‘The Dead Want Women’ Review
Stars: Eric Roberts, Jessica Morris, Ariana Madix, Jean Louise O’Sullivan, J. Scott, Robert Zachar | Written by Charles Band, Kent Roudebush | Directed by Charles Band
The Dead Want Women, don’t we all? Well obviously not like they do or it would be quite illegal and questionable in nature. Full Moon Entertainment give us yet another tale of horror and gore, with 88 Films giving the film a release in the United Kingdom that it may or may not deserve. The fact is though it’s quite a watchable film and when they are releasing so many classics there is space for film like this that have definite quality issues if it also means we also get the better quality ones too.
In the “roaring twenties” Rose Pettigrew is the star of the silent movies and at the top of her game; then the talkies take over. Losing her contract she also loses her popularity and in a fit of rage kills herself and her entourage of other failed actors vowing that they will be together forever. Skip to the modern day and two realtors arrive to remodel the mansion ready for a prospective buyer. It’s not long before the ghosts of the actors start to haunt them with a lust for not only their lives but their bodies as they pull the women into their hedonistic world of orgies and death.
It’s easy to say that most of the time when you see Eric Roberts hamming it up you know how to take the film, and that is not seriously at all. With plenty of nudity and plenty of gore it is a shame that there is not much to this movie and the acting is poor, but I will say at least it’s watchable. Eric Roberts normally manages to charm the watcher with his “unique” style of acting, but I found him quite annoying in this, maybe because he kept to the background more and even in the sex scenes just didn’t seem to be trying at all. If they are going to have sex scenes in a film come on, at least make it look like you are doing the act not just squirming up against the women looking like you have no idea where to stick it. Jean Louise O’Sullivan as Rose Pettigrew does a better job though in her role as the starlet who gave it all up when she loses her fame, as the lead ghost she has a screen presence that at least caught my interest and the realtors in the form of Jessica Morris and Ariana Madix were arguably adequate in their roles, it’s just a shame that the script let them down.
As much as it’s hard to recommend The Dead Want Women if you like bad movies and feel you just want to be able to say you saw it, then give it a watch. It’s a harmless film that has what on paper is a good idea, it just fails on screen. I’m not sure what could have been done to improve it for me, or if it was my own personal taste that made me dislike it, but I will say there is plenty of nudity if that is your thing, just don’t take too much notice in the acting of the sexual acts because quite honestly they may have needed to add a little acting Viagra to those scene.
The Dead Want Women is released today courtesy of 88 Films.
