DVD Review: The Dead Want Women
Full Moon Features has moved from their usual quirky possessed toy movies and traveled into the realm of the classic ghost story with their latest feature, The Dead Want Women.
Based on a story by horror legend, Charles Band, The Dead Want Women begins at the tragic unraveling of the siren of the silver screen, Rose Pettigrew (Jean Louise O’Sullivan) in 1920s Hollywood.
While hosting a party in celebration of her latest silent film, Rose leaves her mansion and slips off to a secret grotto with her three gentlemen companions: the Abbott-influenced Tubby (Nihilist Gelo), the lecherous horror icon Eric Burke (Robert Zachar), and the cowboy Sonny Barnes (Eric Robertson). While engaging in a mild orgy, Rose is interrupted from her delights by her agent, Norman (Circus-Szalewski), and hesitatingly informed that, because of the failure of the very film they are celebrating and the sudden popularity of the “talkie”, the studio has decided not to renew her contract.
After putting on a very distraught performance and receiving oaths of eternal devotion from her three companions, Rose surprises the group by grabbing one of Sonny’s guns and shooting not just the three gentlemen, but also one of the orgy participants. When she goes to add herself to the body count, she learns she’s out of bullets and instead slits her own throat with one of Tubby’s knives.
Moving into the present day, realtors Danni (Ariana Madix) and Reese (Jessica Morris) arrive to the Pettigrew mansion on a mission to clean before meeting to complete a sale with a mysterious buyer. After an afternoon of scrubbing and no wealthy gentleman caller, Danni and Reese break open a bottle of wine a drink themselves into pleasant unconsciousness.
When they wake, their adventure begins. From waterfalls turning themselves on to lustful specters, Danni and Reese have their hands full trying to escape the grounds of the Pettigrew mansion with not just their lives intact, but also their virtue.
Then things start to get really weird.
This movie is not what you’d expect from a typical Full Moon movie—if there is such a thing as a typical Full Moon movie. It echoes back to the classic Tales from the Crypt story, but with a modern twist… and a longer format. The Dead Want Women allows the plot to build and introduces us to the characters long enough to get to know them before they’re keeling over or running through dark hallways screeching at top volume.
From the sound track to using Silent Era Hollywood as a setting, Full Moon did something different with this movie, experimented in a new direction and the results are surprisingly entertaining. You can check it out yourself on May 1st, 2012 at Full Moon Direct or at your local Red Box.
