Nice effects though.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

i remember when i saw this in the theater with a few of my friends. we were just kids so i pretty much liked this better then than i do today, but having just recently revisited it after a while, i still like it. it's no Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but Twice Dead is at least competent while some horror flicks of that time (and most of them today) fell flat. Bert Dragin's haunted house/ghost story may not hold together as a whole, but it gives us a solid setup, better performances than most from its genre, a strong visual mood, and a few very bloody, very satisfying death scenes, delivering everything a horror film needs. an extended prologue shows us 1930s actor Tyler Walker hanging himself in the attic of his home just as he's about to be evicted, but the main story takes place in 1988, with the Cates family, good people who've had their share of bad luck. there's mom and dad, older brother Scott (Tom Bresnahan) and his stunning sister, Robyn (Jill Whitlow), trying to get back on their feet after a bankruptcy. bad luck gets worse when they're forced to move into the Walker home, which they've acquired through an inheritance. they find the place to be a dump in a bad neighborhood with even worse company. right as they walk up to the front door, they have to shake off Silk (Christopher Burgard) and his gang of nasty punk sh!theels who've taken to squatting in the Walker house as a hangout. now add in the outstanding factor that Walker's ghost still haunts the grounds...Yeah, these poor bastards already have more than their share to worry about. as they attempt to settle in, Scott researches Walker's history, learning he was a tortured and broken soul. Robyn has a more difficult time adjusting, as she has becomes the object of desire for the switchblade-wielding Crip (Jonathan Chapin), a very mysterious and arguably the most disturbed of Silk's gang. after enduring fistfights, the slaughter of the family cat, and a creepy attempted rape, Scott and Robyn just want to be left alone and even turn to defensive measures (an altogether ludicrous sequence that would be stupid if it weren't so clever and fun). but Silk, all nasty and vengeful, stirs up his sh!t blizzard of harassment and terror, eventually turning things homicidal. that's where Walker's ghost comes into play. to say anymore would ruin the satisfying rampage in the film's last act when Silk briefly gains the upper hand. the body count is actually kept to a minimum, but needless to say, a few cringing deaths are in order and a few (one involving a motorcycle and another involving an electric blanket) definitely get points for creativity, while two other deaths are enough to make you jump. one death even involves the obligatory (and very gratuitous) horror flick nudity from the gorgeous Charlie Spradlin, the slinky sexpot of Silk's gang. the movie relies a lot on its two leads. Whitlow is so damn pretty, we lecherous scum won't be able to think about anything else and Bresnahan is good as her likable brother. Todd Bridges is okay as the only well-meaning character the Cates come across. It's Burgard and Chapin who take the show, the former eating all his scenes while the latter plays it down. all in all, this is a solid movie. there are some loose ends left hanging and some scenes are perfunctory while others just don't belong, but anyone expecting Citizen Kane with this is overshooting. i won't deny that i have some sentimentality on this one, but there are plenty of flicks i hated when i revisited them and this certainly wasn't that. this won't change the world for anyone, but it's entertaining, quick, and not a massive waste of time. worth a look.

The Cates family inherited an old mansion in Beverly Hills from their late uncle Tyler Walker, who was a well-known stage actor. When they get there, they find the rundown place to be overrun by some street punks who want nothing but trouble. After the Cates' teenagers make fools of those punks, they want to make their lives living hell. But also their uncle Tyler's spirit still hangs around the house, and doesn't seems to like the street punks' intrusion.Roger Corman's Concorde churns out an uneven, but well intended low-rent b-horror film that stage an entertainingly weird mixture, where it has the story criss-crossing into campy fields of supernatural and revenge, and then finally combining the two. Everything about it is stereotypical with the usual shenanigans, but director Bert Dragin does a well enough job with his pacing and makes the twisty style unpredictable and always engaging. Limitations don't hold it back, as the competent make-up and special f/x generates some creative and effective moments. It slowly builds itself up, for a crackerjack closing half. Some demented scenes towards the end, are well worth the attention. Sure the technical side of the production might not be perfect (with the boom mike constantly becoming visible), but it was surefooted. Zoran Hochstatter's murky camera-work sometimes had a neat frenetic touch and dreary colour use, and David Bergeaud's simmering music score stewed up some spooky cues to add to the atmospheric urban setting of the grand looking mansion. The gimmicky screenplay by Bert Dragin and Robert McDonnell seems to work, but if you don't take it for what it is. The ludicrous, and somewhat illogical and loose nature might be hard to shake. Also its change in moods, from being broodingly dark to suddenly comically light might be an inconsistent turn off. The script feels one-note for most part, but weaves in some amusing flourishes of dark humour; jaw-dropping dialogues and an oddly unforeseeable twist here and there. The performances are well suited and come across fair. Tom Bresnahan and Jill Whitlow are likable as the siblings. Christopher Burgard chews it up as smarmy gang leader and Todd Bridges shows up in a little part.Junky entertainment, but I wasn't expecting the modest quality that it dished up. Fans of low-budget horror should give it a try.

