Simply A Masterpiece

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Now I have just seem it. have no idea what to say about it!Did not think it was a funny or even that fun to watch ( which I thought it would be) , it was a strange one.I though it wound be a lot more gory then it was however there were some good gory scenes.Evil old lady killing teens and then teens come back from dead acting like normal humans and kill there friends.Acting in this movie was suitable for these kinda of movie.The evil old lady was A little creepyI have no idea what to rate this movie at all.

I'm not sure why this film has been rated so low, but I'm going to guess it's because most people go into every movie they watch expecting it to be Citizen Kane, and then rate the movie with a 1 because it wasn't a Hollywood blockbuster with 10 million dollar explosions.I'm assuming if you're checking this movie out, you are either a Troma fan or a Zombie fan. While they might not be Zombies as you would normally imagine them, this film does feature plenty of undead characters.If you love gore, then you will enjoy this film, as the blood and guts are pretty evenly distributed throughout the film and pretty well done for a low budget film. There were a few instances that were so great that I rewound them and watched them again. If you enjoy the atmosphere that 90's cheesiness is able to offer, then again, this is the film for you.I am rating this film 10 because I believe other people have severely underestimated the film, and I feel its poor rating might deter viewers. But then again, this is a Troma release, so maybe not.8/10

After a brief prologue showing Ann Leatherbee ("1940's Girl" Leighann Belair) and her mother, Abigail ("Old Lady" Douglas Gibson), nonchalantly sitting/standing over a dead body, we move 40 years into the future, when seven feisty young adults arrive at the same house to fix it up. Mark (also played by Gibson) has purchased the home at a steal because of its disturbing past, which he isn't aware of. Of course, this is the stereotypical haunted house film set-up. Dead Dudes in the House combines its supernatural haunted house horror with a slasher plot and entities that are a cross between zombies and ghosts. The story progresses as you'd expect given those elements. Yes, it's derivative, but anyone who knows me well knows I do not subtract points for that. The "Cult of Originality"--which valued the unprecedented over all else, and which really only came to the fore in the later 1800s--was a mistake in my opinion.Still, when astute readers notice that my rating for a film like this is higher than or the same as my ratings for films like Constantine (2005), Mulholland Drive (2001), Predator (1987), Ichi the Killer (Koroshiya 1, 2001) and Donnie Darko (2001), they (maybe rightly) wonder, "What is going on? How can you say that Dead Dudes in the House is as good or better than (fill in your favorite film that you think I underrated here)?" It's important to remember that my ratings (as well as many other critics', I suspect) are not meant as comparative to other films, as if they're all on an even playing field, trying out for shortstop on the same team. My ratings are comparative, but to a number of other factors. First I consider how well the film managed to do what it set out to do, making concessions only for unavoidable limitations (these include budget constraints and historical/technological limitations); I see the film itself as defining what it wants to do. Secondly, I consider the value I got from the film--including entertainment value, other aesthetic value and so on. The last factor is importance in a historical/cultural milieu. This is given far less weight, partially because it's not so directly related to what's on the screen, and partially because this is impossible to "measure" for most newer films; this last factor also only tends to help ratings; I don't really subtract any points for cultural/historical _unimportance_. It's also helpful to remember that I begin all films at a 9 (an "A"), and then score up or down accordingly.Understanding this, I believe that Dead Dudes in the House does a very good job accomplishing what it wants to accomplish, although there are a couple small blunders--enough to subtract a point. I also got a lot of value out of it. It's entertaining, often funny (sometimes unintentionally), there is some surprisingly good cinematography, the premise is handled (meaning directed, written, and so on) extremely competently, the death scenes are well done and creative, and the performances range from bizarrely good (in this context) to entertainingly bad (often from the same actor).Writer/director/producer/coffee-maker James Riffel, who unfortunately only recently managed to complete another film, 2004's Black-Eyed Susan, knows exactly what he's shooting for and easily gets it. The goal was to create a slightly tongue-in-cheek 1980s-style (the film was actually made in the late 80s--the copyright date on the end credits is 1988, and the title of the film is given as The Dead Come Home) gore-comedy slasher, achieving the necessary isolation by locking the ten little Indians in the haunted house and gaining ghouls to enable variety by letting dispatched characters become zombie-like menaces.Partially because of this set-up, the dialogue tends to be ridiculous, well written, unintentionally hilarious and scathingly satirical, often all at the same time. Most of the major characters fit that set of adjectives as well, especially Bob (Victor Verhaeghe), the carpenter, and Abigail Leatherbee, the "old lady". Bob is usually given the best lines, and Verhaeghe turns in one of the most entertaining performances. The extended scene when the "kids" first arrive at the house and try to start fixing it is a gem. The funniest aspect, perhaps, is that Bob is not that far removed from a couple carpenters and construction workers I've known in the past.But the gore is also very well done. In a movie like this, that is extremely important. The only other important aspect that Riffel misses is gratuitous nudity, but there isn't a huge female cast, and it's not always easy to acquire gratuitous nudity for low-budget film-making like this (I'd suspect this was more akin to a "guerilla" film).As for cinematography, Riffel actually anticipates a number of more recent genre stylistic tendencies, such as monochromaticism and chiaroscuro night scenes. There's also an extremely important and attractive shot that breaks the monochromaticism in the dénouement, right before the obligatory and welcomed doom-laden "tag". This is using cinematography as symbolism in a way akin to such well-respected films as Equilibrium (2002)--something less broad minded folks act surprised to encounter in a "clichéd little shocker" like Dead Dudes in the House.By the way, Dead Dudes in the House was recently released on DVD through Troma's Toxie's Triple Terror series. It's interesting to note how many films in that series feature transvestite characters. Is it time we ask just what kind of undergarments Lloyd Kaufman is wearing? Does he have something in common with lumberjacks?

Dead Dudes in the house, aka-The Dead come home. My brother and I saw this movie one night in the summer of 1992. He actually got a good glimpse before. I checked it out halfway through the movie, and found it corny but interesting. I can recall zombie like teenagers roaming the house with an old lady running the masacre. I never saw this movie again but do remember it quite well. My brother on the other hand enjoyed it. Hey, it sure beats a muggy night out.