Review of Twice Dead (1988) by Eric R — 09 Feb 2011

Oh boy is this a doozy of a haunted house thriller from the Roger Corman factory. Sure the poster art looks promising enough but Corman was always good at getting talented artists to make appealing poster artwork in order to suck unsuspecting audiences into the theater. In the 70s most of his productions were good cheese even if the eye catching poster artwork lied just a hair. By the late 80s most of his productions were pure junk only appealing to the trashy crowd but by god they still had good poster artwork. I will admit I enjoy some of his trashy late 80s offerings like âBloodfistâ? and âTerror Withinâ? but most tend to be along the lines of âTwice Deadâ?, which is a definite D.O.A.

A family inherits a old mansion in a very seedy, dangerous part of L.A. and Punks donâ(TM)t take kindly to their invasion to their hideout. Unbeknown to them a famous actor from the 1930s committed suicide in the house also doesnâ(TM)t take kindly to their invasion. Now our lovable family has to fight a two fronted war by taking on dangerous gangs and a vengeful spirit.

This cheapo wanna be haunted house thriller has bad acting, a bad script, bad effects and to top it off it canâ(TM)t keep itâ(TM)s plot straight. The intentions of the spirit are never made clear. First it tries to kill off family members, then it protects them, then it wants to kill them again. This ghost is worse than a PMSing wife off her bipolar meds. What the fuck does it want!

What pisses me off even more is that I actually like a few of the cast members. It has the guy from the lovable B-movie âThe Brainâ? and the cutsy girl from âNight of the Creepsâ? as brother and sister. Even they canâ(TM)t bring this tired, cliche film up to speed.

"Twice Dead" has a cliche, confused plot with bad acting and poor gore effects. This twists are dumbfounding and worst of all its just completely forgettable. No Roger Coman B-movie charm for this dud. Thankfully it was included in a double feature DVD with an actual decent haunted house thriller in the form of âThe Evilâ? so I can just pretend this was a bonus. Not worth hunting down and I say pass this one on by.