Death by Dialogue (1988) User Reviews

Amazingly silly 80's cheese-fest

[Red-Barracuda · 3/10 · 25 May 2009]

Death By Dialogue. What a title. What an amazingly rubbish title. I am stunned that there are no alternative names that this film went out under. But, then again, this film is something else.

Synopsis: This film is about an evil film script. Its horrific contents come to life and terrorise a group of teenagers.

I have seen some rubbish in my time but this movie possesses moments of such stunningly memorable idiocy that I was somewhat taken aback. The very idea of a film script that is possessed by an evil spirit is hilariously silly. The script was for a film called 'Victims' and it was clearly written by a thirteen year old boy. The horrors that are unleashed by the script include a killer poodle-permed rock band, a seven-foot tall sword-wielding madman and two motor-cycle morons. I don't know about 'Victims', I would have thought that a better name would've been 'Eighties Cheese'.

This is one of those bad movies that contains moments of laugh-out-loud hilarity but also is hindered by atrocious pacing. Some scenes just go on and on and we do have to wait for the funny bits. But when those funny bits appear they are pretty much top-drawer, i.e. I challenge anyone not to laugh when the hair metal band pitches up in the woods. Too funny. At another time the protagonists decide that the best way to defeat the evil in the script would be to simply re-write it with happy stuff. Seems reasonable? Incredibly they mess up this very straightforward task by rewriting the script with one of the daftest non-escape plans ever conceived. In yet another random event – this film is a series of random events – we have a dream sequence involving a woman in a gown kneeling by a pool who meets an idiot in a racing car by a tree. Go figure.

It's all senseless and very haphazardly put together. But it's worth one viewing, if only to be stunned by it's monumental daftness. It does have moments of anti-genius. It's like a cross between The Evil Dead, The Edge of Hell and an episode of Scooby Doo. Although, much worse than all of those. Venture at your peril.

Only in the 80's Those gloriously dim-witted 80's

[Coventry · 2/10 · 30 May 2010]

Only in the 1980's, those gloriously dim-witted 1980's, it was possible for an over-enthusiast young writer/director to present a concept about a murderous horror movie screenplay and actually find the necessary financial means to make the film! "Death by Dialogue" is bottom-of-the-barrel 80's guff, complete with insufferable lead characters, zero tension building and a fairly high number of WTF-moments. The film is an attempt to amalgamate a typical slasher plot with an edge of supernaturalism, but the result is beyond retarded. The first half hour is still okay, albeit full of clichéd situations and hilariously inept 80's characteristics. The opening sequence, for example, is quite funny when a caretaker mistakes a hideous demon for his employer and yells at her: "Why don't you fire me!". The demon then literally sets him on fire, ha ha! Then there's a the exemplary credits sequence, depicting five stupid twenty-something losers driving up to a remote holiday destination in their convertible, guided by an atrociously cheesy 80's pop song. There's the hero and his girlfriend, the wannabe James Dean cool dude and the token black guy (Ken Sagoes from "Nightmare on Elm Street 3 & 4"). After the obligatory 'we-are-having-fun-playing-kids-games' montage, the dumb posse stumbles upon an ancient horror movie script that is possessed with the evil spirit of a murdered journalist. Yes, that's right! The script summons demons on motorcycles and heavy metal rock bands and actually causes people to die in various idiotic ways. "Death by Dialogue" is a really stupid film with tacky special effects and pathetic demon masks. The fog machines are working overtime and the barn love-making sequence has to be seen in order to be believed. The couple has steamy & passionate sex, although the girl never removes her panties, while the barn fills up with demonic forces until the girl literally blows out of her socks.

Oh Come On

[mattressman_pdl · 4/10 · 16 October 2005]

This spirited little low-budget horror film deserves more than it's reputation. I had the fortune of picking this film up (believe it or not) on DVD and needless to say I wasn't expecting much from a film called Death by Dialogue, with a possessed script and an 80's alt-rock band starring Ken Sagoes, who was one of my favorite characters from NOES.

The film does have some ultra cheesy moments but it's decently crazy and gory at times. Plus...nudity. I'd say if you find it on television or in the old releases at your local videostore, be a good-little slasherhound and pick it up and give it a view. As stupid as it is it's worth at least that much.

Don't get fooled by the creepy cover art of the box...

[dead_dudeINthehouse · 30 October 2003]

"Death By Dialogue" is by no means a good slasher, in fact, it came out when the genre was going downhill.. Watch it just to have something to laugh about. I don't think someone can take this film seriously.

