Are We Dead Yet (2019) User Reviews

Ultimately a pointless and semi-confusing mess of a movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 28 September 2020]

I must admit that I was initially intrigued by this 2020 movie's poster/cover, and with a title such as "Are We Dead Yet" (aka "The Living Dead") then of course my interest was more than caught. I do like horror comedies, and this movie looked like it could be fun.

Turns out that writer and director Fredi 'Kruga' Nwaka seemed to be stumbling around in the dark when it came to writing a properly entertaining and coherent storyline. Sure, the movie was watchable, but the storyline was just such a swing and a miss that it wasn't really much fun to watch. And I must admit that several times along the way did the storyline take a turn for the worse. And when it was finally revealed what was really going on with the manor, you just go 'are you kidding?'

"Are We Dead Yet" have a low budget feel to it, but at the same time aspires to achieve greatness. However, the movie just ultimately didn't really manage to do well on that account.

This movie is labeled as a horror comedy, sure. But you have to look long and hard for satisfactory elements of both genres. Trust me.

As for the characters in the movie, well I can't really claim that it was a character gallery that I cared much for. In fact, I wouldn't even be able to name but a single character from the movie now, not even 2 hours after having finished the movie.

I can now tick "Are We Dead Yet" off of the list, and I can in all honesty say that this movie is not one that I will be returning to ever again. I am rating it a mere, albeit generous, three out of ten stars. There are far better and more enjoyable horror comedies readily available out there, and I can't really recommend that you waste your time, money or effort on this one. Some of us did, so you don't have to.

Are we bored yet?!

[Stanlee107 · 4/10 · 30 September 2020]

This British film tries to inject its humour in this movie. It is something a younger Guy Ritchie might have made earlier on in his directorial career. It feels like a film that is out dated and better suited if it had been made over a decade ago for it to be truly appreciated...

i would not like to be there

[ops-52535 · 4/10 · 30 September 2020]

Its a bit off the usual horror comedy style, but it has its scares, and it has its funny moments, especially in the first part, else its a very bad storytelling, and the horrors in the dark, well they stay in the dark, cause the filmcrew hadnt paid the gasbill for light and heat at the filming location. its darn dark and having actors in dark suits and even actors born with dark skin, it aint easy to figure out what'e,what'a,whats going on.

so whats said and done in the dark stays in the dark, the acting have some talent and the slapstick intrusions are good, but not easily for me , the grumpy old man to recommend.

No comedy, no horror

[gc-17365 · 1/10 · 28 September 2020]

Classified as a comedy horror but both are completely missing Bad acting, bad dialogue and bad accents - trying to steal scare scenes (the very few there are) from far better horror movies and failing badly

P.S. when the mic casts a moving shadow take 2 minutes to reshoot the 10 second shot

Listen to the bad reviews

[dale0959 · 1/10 · 16 October 2020]

I watched it all and wish I didn't bother, just stupid and pointless ,

A waste. Of everything.

[volvorod-92131 · 1/10 · 20 October 2020]

This guy tried what Asylum has done for years - trying to get BIG money through CHEAP production, a VERY simple script and CHEAP actors - by using a familiar movie-name. The people behind this movie (apparantly) tried with BOTH "The living dead" and "Are we *dead* yet", an obvious try to cash in on "The living dead"-series and ALSO "Are we done yet?" respectively "Are we there yet?". "Fredi Kruga Nwaka" is a lousy Director/ Writer/ Actor AND a man who is trying to earn big money by doing the "Asylum-trick". You can decide if he will succeed by doing this - or not. One thing is certain - this movie is awful.

dont waste your time

[gamesmaster-99506 · 1/10 · 30 September 2020]

They didn't even try to make a cohesive story line.....

Debs was killed here

[nogodnomasters · 5/10 · 30 November 2020]

Five robbers hide out in the cursed and haunted Drakelaw Manor. The "living dead" are not zombies but ghosts. Some want the curse lifted so they can move on while others think it might be a bad idea.

The film is in the middle of a comedy-horror. It attempts to be funny by creating dumb characters. The horror effects were okay, but the setting canceled out any scare.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity

Seriously Another One With A Name Change?

[wandernn1-81-683274 · 2/10 · 18 February 2021]

Amazon Prime has this called 'The Living Dead'. But yeah here it is on IMDB with a different name. What is up with this nonsense? -1 Star for that right off the bat...

Okay really this is a bad movie... but i made it to the end. 2/10

Some wishes take time

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 13 November 2021]

Horror movies are easy to make - that is a general assumption. And if you take the low budget efforts you can see that it seems that way. On the other hand, while it is "easy" to do them (and cheap mostly), it is not easy to make really good ones. Ones that stay with you long after you've seen that.

I doubt very much that even those who liked this movie, will remember it days after watching it or even go for a rewatch. Having said that, I have seen way worse movies and there is some fun here. Especially with the somewhat witty characters (knowledgeable I reckon would be the better term, when it comes to their horror movies - and quite a few are referenced here). Intentions are good and some will be entertained by this to a degree but for most it probably is something to avoid entirely.

Fantastic, fun blending of genres!

[joemamaohio · 9/10 · 25 October 2020]

What I appreciate the most about horror cinema is the fact that its the easiest genre for an up-and-coming director to direct, and provide a unique vision that's set apart from different genres - in horror, you can make anything if you set your mind to it. Horror can also blend different genres within itself, producing horror/drama, horror/action, and even horror/comedy, which is the route taken by first-time director Fredi Nwaka's "The Living Dead" (also known in the U.K. as "Are We Dead Yet?") - it's not just a horror film, but also blends action and comedy and produces a worthwhile whole.

