Living Death (2006 Video) User Reviews

Swanson's Hungry man dinners

[juliankennedy23 · 5/10 · 14 December 2006]

Living Death: 5 out of 10: If you ever wondered what Body Heat 2 would look like if remade this year and having Kathleen Turner reprising her original role this movie may clue one in? Kristy Swanson hasn't spent much time on the big screen since the mid-nineties and she looks like she has been eating a lot of her namesakes Hungry Man dinners. Don't get me wrong she is attractive as a full-figured woman it simply was a bit disconcerting after not seeing her for a dozen years or so. She certainly hasn't spent that time fine tuning her thespian craft however as she is defiantly the acting weak point in this little drama.

The plot has Shannon Tweed/ Tim Matheson written all over it. Abusive do nothing playboy husband is killed by suffering wife and his best friend/lawyer who is now her lover. Only problem is that they choose a poison that if given in the wrong dose only causes the person to appear dead. D'oh.

He comes back and gets revenge on everyone who wronged him. Sounds like your very standard erotic thriller except it isn't.

There is no nudity and virtually no sex. The only bondage is the decidedly non-erotic leg breaking kind. This is a straight up horror movie and it puts the pedal to the metal.

Main lead Greg Byrk captures our evil protagonist's hedonism perfectly. (The scene where he snorts coke while playing videogames is a classic.) The revenge isn't fair or just it is bloody and cruel.

This creates a great vibe in the film as the only guy to root for is a remarkably unlikable rogue. In fact the film has virtually not one likable hero style character giving an almost Bad Santa feel to the proceedings.

The film picks up the pace about halfway through and never lets go. Not a great film or a genre classic by any means but certainly an entertaining horror film.

Reasonable Story, Awful Conclusion

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 14 September 2007]

The masochist Elizabeth (Kristy Swanson) lives a marriage of convenience with the cynical, sadistic and reckless playboy Victor (Greg Bryk), who is the heir of a huge inheritance including the mansion where they live. She is the lover of Victor's lawyer and best friend Roman (Josh Peace), but she can not divorce Victor since she signed a prenuptial contract that would leave her with only ten thousand dollars. Roman plots with Elizabeth to poison Victor with an experimental drug, but it fails and Victor is completely paralyzed without dying. During his autopsy with three medical students, Victor awakes from his comatose status, and totally deranged, she seeks revenge using his torture chamber.

"Living Death" has a good beginning and development of the story with black humor, suspense and gore, but one of the worst conclusions I have ever seen. Roman seeking Elizabeth without checking the pistol and accepting to lock his arms and legs in the torture device with an insane guy in command are terrible moments. And the last scene, with Elizabeth parking her car and going to the mansion is simply awful. In the end, this forgettable low-budget movie is a chance to see Kristy Swanson, still attractive but needing to lose some weight, on the video. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Renascido do Inferno" ("Reborn from Hell")

Not too bad

[dtlongo · 4/10 · 18 January 2007]

(Spoiler alert: partially discloses plot)

This flick is not as bad as I might have thought. It actually has a somewhat interesting plot. The sound quality stinks though, turn it up high enough to hear the dialogue and the "music" (such as it is) is overwhelmingly loud and blasts you away.

Caddish rich-heir-from-Daddy husband, sexy wife (yum, great kisser) and her lover, his best friend. Wife and lover off the cad with blowfish-poison. Only he doesn't die, he is paralyzed like dead but still sees and hears everything but can't move a muscle ("Living Death"). He wakes up on the autopsy table and goes on a revengefest.

A medieval torture stretching rack features twice in this horror-genre flick. Daddy had a hobby, a fully equipped attic medieval dungeon that hubby, and implicitly his wife, use for fun and games. The movie starts with yon cad entertaining a lady friend up there with some erotic moderate stretching on a large angled rack (severe unpadded heavy iron manacles, ouch). Things go awry when his wife surprises them. Startled, he leans too hard on the lever and damages the rackee.

One gets an impression of the rack's dismembering strength but pictures of the mechanism are unpersuasive, just closeups of gears meshing and chains and ropes tightening. The rack figures again at the end of the movie in the vengeancefest, this time as a torture and execution means. No erotic BDSM this time, but pain and dismemberment. The scene suggests the horror of the real thing beyond erotica when it was used for torture and punishment, much less execution.

