Roger Corman lost his drive-in touch by the mid-eighties. The movies released through Concorde/New Horizons were primarily intended for the lucrative home video market. Most of the movies are watchable, but the majority of them are utterly forgettable. There are exceptions: The Drifter, Hollywood Boulevard 2, Brain Dead, The Nest. Twice Dead is one of the more interesting films of the batch.
Few know the name, Burt L. Dragin and it's a shame. He should have had a bigger career. For one thing, Dragon worked on a genuine masterpiece: Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia. He also co-wrote and directed Summer Camp Nightmare. The latter was packaged as a slasher movie, but it definitely isn't. Summer Camp Nightmare is an adaptation of William Butler's excellent YA thriller, The Butterfly Revolution. This one should really be released on hard media, but so far there hasn't even been a DVD.
Then there is Twice Dead, a cheesy-but-fascinating little gem. Twice Dead is part haunted house chiller, a bit of a street violence yarn, a teen drama, and some slasher thrills thrown into the mix.
In a plot that could have been a Curtis Harrington picture, a family inherits a decayed mansion that once belonged to a golden age actor. The house is located smack in the middle of a tough neighborhood. Poltergeist activity begins to occur while the teen kids are terrorized by a gang of thugs.
The daughter is played by Jill Whitlow, who won all our hearts in Night of the Creeps. Diff'rent Strokes' Todd Bridges plays a sympathetic friend. The gang are poufed up, but slightly less gaudy than the lost boys. B-Movie starlet Charlie Spradling and Elm Street Mom Brooke Bundy round out the cast.
In a neat turnaround, the ghost of the old actor isn't out to harm the new tenants. Instead he helps thwart the marauding hooligans. There are some choice death scenes, really bad Goth-rock songs on the soundtrack, and both intentional and unintentional humor.
Given a decent budget, writer-director Burt Dragin could have made a minor classic with Twice Dead. As it is the movie is a low rent little curiosity. More ambitious and satisfying than most of its brethren, but largely an example of unfulfilled potential. Still, I liked Twice Dead when I rented it on videocassette back in '88, and I enjoyed watching it on DVD. Twice Dead is part of a Shout! Factory double feature alongside The Evil.
Despite its shortcomings, Twice Dead is a lot of fun. They surely do not make them like this anymore. That's probably a good thing.
Written by Mark Sieber
Few know the name, Burt L. Dragin and it's a shame. He should have had a bigger career. For one thing, Dragon worked on a genuine masterpiece: Penelope Spheeris's Suburbia. He also co-wrote and directed Summer Camp Nightmare. The latter was packaged as a slasher movie, but it definitely isn't. Summer Camp Nightmare is an adaptation of William Butler's excellent YA thriller, The Butterfly Revolution. This one should really be released on hard media, but so far there hasn't even been a DVD.
Then there is Twice Dead, a cheesy-but-fascinating little gem. Twice Dead is part haunted house chiller, a bit of a street violence yarn, a teen drama, and some slasher thrills thrown into the mix.In a plot that could have been a Curtis Harrington picture, a family inherits a decayed mansion that once belonged to a golden age actor. The house is located smack in the middle of a tough neighborhood. Poltergeist activity begins to occur while the teen kids are terrorized by a gang of thugs.
The daughter is played by Jill Whitlow, who won all our hearts in Night of the Creeps. Diff'rent Strokes' Todd Bridges plays a sympathetic friend. The gang are poufed up, but slightly less gaudy than the lost boys. B-Movie starlet Charlie Spradling and Elm Street Mom Brooke Bundy round out the cast.
In a neat turnaround, the ghost of the old actor isn't out to harm the new tenants. Instead he helps thwart the marauding hooligans. There are some choice death scenes, really bad Goth-rock songs on the soundtrack, and both intentional and unintentional humor.
Given a decent budget, writer-director Burt Dragin could have made a minor classic with Twice Dead. As it is the movie is a low rent little curiosity. More ambitious and satisfying than most of its brethren, but largely an example of unfulfilled potential. Still, I liked Twice Dead when I rented it on videocassette back in '88, and I enjoyed watching it on DVD. Twice Dead is part of a Shout! Factory double feature alongside The Evil.
Despite its shortcomings, Twice Dead is a lot of fun. They surely do not make them like this anymore. That's probably a good thing.
Written by Mark Sieber
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