I won't even talk about the storyline as it's very BORING -not to say stupid-. The producers tried to make a bizarre sci-fi horror film but the result is a pooor slasher attempt. The highlight of the film is Ken Sagoes' major role in the film. I wonder why he didn't last long in the genre. The box features a demonic character surrounded by the 6 peak star... Definately a terrible film that didn't add something to the genre.

1/10

Ken Sagoes' first (and last!) leading role.

[insomniac_rod · 1/10 · 13 June 2005]

It turned out to be a mess.

"Death By Dialogue" is your typical low budget direct to video crap that is produced after someone's fame. The movie's tag line shown in the cover is "Staring Ken Sagoes, the survivor from "A Nightmare On Elm Street Part III". Sagoes character, Roland Kincaid became an instant favorite on the Elm Stree series and it's very lame to cast him only because of that and worse, make publicity on him.

Anyways, "Death By Dialogue" is a joke. There's involuntary humor, cheesy (I mean CHEESY) f/x and boring situations that could desperate the most patient Horror fan. This isn't a must see even to criticize or laugh about. Please, stay away from this trash and don't get fooled by the cover art or the premise, which is as dumb as you can get.

Ugh.

Writing Can Be Hazardous To Your Health, Part 1

[Vomitron_G · 3/10 · 23 November 2011]

A group of teens go to some house on the country, inhabited by a professor of sorts and his female companion, located next to an abandoned movie set. They find an ancient screenplay that seems to re-write itself, pretty much dictating how the teens will meet their demise. Now, the concept of a screenplay or book re-writing itself to cause supernatural deaths to occur, would probably make up for a highly imaginative & compelling story in the hands of someone like, let's say, Clive Barker. But in the hands of two-time writer/director Thomas Dewier & one-time writer Susan Trabue this movie ended up being the cinematic equivalent of a giant elephant turd with big chunks of indefinable substances in it, the likes of which even a specialized forensics expert would have a hard time determining what on earth this elephant might have eaten the previous night.

The good thing is that "Death By Dialogue" would be a perfect match in an '80s feature double bill with "Nightmare Weekend" for a mind-boggling viewing experience. Both films are ridiculously inept, wildly bonkers, amusingly imaginative and completely devoid of any sense & logic. Further more, they use every excuse possible to present us a wide variety of stupidly insane & gory killings and a fair amount of female nudity. Oh, the glorious lost cinematic wonders from the '80s. While "Nightmare Weekend" might eat the cake for being the superior total-loss inane horror smörgåsbord it is, "Death By Dialogue" tries incredibly hard to be the second runner-up. When we're strictly talking kills here, we have: Burned to a total crisp. Blown straight into the air while having sex. An inexplicable head explosion. Being sucked into the ground and pop up again all melted. In addition, we also have a bad hard rock band suddenly appearing in the woods out of nowhere and a barbaric demon villain with a giant sword and two henchmen on motorcycles. I did say this movie doesn't make the least bit of sense, did I? It also stars Ken Sagoes as "The Kid Who Survived Nightmare On Elm Street 3". Yes, producers saw this as the sole selling point to promote this horrifying piece of drivel.

It's not terrible. It's just too weak to really amount to anything.

[I_Ailurophile · 4/10 · 19 October 2023]

The score to greet our ears from composer John Gonzales, the otherwise soundtrack, and original song "Night of our lives"; the costume design, hair, and makeup: it's evident from the outset that 'Death by dialogue' aims to adopt the same aesthetics as its 80s genre kin. That quite extends to how characters are written, and the awful dialogue, among other facets. What the movie cannot claim, however, are the same production values, for the fundamental image of this 1988 flick more closely resembles home video, or public access television, than a theatrical release. The sound design is tinny, and please don't miss the insertion of a rock band into the picture, as if this were a music video on MTV. Then again - after all, this is a Troma film, so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised. I'm not saying it's outright rotten, because that's not true, but from the very start it's something that one can "watch" without actively engaging, and to be honest it kind of encourages that method all by itself.

The practical effects are perhaps a tad modest stood next to those of other contemporary fare, but they still look good enough; the stunts are more plainly admirable. The same quite goes for the art direction. Thomas Dewier's direction, and the acting, aren't exactly the top of the line, but if nothing else, I've certainly seen worse. The broad concept is definitely one that we've seen before - a piece of media, in this case a film script, that causes death and destruction around it - and have again since, but there's no rule that says other filmmakers can't explore their own renditions of an idea. The details of the writing that flesh out that concept, included but not limited to how the script in this instance came into being, are much more questionable; the plot feels a little thin, stretching to make itself work. Some specific moments are extra dubious, like a dream sequence that fills a few minutes in the latter half. Be that as it may, I think the end result is still suitably solid, and I see the hard work that all involved put into the final product.

