Twice Dead (1988)

Obscure haunted house film I had never heard of, until I saw it paired on DVD with another film I was interested in seeing("The Evil") Only way Shout Factory could get anyone to buy it I suppose! Film itself is shoddy, with a derivative, unappealing story about a vengeful ghost and a biker gang, and characters(except the lovely Jill Whitlow, wasted here) and is directed without distinction, and looks amateurish. Dull and uninteresting film is a complete bust, with a lousy and unoriginal ending.Forget it, unless you just have to watch a film you're forced to buy, because you want the other feature!

Sometime around the depression, film star Tyler Walker is dancing in his home with a lifeless-seeming woman. Two policemen and a man in furs arrive to take his home. While in good shape, the house is largely empty due to Tyler selling most of the contents. The three men burst into the third-story room Tyler is in, finding that he has stuck a knife in the woman, who is just a mannequin, and Tyler has hung himself.Years later, a couple with a son, daughter and cat named "Meow" are moving into a house they've inherited from their Uncle. The neighborhood is not so nice, and as they arrive there's a gang hanging out on their front lawn. The cops chase them off, but it's clear they'll be back and that one of them has an unhealthy attraction to the daughter. The cops call the house the "old Tyler place," which is a bit odd; usually people call a house by the *last* name of the owner. It's now in pretty bad shape, and they set about fixing it up. It had at some point over the years been used as a funeral home, and there is an empty casket in the basement, and a broken-down hearse.The son and daughter have several run-ins with the gang, who are pretty set on hurting people for fun. One of the women in the gang isn't too bad, and two of the members are mainly interested in making out with each other, but the rest would be perfectly happy to even kill someone.The son and daughter glimpse Tyler in mirrors in the house, but aren't sure what they saw. Tyler's noose snakes itself around the son, but later in the movie Tyler helps protect the two from the gang.The gang stages a couple assaults on the house. One time, the siblings scare them off with a combination of booby traps and special effects. Another time, Tyler starts killing people, including using a dumbwaiter.There are a couple false ends to the movie, and it is unclear what might happen next. Pretty good movie, though.

One of the better examples of the 80's on how to mix the horror and comedy genres successfully. This film is about a family moving into a house that is haunted by the ghost of a once great actor. A few neighborhood punks cause trouble though and eventually try to take the house over and kill the family, but the ghost helps them out and dispatches of the punks in violent and creative ways. Very low budgeted, but fast paced thriller with only average to poor performances and ok direction. It is extremely entertaining though with some very good f/x and an especially exciting finale. Rated R; Graphic Violence, Nudity, Sexual Situations, and Profanity.

When your main exposure to a movie is at 3 a.m. on Cinemax, that's not a good sign.So it is with "Twice Dead", the old "family-moves-into-a-haunted-house-and-battles-vicious-gang" plot with the only twist of having "Diff'rent Strokes" vet/parolee Bridges in the cast.This hack job (get it? Yuk-yuk.) is so cheaply made as to have you believe the ghost in this house uses fishing line to levitate objects and that actors don't really need acting classes when there's the direct-to-video market. 'Nuff said.Any good parts? The girl playing Tina (Spradling) was cute; too bad she plays her last scene electrocuted while astraddle her boyfriend (don't even go there).Other than that, "Twice Dead" is dead on arrival; call the morgue.One star, for Spradling's charms. Now playing in the discount bin at your local video store.