AaronCapenBanner 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!

Paul Andrews 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.

FieCrier 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.

helfeleather A preppy brother and sister very stupidly play a prank on a gang of heavies who have been making their life hell. Obviously they didn't take the gang seriously because of their Kajagoogoo hairdos. What they forgot was that this is the eighties, and even violent sadists had silly hair.Naturally, the gang seek their revenge. The leader Silk wants to maim Preppy Boy, and the tough but attractive Crip wants to have his way with the sister. They're aided by a the obese Melvin, who's literally attached to his motorbike, and the stereotypical sex-crazed Latino.The only person on the goody-goodies' side is the bloke who played Willis In Different Strokes. They don't have a chance