Anyway, I've seen worse horror-genre flicks. If you're a rack aficionado it's worth a look.

Dumb dumb dumb

[Cablebot3000 · 4/10 · 21 August 2008]

Living Death is a poorly done movie.

The acting is okay, but thats about it.

The suspense and horror part of it sucks though, and there isn't much to work with. The script just isn't that great, and it seems like it was thrown together within just a few days.

It is basically your average, trashy B-movie. If you like anyone in the cast, sure, rent it, and if you like cheesy horror films then you will like it. With the exception of those things, its a movie you should skip. (my rating)Rated R for strong bloody violence, language and some drug content

Let the dead remain dead

[sol-kay · 5/10 · 11 November 2008]

**SPOILERS** Another coming back from the dead horror flick involving this good for nothing playboy Victor Harris, Greg Bryk, who's both fascinated and obsessed with medieval torture devices. This is something that Victor picked up from his crazy and now deceased father who was a certified triple A nut case. It was Victor's dad who locked himself up in his personal dungeon and never saw the light of day for 17 years until he died of a massive heart attack at the age of 55.

Having his good friend and personal lawyer Roman Arbogast, Joshua Peace, write up his last will and testament Victor is adamant that at the time of his death he's to be buried immediately without having been autopsied or embalmed. This wish on Victor's part fits right into the plans of both Roman and Victor's cheating and gold digging wife Elizaebth, Krisy Swanson. The two besides being secret lovers are also planning to do Victor in and, with Elizabeth inheriting all his money, shearing in all of Victor's goodies.

Slipping a deadly Japanese blow fish poison into Victor's Chinese food both Roman & Elizabeth have him go into suspended animation where he's clinically dead but actually fully alive. Looking for all intents and purposes that Victor died of a sudden heart attack, like his father, all that's needed to seal the deal for the two lovers is to have Victor buried before he wakes up! As you would imagine in movies like this not everything goes according to plan. As things turn out these three klutzy med students at the morgue where Victor's body is being prepared for burial end up messing everything up; to the point where they become Victor's first victims in the film.

Grossed out but not at all convincing the movie despite all its gory and disgusting splatter scenes is neither scary or makes any bit of sense at all. Victor does come back from the dead with his guts hanging out of his stomach, and minus two fingers, but he's so ridicules and off the wall, as well as unconvincing, that you wonder why he didn't stay dead in the first place!

Both Roman and Elizabeth found out that Victor is alive and well, and also mad as hell at them, after he offed Malanine Person, Kelsey Matheson, and called them on her phone to brag about it. Malanine was a person whom Victor crippled and who, by spiting on him as he was laying in state, dissed him at his funeral.

****SPOILERS*** The both outrageous and blood splattering ending of the movie showed just how totally divorced from reality both Roman and Elizabeth were by letting Victor have his way with, and fully knowing what he had in store for, them without as much as putting up a fight! That's until Roman lost his both arms legs as well as his life with Elizabeth, who it turned out was pregnant by Roman, finally getting up enough courage and put a final end to Victor's mad dreams of revenge!

Besides the bunch mixed nuts in the film that included its top cast members, Victor Roman Elizabeth and the wacky med student's, we also had to sit and suffer through weirdo like Mr. Freed, Troy Yorke, the spaced out junkie. Mr. Freed supplied Roman with his junk, drugs, that he used to put Victor both in and out of his grave. There's also in the film the notorious but now behind bars Unabomber, Chris Cordell, who after being given a 24 hour pass from the prison authorities made a both cameo and guest appearance in the movie.

expect nothing

[trashgang · 4/10 · 18 January 2009]

The sales are on for the moment so it was time to go hunting. I noticed the cover of this movie. A torture scene in the style of SAW so I thought this is a torture porn flick. Two girls are on the cover under blood with let's say, both having more then melons. So you can guess, I bought it. Now that I have seen the movie I can't understand why I bought it. The cover NEVER appears in the movie. Should have known after all those years that covers with naked chicks on it or big boobies are teasers for trash. I should have remembered Gutterballs were it's advertised as a hardcore one.