Still, however much earnest effort was being applied, the fact remains that 'Death by dialogue' is just kind of weak. Though some aspects are much less sure-footed, I don't think anything here is altogether bad; rather, it's just that nothing here bears enough strength - not even in combination - to really make an especially good impression. It never attains the vibrancy to be distinctly striking, is never discretely fun enough to meaningfully come off as a lark like some of its more cheeky brethren, and is probably longer than it should've been. The feature just somewhat languishes in the unremarkable middle - mildly enjoyable, but not entirely convincing, and with shortcomings more evident than any major value. I wonder if I'm not being too harsh; on the other hand, maybe I'm being too generous. I think it's still passably worthwhile as something very light to have on in the background on a lazy day, something that neither requires nor inspires viewer investment. Suffice to say, however, that if you're looking for something more wholehearted and committed, more thrilling, or more impactful, you're best served by passing up 'Death by dialogue' and looking elsewhere.

The script is possessed

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 7 October 2021]

Slasher film coincidences: five friends visit a crippled uncle, a taxidermist who lives next to a movie set, and they all start dying just like the movie that's being made.

This was all we needed in 1988, you know?

Also, this movie had the tagline "Ken Sagos, the kid who survived Nightmare on Elm Street 3 is back!" I mean, that's better than "Ken Sagos, the kid who Freddy killed in Nightmare on Elm Street 4 is back!"

I mean, how many movies have a cursed screenplay to blame? And how many have a metal band - The Dirty Dogs - play a song called "When the Axe Comes Down" and then blow a dude's head up real good? And dude - thanks to the website We Are Cursed to Live In Interesting Times, I can tell you that the songs in Death by Dialogue were produced by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion and founder of Epitaph Records.

There's also a girl taking off someone's head with a scarf.

Death by Dialogue is way too long, but how can a movie get better when a woman sets a man ablaze with a flamethrower? That said, this is a movie not aware of its own stupidity, which is really how it should be, and it just keeps piling on the inanity and sometimes, you just let a goofball slasher and Ken Sagos star vehicle fill your slasher addict veins with sweet movie drugs.

Poor Production Values

[dominic-92700 · 4/10 · 17 April 2022]

What a waste of time and celluloid. Production values were simply substandard even for a type movie. 1/3 in and I can barely stay focused, sub standard and sub par in every aspect.

All movies should be this good

[blurnieghey · 8/10 · 23 October 2021]

Wow, we have some serious Negative Nellie's writing reviews of this one and all I can say is "What in the world were you expecting?" Yeah, this movie is awful and, as bad as people are describing it, it's worse. The acting, the script, the music, the 80's hair, the garbage special effects and gore? Yeah, it's the bottom of the barrel and then some. I think the thing is completely hilarious, but I guess we all have our own idea of so-bad-it's-good. I love 80's cheese and this movie checks every box for entertaining low brow crap in my book. Fans of bad 80's flicks should definitely watch it.

Wow!!

[Steve_Nyland · 7/10 · 24 April 2006]

Now here we see the other end of the extreme when it comes to movies with or without charisma. Earlier tonight I subjected myself to 1988's TEEN VAMP, an anemic attempt to blend comedy antics, American Graffiti nostalgia and vampire hyjinx that had all the charisma of a small soap dish from the dollar store. Now, we watch DEATH BY DIALOGUE, also from 1988 and a vehicle for the then red-hot Ken Sagoes, which by comparison is *ALL* charisma. It is entertaining, risqué, inappropriately amusing, riddled with nudity & graphic gore, filled with loud, cheesy 80's rock, has a muddled, incomprehensible plot line with maybe six brain cells in it's at times pretty head, and I've watched it twice now. No idea what happens during the story, but it's fun, sleazy, colorful and at times pretty inventive.

The movie is supposedly about a group of teen agers who are all pushing 26 or so that find themselves trapped in a web of terror & murder patterned after a movie script found in the basement of a house next to a studio. What it *REALLY* is about, however, is blond girls with nice butts + bewbs, 1980s fashions & hair styles, low budget direct to home video horror movie production, and people getting their heads chopped off, exploded by horrific 80's arena metal rock, skewered with large chopping/cutting instruments, and seeing the blond girls with the nice bodies without their clothes on. By concentrating it's sights directly on the gutter and shooting straight about it's nature the movie succeeds brilliantly: This is the best party movie I have seen since NIGHT TRAIN TO TERROR.

