Moviecut—Living Death

😱 First Impressions: I had a hankering for older horror-thriller flicks and wouldn't you guess it!? Found another one, the plot description alone ensnared me and I was wondering why nobody talked about it more. Surely, there must be a reason, so I went in moderate expectations. Fortunately I did because this film will upset your stomach as well as hit the sweet spots! Pros: 😋 The opening of the film was perfect. The setting up of Victor's character and the exploration of his open relationship with his wife (who surprises him midway through a deadly escapade). Intense because we the audience know all too well about what is about to happen with the first onscreen character in a horror movie... But it didn't! She was only crippled- which segues quite nicely to the lawyer~ 😋 The cinematography was somewhat low-budget but it was quite refreshing to see. Especially from the "dead" Victor's POV which is in line with what the audience is told about the neurotoxin used to murder him. The anticipation of when he will rise up again- course obviously he will, is exhilarating despite its predictable nature! 😋 The story is nothing original but it was the first that attempted to kill using a non-lethal poison. The oversight and lack of knowledge in the method of murder is a very human thing to do. It is exactly the repercussions from this, which is very terrifying. After all the thought alone in murdering someone is already a mental load but to have that person come back and they're unprepared? Mindblown.... Cons: 😪 The actors as a whole were not terrible, but I thought the guy portraying Victor was best. He brought out the cynical and psychopath sides very well! Also he looks very familiar, I'll do more research! The rest were just average but still belivable... just! 😪 Now characters- I don't usually point this out because some will naturally shine more than others but not in this one. Nobody (from the main cast, one of the 'good guys') was likeable or rational. Roman the lawyer keeps hiding secrets from the recently widowed (though not for long) who would have benefitted by having more time to discuss what to do next. Elizabeth on the other hand, is understandably paranoid and suspects Roman is cheating even plotting to off her next. They are all self-centered and it made me question who I should be rooting for... 😪 The ending came off pretty lazy. Which a shame because it did very well in the beginning, then a little bit after Victor is resurrected. But by the end, back to the infamous torture device- which becomes overused. Victor even says it himself, sometimes the psychology torment from threatening to use the device is sufficient to instill fear. But the film never did anything remotely as clever as that. Lawyer dies and wife finally decides to retaliate. The pregnant Catherine at the end, what even is that? 😇Verdict😈 Points for the effort behind this microbudget thriller film. The plot is one to remember and a teachable moment to everyone ;). It also brought us one of the most underrated baddies in the early 2000s. But unfortunately, the film hit its peak about 3/4 of the way through due to poor character writing and a questionable ending. Therefore it is easy to see why this film was eventually forgotten... :'(

The sales are on for the moment so it was time to go hunting. I noticed the cover of this movie. A torture scene in the style of SAW so I thought this is a torture * flick. Two girls are on the cover under blood with let's say, both having more then melons. So you can guess, I bought it. Now that I have seen the movie I can't understand why I bought it. The cover NEVER appears in the movie. Should have known after all those years that covers with naked chicks on it or big boobies are teasers for trash. I should have remembered Gutterballs were it's advertised as a hardcore one. Anyway. The movie starts of pretty well with a guy taking a girl to his house, after a while they arrive at the attic were a torture device stands. The girl gets tortured, suspense, and suddenly this guy's wife appears. End of the scene. Then we get to know the characters, he's a real asshole so his wife and a friend decide to kill him, he returns as a "living death" in the last 23 minutes, then the horror really get's going. The gore is intact and the red stuff flows. It's a shame that between the first 5 and the last 23 minutes nothing really happens. It could have been a really nice flick. I'm not a freak but with all the sex going on and the torture of the girl they could have shown some flesh, but they decided not do do it. Kristy Swanson, the main lead appeared in a lot of movies but never goes full monty. So if you are able to see this flick, watch it without expecting anything and enjoy the gore at the end.

(Spoiler alert: partially discloses plot) This flick is not as bad as I might have thought. It actually has a somewhat interesting plot. The sound quality stinks though, turn it up high enough to hear the dialogue and the "music" (such as it is) is overwhelmingly loud and blasts you away. Caddish rich-heir-from-Daddy husband, sexy wife (yum, great kisser) and her lover, his best friend. Wife and lover off the cad with blowfish-poison. Only he doesn't die, he is paralyzed like dead but still sees and hears everything but can't move a muscle ("Living Death"). He wakes up on the autopsy table and goes on a revengefest. A medieval torture stretching rack features twice in this horror-genre flick. Daddy had a hobby, a fully equipped attic medieval dungeon that hubby, and implicitly his wife, use for fun and games. The movie starts with yon cad entertaining a lady friend up there with some erotic moderate stretching on a large angled rack (severe unpadded heavy iron manacles, ouch). Things go awry when his wife surprises them. Startled, he leans too hard on the lever and damages the rackee. One gets an impression of the rack's dismembering strength but pictures of the mechanism are unpersuasive, just closeups of gears meshing and chains and ropes tightening. The rack figures again at the end of the movie in the vengeancefest, this time as a torture and execution means. No erotic BDSM this time, but pain and dismemberment. The scene suggests the horror of the real thing beyond erotica when it was used for torture and punishment, much less execution. Anyway, I've seen worse horror-genre flicks. If you're a rack aficionado it's worth a look.

The masochist Elizabeth (Kristy Swanson) lives a marriage of convenience with the cynical, sadistic and reckless playboy Victor (Greg Bryk), who is the heir of a huge inheritance including the mansion where they live. She is the lover of Victor's lawyer and best friend Roman (Josh Peace), but she can not divorce Victor since she signed a prenuptial contract that would leave her with only ten thousand dollars. Roman plots with Elizabeth to poison Victor with an experimental drug, but it fails and Victor is completely paralyzed without dying. During his autopsy with three medical students, Victor awakes from his comatose status, and totally deranged, she seeks revenge using his torture chamber. "Living Death" has a good beginning and development of the story with black humor, suspense and gore, but one of the worst conclusions I have ever seen. Roman seeking Elizabeth without checking the pistol and accepting to lock his arms and legs in the torture device with an insane guy in command are terrible moments. And the last scene, with Elizabeth parking her car and going to the mansion is simply awful. In the end, this forgettable low-budget movie is a chance to see Kristy Swanson, still attractive but needing to lose some weight, on the video. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): "Renascido do Inferno" ("Reborn from Hell")

I thought this was fun to watch. Not an Oscar movie, but the story was OK and it was surely entertaining. I just felt to add my comments because the other comments have been so negative. I have watched much more worse films. Oh god now they want me to write more about this movie. Well just see it for yourself. It's quite good fun to rent it out on a board night if you have nothing better to watch. Still they want more lines from me. OK. Go see the movie.

I agree with the first review, totally. But I have to remind the previous reviewer that Kristy Swanson was in "Dude, Where's My Car?" and has not totally been off the screens for the past decade. She does however look ... well, if she were a book, I'd describe her as 'slightly foxed'. Still, she looks better now than she did on the box cover of the 10th anniversary Buffy re-release. This was a 'blind' viewing for me ... I had no knowledge of the film, other than a glimmer of the plot, and was expecting something of a much lower budget than this ... made for TV perhaps ... so the reason I give it a slightly higher score than the previous reviewer is that it hits a higher level of production value than I was expecting it to.

Living Death