Anyway. The movie starts of pretty well with a guy taking a girl to his house, after a while they arrive at the attic were a torture device stands. The girl gets tortured, suspense, and suddenly this guy's wife appears. End of the scene. Then we get to know the characters, he's a real asshole so his wife and a friend decide to kill him, he returns as a "living death" in the last 23 minutes, then the horror really get's going. The gore is intact and the red stuff flows. It's a shame that between the first 5 and the last 23 minutes nothing really happens. It could have been a really nice flick. I'm not a freak but with all the sex going on and the torture of the girl they could have shown some flesh, but they decided not do do it. Kristy Swanson, the main lead appeared in a lot of movies but never goes full monty. So if you are able to see this flick, watch it without expecting anything and enjoy the gore at the end.

One of the worst low budget "horrors" I've ever seen

[bretsean · 1/10 · 1 April 2009]

This film was aptly named. It was like living death just watching it.

I've seen a lot of REALLY bad low budget horror movies. But this has to be one of the worst I've ever seen.

I wouldn't even want my enemies to sit through this. The only reason I did is because I have a policy to watch movies completely through to see if there are any redeeming qualities.

Not. One.

Outside of the opening scene, there's literally no action, no drama, no tension, no horror for an hour. ONE HOUR. The movie is only 80 minutes and 60+ minutes are spent TALKING, TALKING, TALKING.

EVERY character, including the "heroes" are totally unlikeable. I really wished everyone would've just died. It would have been a more fulfilling ending.

Been there done that

[damacles6 · 3/10 · 14 January 2010]

I've seen this movie before-about 17 years ago! It was called Buried Alive and starred Tim Matheson and Jennifer Jason Leigh and aired on the USA cable network. The plot was nearly identical the only difference was happened after the husband comes back. Buried Alive was better written, directed, and acted. Taken on it's own merits, Living Death was okay but nothing special. Having seen Buried Alive, Living Death was monotonous at best. Kristy Swanson was cardboard. None of the characters were developed fully. There was waaaay too much going on. Which I'm sure was intentional to make the simple-minded viewer not realize that the story couldn't stand on it's own. What was the deal with the med students? Did we really need them for the plot? Nope. I would watch this movie again.

Drama, comedy, gore, horror

[rick-m · 6/10 · 5 March 2007]

I almost gave up on this movie, it seemed like a drama going nowhere. After almost getting bored with the minimal acting some action kicked in with unexpected humour. Just when the laughs were rolling it turned into a gory horror movie. I gave it what for me is a pretty high rank just because it was able to switch so quickly and keep my attention. If you got an hour and half of hanging out with some friends who are OK with some gory scenes but are not big fans of movies devoted to gore-genre but want a taste of some gore with some humour thrown in then this is the movie for you . Don't watch for an emotionally enriching experience or to be challenged by the plot.

Certainly no masterpiece but different

[Greatornot · 5/10 · 5 February 2009]

The movie was somewhat slow and I agree with some other posters, that none of the characters were likable.... Though actually I liked Viktor more than the other main characters in this strange triangle.But thats not saying much.Its like saying one likes 8 inches of snow as opposed to a foot of snow. You get my point. The movie did avoid cliché material , which was a good thing. Probably could have used some more gore but it was gory enough. The sound effects when Viktor was doing something to his fingers was spectacular. I wont say anymore about that. The acting, overall was fair. I will point out I liked Kristy Swanson in that part , because it gave one a feeling of realism. She was a bit on the chunky side and it is refreshing to see that in an American movie. I know the Brits are good at having regular folk type people , in the looks department being in their movies. I say give the movie a shot and maybe do some house work with an eye and ear on the movie for the first half hour and buckle in for the last hour.

Living Death

[kairingler · 8/10 · 27 June 2009]

i couldn't help but think of "Buried Alive" when i watched this one,, i like the part where the husband takes his love interest up to the attic,, she is kinky , and well she don't know he's into torture until of course it's too late,, the husband is drunk, uses drugs, pulls guns.. just not a great guy,, so his best friend the lawyer, and the husband's wife conspire to have the husband killed, the lawyer comes up with a toxin , thru a drug connection of his,, they mix it up in his Japanese take out,, he eats it , and bang instant death,, or so we think........ wrong,, doesn't happen he is just temporarily paralyzed, then when he wakes up , he is already being covered over,, and thrown into the ground, by some med students trying to cover up what they had done to him,, operate on a living guy,, instead of a dead one,, so he goes on a killing spree,, i mean wouldn't you be mad if you were buried alive,, scuse the pun.. excellent movie though.