Twice Dead starts in the 1930's as stage actor Tyler Walker (Jonathan Chapin) is having a hard time, firstly he's skint & to add insult to injury his large Beverly Hills house is about to be taken away from him by Harry Cates Sr. (Bob McLean) the man who stole his one true love off him. It's all too much for poor Tyler & he is found dead having hanged himself... Jump to the late 80's & Harry Cates Jr. (Sam Melville) has inherited the house from his uncle, in an uncanny resemblance to past events Harry is also dead skint so decides to move his family into the house to ease their financial burden. Unfortunately when they turn up they find a local gang of punks have decided the front garden is theirs, after a stand off involving the police the gang moves on. Scott (Tom Bresnahan) & his sister Robin (Jill Whitlow) have an ugly encounter the gang at school & a feud begins to develop. The gang, lead by Silk (Christopher Burgard), lie in wait for Robin & one of them tries to rape her but Scott saves the day. Silk & the rest of the gang are really annoyed now & decide to have their revenge by breaking into the Cates house but a supernatural presence lurks that start to kill the intruders off one-by-one...Co-written & directed by Bert L. Dragin I thought Twice Dead was a pretty decent film & much better than I had any right to expect. The script by Dragin & Robert McDonnell moves along at a reasonable pace & provides a fair amount of mindless entertainment. It mixes revenge film with a little bit of a ghost story & finally adds a touch of teenage slasher film to round things off, for the most part it works quite well as it's balanced & no one single theme overly dominates the running time. The character's aren't as clichéd as one may expect, apart from the stereotypical punk gang consisting of leather wearing, flick knife wielding, motorbike riding tough guys sporting bad attitudes wherever they go. There is a great twist about halfway through that I must admit I didn't see coming & succeeded in surprising me which isn't easy after you've seen as many of these low budget horror films as I have. No explanation is given as to why Tyler is a ghost, don't people commit suicide all the time? Do they all come back as vengeful spirits? I don't think so. The place is haunted by Tyler & thats it we have to accept it. The ending & various events throughout the film seems to indicate that history is repeating itself including something about a coffin in the basement but these plot threads are never really tied together that well & it comes across as a bit of an afterthought.Made by the Roger Corman owned Concorde Pictures Twice Dead was director Dragin's second & to this point in time last film which seems a bit of a shame because he turns in a throughly decent & credible horror film, it has that late 80's look & feel while it also has a nice atmosphere to it as he films everything with minimal use of colour. There is even a nice little car chase in here as well. I could have done with a bit more blood & gore but what we get is OK, there are a few decapitated heads, a squashed head, death by motorcycle, a couple electrocuted while having sex & someone shooting themselves with a shotgun.Now, one thing I have to mention is the boom mike. I have never seen a film where the boom mike is in shot as many times as it is in Twice Dead, I was thinking that it should get some sort of recognition in the credits as it has more screen time in the film than some of the character's! I counted at least six times when it was painfully visible, all in wide shots. Other than that Twice Dead is generally well made with decent production values. The acting was OK as well.Twice Dead was a bit of a pleasant surprise as I didn't think I would but I liked it. If your a fan of these types of low budget horror films then you could do a hell of a lot worse than this, personally I think it's well worth checking out if you lay your hands on a copy.

Scott (Bresnahan) is an FX genius (as opposed to an actor) who needs to call upon all his skills and more upon when he and his sister find themselves in their home at the mercy of a group of scumbags who have obviously watched STRAW DOGS once too often!Further help comes courtesy of a resident ghost in this low rent piece of garbage that barely saw a theatrical release. A few fleeting laughs at the occasional fx employed but the highlight of the flick remains the electrocution scene. Warning folks: don't try this at home, it may be dangerous!Mega bomb!