Anyone looking for serious acting, artful cinematography, meaningful dialog and socially aware thematic relevance would be well advised to rent ERIN BROKOVICH and give their brains a rest. But if you need a movie to drink beer to here you go. A typical scene has a guy dressed up like Clancy Brown from HIGHLANDER swinging his sword around like a fool while pyrotechnic explosions highlight his two evil minions jumping their motorcycles while the Scorpion-esquire arena rock chugs out the beat. It looks waaay cool, but whatever ideas there are behind the imagery are not manifest. Here is a movie that is all surface image, devoid of sub-textural agendas and meanings that go beyond the obvious. My favorite part starts with a couple fornicating up in a barn loft: We are treated to ample shots of the amply chested blond riding her amply-bellied lover while weird, dry ice fog and blue lit events disturb the structure. At the height of their sexual coupling the female is literally blown through the wall of the barn to her (unseen) doom, and the understandably perplexed porker whom she had been riding stumbles out with his fashionable yellow trousers around his ankles, wondering aloud wazzup. He then has a nightmarish run through a patch of woods before coming upon an 80's Arena Rock Metal band playing "When The Ax Does Fall" or whatever it's called. They look like Def Leppard's unlucky younger brother. And again, at the climax of their performance the guitarist swings his guitar around in the air like Steve Jones from that Sex Pistols movie and smashes it down on the head of the bewildered porker, which naturally causes it to explode into a ball of spewing mush.

What does it all mean? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. And if you look for meaning or depth in this film you will be wasting your time. But if you want to laugh, check out hawt babez in various states of undress, see people get their heads chopped off and stuff get blowed up real good, bingo. I admire the movie's honesty in not trying to be anything but complete crap, and having a sense of humor about itself that is quite refreshing. So here you go: Two movies, same year, same kind of productions (though DEATH BY DIALOGUE does look like it had a healthier budget than TEEN VAMP), same kind of target audience, same medium of home video oriented productions and they could not have turned out more differently if they had been aware of each other & made a point to be different. DEATH BY DIALOGUE is easily the stupider of the two, but at least has the distinction of being entertaining.

7/10: The expression "Garbage In, Garbage Out" comes to mind.

Perhaps the world's only possessed script movie?

[udar55 · 26 September 2011]

Cary (Lenny Delducca) and four of his friends (including A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3's Ken "Kincaid" Sagoes) go to visit his crippled Uncle I've, who lives on a sprawling ranch that used to be a movie location in the 1950s. Trouble starts when Shelly (Kelly Sullivan) finds an old script for a film titled VICTIM 67. The kids start getting offed and the script title and plot line keeps changing with each victim. So how did the script get possessed? Seems an ancient tribe the Uncle was friendly with in South America had put the soul of a nosy reporter they killed into an ancient urn and it got loose on a film set in the 1950s and entered a script. Makes perfect sense, right?

This little horror flick was from City Lights, the earlier company from PM Entertainment producers Joseph Merhi and Richard Pepin. It is like a lot of their early stuff, flatly shot but with enough technical sheen to put it above most horror muck. Director Tom DeWier is primarily a stuntman in Hollywood and gets a few cool stunt bits in here, including a girl being blown out of a barn mid-sex. The film's biggest attribute is its M.S.U. (Makin' Sh*t Up) quality like when one victim wanders into the woods only to see an 80s metal band jamming out before they make his head explode with a guitar to the cranium. Co-star Sagoes must have hated his agent, thinking, "This is the best you could do for me after ELM STREET 3?" Even worse, the filmmakers have him dress exactly the same as his earlier, popular character so audiences know he is "the kid who survived A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3" (as the VHS box proudly proclaims).

Death By Dialogue Is Worth a Look

[vaultonburg · 6/10 · 6 October 2009]

I'm writing this min-review just to counteract the one I saw at the top of the list, which wasn't accurate or helpful. Death By Dialogue is best described as being in a group of films like The Pit, The Carrier and Hard Rock Zombies that are all badly made, badly scripted, badly acted... and absolutely AWESOME!!!! Because they are either so unintentionally bad or intentionally surreally unique that no description is necessary. Is this a bad movie? Hell, ya. Are there moments in this movie where I wondered what bleep was happening and laughed my butt off... yes. If you like those kind of movies this one has something for you.

