Deathbed

A Movie about a possessed bed! A novel idea indeed, Interesting artwork, that certainly sold the movie to me, but my main reason for watching this movie, was the presence of Stuart Gordon and Charles Band.

As it stands, the cover read "Stuart Gordon Presents" But what exactly does he present, and this i swear, to the end of my days, i'll forever be a fan of Charles Band work, but heaven help me, when they both got together to work on this endeavour.

The Film opens with an old style scenario capturing the essence of a silent movie, of a man slowly seducing a beautiful woman on a bed,to the eerie strains of haunting music, finally ending with the woman being strangled with a silk scarf, this is followed by a slow fade to black, not however before i realised that the man committing the crime,was one time stalwart of Fred Olen Ray's band of film makers,Michael (D) Sonye (Aka Dukey Flyswatter) and if memory serves did he not write, Ray's "Deepspace" but also voice the titular character in Charles Band's "Sorority Babes in The Slime Bowlarama.

Intriguing Indeed, and as for the rest of his scenes, he never has one word of dialogue, which means he didn't have to try to hard to put his character up there on scene, as the scene set his character, i can't however say the same for the rest of the characters in the movie.

Who should i blame, nobody really as all i did was watch the movie, and power to all involved as we should never dismiss the true art of film making, and the efforts invovled in putting it all together, but Danny Draven (Where was Trent Hagga?)along with John Strysik the writer and hand model in the movie have crafted nothing of note.

A Movie littered with all the usual false scares, interesting use of lighting effects and a little light titillation, nothing new on show here except for the concept, So how real was the presence of Charles Band and Stuart Gordon, I'd say about as real As Joe Estevez's turn as the caretaker of the fancy building that the young couple movie into, Now thats the real horror on show here!!!

What we have here is an original twist on the classic "haunted item" story. Tanya Dempsey and Brave Matthews are a young couple who move to an old apartment in Hollywood. Soon, they'll discover (although we the audience knew it since the first scene) that there is an old 30s bed where a horrible murder happened. Strange things will occur as they start using the bed.

I found the idea of a haunted bed very original, even when this kind of story have been told since the beginning of civilization. The story was well developed and the effect the bed has over the couple was very interesting. Nightmares, hallucinations and poltergeists disturb the mind of Tanya Dempsey's character and she gives a very good performance. She will have a bright future if she keeps up the good work.

Sadly, the rest of the cast is not that convincing. Joe Estevez makes an appearance as the owner of the building but his performance is forgettable. Brave Matthews just was not up to the role. Dempsey owns the screen and carries the film even with its problems. She makes the film enjoyable although she can't save it completely.

The film gets boring at times, mostly due to the poor development of characters although that makes it clear that the writer intended the bed to be the main character.

It's very good to note that there are no over-the-top effects or gore and that the scares are very subtle, something very different from typical Full Moon B-movies.

Something bad about the film were the flashback sequences, which were poorly done. The problem here is that the DV camera shooting is very bad for the B&W shots, in contrast to the rest of the movie, where the lighting works in awesome ways, the flashbacks are noticeable for its poor lighting. I think that it is a major, but understandable. flaw.

The cast & crew of this film have a bright future to come, even though this film may not be the Classic horror that Stuart Gordon (who produced it) usually creates, it is a promise of the talent that we'll see in the future.

Very Good 6/10

I mistakenly thought this was the 70's art film about the bed that eats people, which sounded interesting. It isn't. Interesting, I mean, let alone about a man-eating bed.

I assume Stuart Gordon put his name on this in the same spirit that Lloyd Kaufman puts "Troma" on just about anything that's been shot with a video camera, in the interest of building up a franchise library. Little more can be said about this opus other than the running time is less than 90 minutes. It is, of course, about a bed that is haunted by the spirit of a man, or something, that once killed a woman with a wig and long false eyelashes. Along the way we get **a five minute opening credit sequence (is the one for "Lawrence Of Arabia" even as long?) **a murderer with Marylin Manson contacts who kills using the same technique as the troll in "Cat's Eye" **demonstrations of a sexual practice Michael Hutchence may have employed **a preview of what Emilio Estevez will soon look and act like **soft core porn even Cinemax would pass on **manbutt and one topless scene **a wacky (or is it "whack"-ee?) ending involving unintentionally hilarious hammer hits and leftover strawberry pie (well, it looked that way to me) **and a rudimentary surprise ending apros pos of nothing much. It's like the screenwriter even fell asleep on the "Deathbed" before finishing the last draft.

It's not scary, it's not sexy, it's shot on hi-def video and doesn't look bad but doesn't look good either, the acting is just good enough to not be bad enough to be fun and so is everything else. No one would probably have even seen or heard of it unless it was on a disc with another movie, the modern day "double feature." I wasn't paying attention for parts of it so I may have missed something. But for some reason I doubt it. Rating: PASS

Karen and her boyfriend Jerry move into their new Los Angeles apartment.They discover an old brass bed that Karen takes a liking to,unfortunately it has a really sinister history involving kinky sex murders."Deathbed" tries to be a creepy supernatural tale,but fails miserably.The action is slow,the acting is nothing special and there is no suspense whatsoever.Even the sex scenes are lame.The climax is pretty gory and violent,so fans of splatter should be pleased.However the first hour of "Deathbed" is deadly dull and offers some tired horror movie conventions and cheap scares.Definitely one to avoid.My rating: 4 out of 10 and that's being generous.Watch "Re-Animator" or "Castle Freak" instead.

Bed doesn't eat anything, not enough hot chocolate.