Bland, boring and features very little good moments

[slayrrr666 · 6/10 · 5 May 2008]

"Living Death" is a below-average, yet still somewhat interesting feature.

**SPOILERS**

After his father's death, Victor Harris, (Greg Bryk) rushes home to his wife Elizabeth, (Kristy Swanson) the good news about his rich inheritance payoff. At his birthday party, she decides that she's had enough of his behavior, and plots with her lover, Roman Arbogast, (Joshua Peace) also his lawyer, to kill him so that they can live off his money. Going through with their plans to do him in, he is successfully poisoned and declared dead by the authorities. In the midst of a round of legal battles over what to do with the body, they find out that the drugs that were used may not have been lethal and that he could still b alive. When he regains consciousness, he finds himself buried alive, and remembering what happened to him, sets out to avenge his death before they can find him and stop him.

The Good News: When it tries to, this one has some pretty good stuff to it. It's pretty much just about the few good moments in here that derive most of the film's watchability. The regeneration sequence, which occurs during the autopsy, is one of it's best scenes, as the surgeries done for the autopsy allow for some brutality in all the snapping limbs and torn-open details, and the creepiness of being awake during the procedure is played up and used nicely in here to good effect. Even better is that it leads to one of the better gore scenes around, as there's some nice kills and bloodshed unleashed in the massacre afterward. The opening to the film also works, as the introduction done with the walk-through of the creepy house up into the torture museum is pretty nice, leading to some really nice atmospheric shots, and the tense and creepy torture museum is capped off with a fantastic pay-off. The poisoning scene is pretty great, just with an extra inclusion of the description of the symptoms making it come off rather nicely. The general ease of the situation is merely an added bonus. The ending here is also really great, as the return to the torture museum makes it feel really uneasy, there's plenty of gore to pay-off the dryness of what came before, and with some really tense moments of stalking go before it, and overall is one of the best features of the film. These here are the film's big positive points.

The Bad News: This one here doesn't have a whole lot of flaws, but the ones that are here are pretty big. The main one in here is that, outside of the mentioned scenes earlier, there's nothing at all that keeps the interest level in the film. Far too often it's just deadly dull, as nothing happens, there's no atmosphere or tension or it's a collection of scenes that serve the plot for no purpose. There's simply no need to see the birthday party in here, as the dancing, drinking and poker game provide nothing of interest and are just a collection of scenes that offer up a bunch of time in the film for no real reason. The numerous liaisons between them don't amount to much, and the way that they go about this doesn't offer It's also undone by the fact that the drug isn't slipped until the forty minute mark, so there's a bunch of scenes that are before that which make the film so deathly dull since nothing happens until then which actually gets the plot moving, and once it does, it's another long period before he's up and revived, making for a long, long period of time before the film actually does anything that's worth watching. The fact that the ending to the film is also pretty off, mainly due to how rushed it is. There's a sense that it's over really quickly, and for no reason is there to be so rushed. It just ends really quickly, and there's a sense that it should've been milked more than what's given. That's one of the biggest flaws here, and combined with the dullness really saps the film of most of it's power.

The Final Verdict: With a few isolated scenes here and there that make it enjoyable and a couple of pretty big flaws, there's something here but not a whole lot. Give it a shot if you're interested or just think it's worth a look, but this one really won't mean much if it's skipped or outright ignored altogether.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Graphic Language

Could have been better,Hated the ending!

