night with rhonda sheer" LOL .... if you know ...you know ....

so

5/10

middle of the road, plays it safe with a basic formula , cant really go wrong with that.

I liked the acting and the directing in this film, but, alas, the script left a lot to be desired. First of all, do you really think that Neal would have as much clout, considering the subject matter of his photographs? I have my doubts that they would end up in all those prestigous galleries, if they did, I'm sure that feminists would picket them or they might be shut down by the authorities for indecency (Can you imagine if he tried to show in Cincinatti, for example?). I would say that if Rogan got fired for telling off Neal that he could take his ex-boss to court and press charges against both of them. After all, I'm sure that even New Jersey must have laws against this type of "art." As it is, the acting, photography and the directing was quite well done, especially considering this being a low budget film, but the script left my suspension of disbelief hanging there.