Dead and Breakfast
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   109 of 223 readers found this review helpful.

I’m going to come clean on a few points before we delve into the review, just so there’s no questioning my credibility when we reach the conclusion. First, I’m a sucker for cool packaging on DVDs. If something has a unique cover or interesting box, I’ll snag it in a heartbeat and worry later whether or not the movie’s any good.

Second, and more importantly for the task at hand, I was one of six straight men that watched “Veronica’s Closet” religiously, and thus began a very intense infatuation with Ever Carradine, who played the ditzy “Pepper” on the show. The sitcom made a few time slot changes, I became distracted, and Ms. Carradine was saved the hassle of getting a restraining order.

So, I was in a quandary when “Dead & Breakfast” arrived at BumsCorner HQ. It had by far the slickest packaging I’ve seen since the “Book of the Dead” version of “Evil Dead”, AND Ever Carradine kicking undead ass. I had two choices, maintain my objectivity, or pass the torch to Rufus. After meditating for 90 minutes, I was able to separate Scraps the fan from Scraps the reviewer, and I began the movie.

*For the record, “meditate” is a Hindu word for “throwing a rubber ball against a wall repeatedly while listening to Jim Croce and snorting catnip*

On paper, I should have hated this film. It’s in the comedy/horror genre, which is hit or miss at best, it has some big names in little parts (David Carradine and Portia de Rossi to name a couple) and had musical interludes. Sounds stupid as hell, doesn’t it?

Imagine my pleasure, however, when I discovered what a freekin’ great movie this is!

You see, six friends en route to a wedding (meeting all required stereotypes for “young people in horror movie”) get lost, and have to spend the night in a bed and breakfast in the little podunk town of Lovelock run by Mr. Wise (the aforementioned Mr. Carradine) and the kitchen manned by French chef Henri (Diedrich Bader, the UPS guy from “The Drew Carey Show”) – both of which are dead before first light.

Before Mr. Wise takes the Big Dirt Nap, he mentions that nobody, and he means nobody, should touch this little box he has in his room. It’s a cute little thing, like you might keep some change and your old class ring in, except his is EVIL!

Sure enough, one of the kids knocks the box over, breaks the seal, and bad crap starts happening. I’ll leave the finer points of the plot for you to discover, but I will warn you, keep your thinking cap in another room…if you think too hard about the premise, you’ll spoil an otherwise fun movie.

And fun was had watching this flick at Casa de Scraps! “Dead & Breakfast” has some classic one-liners, some gory death scenes, one homage after another to classic horror films, the zombie leader using a severed head as a puppet, and a freekin’ undead line dance. The scenes were thread together with country music interludes by Randall Keith Randall (Zach Selwyn), town gas station attendant and honky-tonk king…adding to the general campy and lighthearted mood of the production. I’m not a big fan of hillbilly music, but darn it, it works here!

For comedy fans with a strong stomach, or horror fans with a sense of humor, this is an easy recommendation. I laughed, I tapped my feet, I threw up a little in my mouth. The ONLY thing that kept this from being a perfect 5 out of 5 was the occasional gag that went a little too long (Erik Palladino of ER fame slipping and sliding in blood for what seemed like 7 minutes as an example). Either people get the joke, or they don’t…show the gag and move on.

Besides this one tiny bitch of mine, this is a fabulously good time, and a strong 4 ½ out of 5 cans.

Dead and Breakfast (Unrated Edition)

Added:  Monday, August 29, 2005

Related Link:  Official page on Anchor Bay
Language: eng[ Did you find this review helpful?  Yes  No ]
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