[reeves2002 · 3 June 2007]

I was really hoping this movie was gonna be better then it was.And the sound quality sucked.It was way too quiet and I had to turn the volume up high,and then without warning it got extremely loud and then quiet again. The description sounded good but the movie was too B rated for my taste.And what was with all the stupid gay remarks,this was unnecessary and wasn't funny.The script sucks whoever wrote it.I especially hated the ending.I was angry Elizabeth (the wife) didn't die.I read that Victor was supposed to hatch a wild plot to destroy and get even with the bitch and her lover,well it wasn't the case.I just hated how the cheating wife did away with her husband at the end.She was also in on the plot against him.Kristy Swanson really annoyed me in this movie and I was waiting for her to also die a gruesome death. It started out almost like a comedy then got interesting,then got demented & gory, and finally ended very bad. It did have it's good moments.I liked the quirky drug dealer.And the scenes in the morgue were funny.Graphically the movie was good with good makeup,but the plot was just bad.It could have been so much better.

the writers should renamed this movie name to "living dumb" because this movie sucks

[oliver-96856 · 2/10 · 10 April 2023]

I Hatred this movie. It was so boring and forgettable i watch this stupid garbage start to finish and it was not fun because the acting was so terrible because it had no like ability or interesting personality to speak off. And the story was uninteresting and not that memorable and the only likable thing i find in this movie was that Victor harris tell the story of torture rack history of start of this movie and the Gore in this movie was ok. But it was not enough to like this movie or call it interesting because this movie was literally pile of garbage. Don't watch it at all. If you want to have a boring time like i do watching it.

Garbage

[gianmarcoronconi · 1/10 · 15 July 2023]

This is not really a review, it should be taken more as a collection of impressions of the film.

I believe that movies like these invalidate the careers of actors because when you act so badly in a movie with such a terrible storyline then your career rightfully has to end immediately. This movie is pure and simple rubbish with a terrible plot bordering on the ridiculous structured with a sequence of scenes each one dumber than the next, watching this movie just results in a terrible waste of time, the only thing that puts the mind down a bit boredom and horror in seeing this film is the acting that is so bad and flat that it makes you laugh in the scenes that should be of high tension.

A Senseless Movie!! Please avoid.

[sauravjoshi85 · 2/10 · 12 January 2021]

Living Death is a horror thriller movie directed by Erin Berry and stars Kristy Swanson, Greg Bryk, Joshua Peace and Kelsey Matheson.

This so called horror thriller has neither has horror nor thrill and is just a pure waste of 1 hour 25 minutes.

The plot of the movie is missing and it seems that the director had made a cocktail of some similar c-grade revenge movie. Acting is very bad and in some scenes it just gets pathetic, screenplay is poorly written and acted. Climax of the movie is senseless and irrelevenet.

Please avoid this movie.

Why is she pregnant?

[catfish-er · 4/10 · 19 June 2008]

WOW, after reading the reviews, I thought this was going to be bad. However, it was even worse. Talk about a bad ending... Why is it that Elizabeth is pregnant? After what happened to him in the attic, are we supposed to assume that Roman lived; and, that they starting a family together? Or, is this some messed-up fairy-tale ending where she lives happily ever after, despite plotting and participating in the poisoning of Victor? I suppose this story is a take on other movies, like Searpent and the Rainbow, Premature Burial; and, the like. However, I just don't think they pulled it off very well. I did like the autopsy scenes; but, they were cut too short.

Not that bad as expected

[witthayu · 7/10 · 25 November 2007]

I thought this was fun to watch.

Not an Oscar movie, but the story was OK and it was surely entertaining.

I just felt to add my comments because the other comments have been so negative.

I have watched much more worse films.

Oh god now they want me to write more about this movie. Well just see it for yourself. It's quite good fun to rent it out on a board night if you have nothing better to watch.

Still they want more lines from me. OK. Go see the movie.

Dude, Where's My Career?

[thebobevil · 6/10 · 23 December 2006]

I agree with the first review, totally.

But I have to remind the previous reviewer that Kristy Swanson was in "Dude, Where's My Car?" and has not totally been off the screens for the past decade.

She does however look ... well, if she were a book, I'd describe her as 'slightly foxed'. Still, she looks better now than she did on the box cover of the 10th anniversary Buffy re-release.

This was a 'blind' viewing for me ... I had no knowledge of the film, other than a glimmer of the plot, and was expecting something of a much lower budget than this ... made for TV perhaps ... so the reason I give it a slightly higher score than the previous reviewer is that it hits a higher level of production value than I was expecting it to.

Pretty good actually. Overlooked great horror thriller!