Forgettable.

[drhackenstine · 25 April 2006]

Flat, boring horror movie shot and directed with little talent on a low-budget. A group of annoying, over-aged teenagers on vacation, come across a possessed movie script that basically makes life miserable for them. Some of them are killed off in dumb, cheesy, supernatural ways. The others try to make sense of what's going on and try to stop the evil movie script. Ken Sagoes stars in this, and when things start to get hairy, as usual, he has his swearing fits (see A Nightmare On Elm Street 3+4). Features evil bikers, a psychotic glam/cheese rock band, monsters, gore, a smashed in skull, boobs, bad-acting, an idiot running around with a kite, and so on, but none of it is as fun as it sounds. The story is horribly paced, making this a bore to watch, even with all the crazy elements it tries to throw in. You might wanna see it if you are trying to see every horror movie in the world, but otherwise, find something else. One Star.

Late 80's ultra-cheese.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 6/10 · 27 November 2010]

A housekeeper named Thorn finds a script on the ranch and soon he is burned alive by a demon with some sort of flame thrower.Ken Sagoes and his four friends visit Gene's Uncle I've ranch.The script begins to kill them one by one.Why?Because it was written by the journalist,who was murdered by a South American tribe.The evil must be stopped and Ken Sagoes is ready to fight..."Death by Dialogue" by Thomas Dewier is one of the cheesiest horror flicks of late 80's.The script is dumb and the death scenes are juvenile.Still if you are a fan of oozing walls,lethal rock bands in the forest or bubble gum detectives popping from the ground you can't miss this low-budget monstrosity.6 out of 10.

A definitive movie in the genre

[sfhjsth802 · 4 July 2002]

A friend of mine told me about Death by Dialogue about a year ago. I would have sworn he was trying to screw with me given his description of the film, however a few days later, he and I went to our local video store and there, resting proudly on the shelf, was Death by Dialogue. If I were to get technical, this is an awful movie, easily one of the worst ever made, however, I won't get technical. Despite it's movie-making flaws [which are blatently obvious to even the untrained eye] this is a film full of some of the cheesiest humour and corniest dialogue of all time. If you like bad horror movies, then Death by Dialogue is a must see.

Pretty cool shot of absurd 80's cheesy trash horror

[Bloodwank · 6/10 · 7 September 2010]

One of just a couple of outings in the directors chair for regular stuntman Thomas Dewier (perhaps his genius was spent?), Death by Dialogue is quite an experience, that is, if you happen to groove to off the wall and frequently imbecilic late 80's horror cheese. It operates vaguely on a supernatural slasher template, but mostly it's an excuse to wallow in the clichés of the era, given carte blanche by a plot (evil screenplay) that allows for literally anything. For a while, things are just about perfect here. The obligatory opening slaying is amusing, wondrously atrocious cheese-tunage over the credits, then its just a hop, skip and jump into a totally rocking "teens capering around" montage. Volleyball! Running around! All set to upbeat synths, its heavenly stuff. Then we got musings on death before the mayhem kicks in, and it sure is a hoot. Budget and lack of imagination mean that events keep to pretty regular template, but that still means boobs, bikers, and a guy with a big sword wigging out Kurgan style among other things... It could have been truly swell, but direction tends to stutter, with captivating oddities separated by stretches of banality, there's little rhyme or reason to anything and acting is enthusiastic at best, cruddy at worst. Speaking of acting, for star power we have Ken Sagoes, of A Nightmare On Elm Street parts 4 and 5 fame, and his character is called Lenny. This amused me for some reason, but I'm not sure why. Perhaps he should have been called Carl? Anyways, he does as well as you might expect, while a little more talent is provided by delightful stunner Laura Albert, who also gives us nudity. Theodore Lehman puts on a likable expository show as Uncle I've, whilst varying degrees of non ability are provided by the likes of Lenny Delducca and Jude Gerard (nope, me neither) while inept sound recording does more damage than the acting by rendering bits and bobs of conversation inaudible. Music works nicely though, tailored to fit each scene there are the aforementioned synths, eerie tones, a gnarly metal tune and a splash of ominous drums. The film takes a nicely wild approach and is often interesting but peters out in the final twenty minutes with lack of budget and talent dooming the ambitious goings on and a fairly weak climax. At least it isn't too bad and by this point the film has built up a fair amount of goodwill with its crazy shenanigans. I would have liked more gore (don't worry, there is a little) and consistency here, but broadly this is a good fun piece of trash, 6/10 from me.