[nicko252008 · 6/10 · 30 January 2022]

Don't listen to reviews IMDb I think currently in 2022 this movie is rated around a 4.2 I feel deserves a much better rated I gave it a 6 I was teetering on a 7 while I was thinking about the rating. The story follows Victor and his wife. I guess Victor's father just passed away and he's about to inherit an estate and the wife and the lawyer team up to poison and kill him. Victor is not really a likable guy he's actually kind of a jerk, but that doesn't mean he has to die. I really like this movie because i guess his father collected torture devices and in the beginning we see him using this tortre devices on one of his girlfriends. They used some kind of drug to kill victor to which he goes into a paralysis instead of dying and he ends up living and waking up in the autopsy. As morbid as this may sound this is actually a feel-good movie in the sense that when Victor does come back to life he gets revenge on the medical students that we're trying to hide the fact that he was alive and he also gets revenge on that silly lawyer and I was hoping he would get revenge on his wife unfortunately that doesn't happen. She ax's him in the head at the end of the movie, it did feel a bit rushed by was happy to see that lawyer get put on that torture device. One thing I did not like about this movie was the blatant goldfish abuse at the end of the movie did she really have to dump his pet goldfish on him at the end bad enough that somebody spit in his face at a funeral. (I love fish hope it's ok) so besides the Goldfish abuse I thoroughly enjoyed this movie I would recommend it another reviewer mentioned it reminded them of buried alive which I completely agree with him. It was like buried alive, but it was a lot better. I almost fell asleep during buried alive this movie was good throughout so I recommend this and please don't listen to refused way better than a 4. Solid 6.

An Affair, An Attempt and The Retribution

[DeadeGuard98 · 7/10 · 3 June 2020]

😱 First Impressions: I had a hankering for older horror-thriller flicks and wouldn't you guess it!? Found another one, the plot description alone ensnared me and I was wondering why nobody talked about it more. Surely, there must be a reason, so I went in moderate expectations. Fortunately I did because this film will upset your stomach as well as hit the sweet spots!

Pros: 😋 The opening of the film was perfect. The setting up of Victor's character and the exploration of his open relationship with his wife (who surprises him midway through a deadly escapade). Intense because we the audience know all too well about what is about to happen with the first onscreen character in a horror movie... But it didn't! She was only crippled- which segues quite nicely to the lawyer~

😋 The cinematography was somewhat low-budget but it was quite refreshing to see. Especially from the "dead" Victor's POV which is in line with what the audience is told about the neurotoxin used to murder him. The anticipation of when he will rise up again- course obviously he will, is exhilarating despite its predictable nature!

😋 The story is nothing original but it was the first that attempted to kill using a non-lethal poison. The oversight and lack of knowledge in the method of murder is a very human thing to do. It is exactly the repercussions from this, which is very terrifying. After all the thought alone in murdering someone is already a mental load but to have that person come back and they're unprepared? Mindblown....

Cons: 😪 The actors as a whole were not terrible, but I thought the guy portraying Victor was best. He brought out the cynical and psychopath sides very well! Also he looks very familiar, I'll do more research! The rest were just average but still belivable... just!

😪 Now characters- I don't usually point this out because some will naturally shine more than others but not in this one. Nobody (from the main cast, one of the 'good guys') was likeable or rational. Roman the lawyer keeps hiding secrets from the recently widowed (though not for long) who would have benefitted by having more time to discuss what to do next. Elizabeth on the other hand, is understandably paranoid and suspects Roman is cheating even plotting to off her next. They are all self-centered and it made me question who I should be rooting for...

😪 The ending came off pretty lazy. Which a shame because it did very well in the beginning, then a little bit after Victor is resurrected. But by the end, back to the infamous torture device- which becomes overused. Victor even says it himself, sometimes the psychology torment from threatening to use the device is sufficient to instill fear. But the film never did anything remotely as clever as that. Lawyer dies and wife finally decides to retaliate. The pregnant Catherine at the end, what even is that?

😇Verdict😈 Points for the effort behind this microbudget thriller film. The plot is one to remember and a teachable moment to everyone ;). It also brought us one of the most underrated baddies in the early 2000s. But unfortunately, the film hit its peak about 3/4 of the way through due to poor character writing and a questionable ending. Therefore it is easy to see why this film was eventually forgotten... :'(