Madison (Jessica Jane-Stanford), Barry (Aurie 'Styla' Green), Gavin (Paul Danan), Alan (Hakan Hassan) and Parksey (Bradley Turner) are a group of robbers who, after their getaway car breaks down, find themselves in front of a towering castle searching for shelter as the police are hot on their trail. They take shelter in Drakelow Manor, and unbeknownst to them, find that they're not the castle's only inhabitants - it's haunted by a slew of ghosts who've been trapped there for centuries, waiting for someone to find the gold stashed on the grounds so they can finally enter eternal peace - except some of them don't want to leave.

"The Living Dead" refuses to let itself be pigeon-holed into one particular genre, and branches out to different genres to produce something wholly unique, satisfying, and exceptionally fun. Yes, the castle is haunted much like countless other haunted house films, but what sets it apart is the fact that these ghosts have real characterization to them, and don't merely exist to spook the would-be robbers with cheap jump scares. We meet these ghosts and see that they were all once people who unfortunately found themselves as victims on the grounds, whose souls haunt the castle and honestly some have a fun time at it. There's a scene in particular that shows all the ghosts gathered around a long table enjoying a dinner, which again was something I haven't seen in any haunted house movie before, and I was pleasantly surprised by it.

Not only that, but the film is an excellent action caper in the vein of classic Guy Ritchie films, with the five charismatic - albeit bumbling - robbers find themselves drawn to the castle through unlucky circumstances, and must find a way to get off the grounds alive and find the gold hidden within. The banter between the five main actors is enthusiastic, hilarious, and perfectly timed with social commentary and pop culture references, especially from the hilarious Aurie 'Styla' Green, who plays Barry, the only black man in the group. He's the most hesitant to enter the castle because, as he says, "when was the last time you saw a black man in a castle?" He also points back to several films where the black man dies first, and resolves himself that he won't fall under that caricature, and is the most hyper-vigilant of the group.

Fredi Nwaka truly shines in his casting, as the film portrays African Americans as men of nobility who actually founded Drakelow Manor centuries earlier, and along with the founder, several other African American characters found their way to the manor as the years progressed, becoming entrapped in the castle's curse and haunting it with hilarious consequences. Much like the personalities of the ghosts, "The Living Dead" also set itself apart by casting a wide array of multi-cultural actors and musicians to play pivotal roles, proving a unique look into the afterlife of these characters.

Much like other first-time directors, "The Living Dead" has a unique feel to it that you can sense from the screen, a film that was crafted, created, and envisioned by Nwaka and one that was embraced by everyone on screen and behind the screen as well. The makeup designs for the ghosts were spot-on, and you can clearly tell that everyone was having the time of their lives in filming this small gem, which is something very typical for a first-time director's work. The passion, the drive, the careful precision Nwaka put into each scene was wholly appreciated by the cast, and in turn they respected their director by giving it their all in each and every scene. This makes the film re-watachable, as you feel like you're a part of the team as well, enjoying every minute of this totally bonkers, hilarious horror ride.

Offering a unique blend of action, comedy, drama, and horror, "The Living Dead" sets itself apart for a first-time director's production by offering something for everyone, a passion film that is highlighted by fantastic performances, humorous dialogue, tongue-in-cheek comedy, and a deeply emotional drama all wrapped up in an amazing package.

Fredi Nwaka's comic feature debut is a multi-racial, mixed-genre take on the crime caper and the haunted house picture

[nromain1 · 6/10 · 30 September 2019]

Going back at least to Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960), and traceable through films as otherwise varied as Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Stevan Mena's Malevolence (2004) and Dan Bush's The Vault (2017), there is a strand of cinema that sets fugitive criminals on a collision course with the horror genre.

A similar game is played by Fredi Nwaka's feature debut Are We Dead Yet?, in which an incompetent quintet of house burglars - Madison (Jessica-Jane Stafford), Barry (Aurie Styla), Gavin (Paul Danan), Alan (Hakkan Hassan) and their handler Parksy (Bradley Turner) - seek overnight refuge in the isolated Drakelow Manor after a robbery gone wrong. On their way through the woods to the huge house, one of their number receives an Old Man's Warning™ about the place - and very soon all of these not-so-hardcases are having encounters with the manor's many ghostly residents, as they find themselves playing a reluctant if pivotal role in its cursed history.

Are We Dead Yet? is very definitely located at the comedy end of horror, and your enjoyment of it will be entirely dependent on how much tolerance you have for the company and banter of these cheeky chappies (and chapess) as they fart, fight and fail their way through various haunted scenarios. Little of this worked for me, and while some of the more eccentric elements of the plotting - especially the characterisation of its large phantom ensemble - come with a certain novel appeal, these barely add up to a coherent whole.

Rules about the workings of the house are stated, only for different rules to be arbitrarily introduced towards the end, and a wild coincidence (concerning Madison's identity) proves crucial to the film's resolution. It is hard to escape the strong sense that the story was being made up as it went along, even if subplots involving imposture (that require us to revisit and reinterpret what we have seen before) perhaps suggest otherwise.

Where Are We Dead Yet? does come into its own is in the prominence that it gives to black characters, in a genre that has typically excluded, marginalised or rapidly eliminated anyone not white. "We're not supposed to be here," comments the ethnically Afro-Caribbean Barry. "I'm not supposed to be here - when's the last time you saw a black guy in a castle?" It is an entirely fair comment on the history of gothic cinema, but in fact the manor's own history is haunted by a multitude of black personae, going right back to the original Drakelow paterfamilias (Winston Ellis) and his five mixed-race daughters. Barry may have visions of spectral twin girls - but unlike their analogues from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), these identical sisters are black and dreadlocked. In a self-conscious flourish, Barry refuses to be the first to enter the Manor. "I've seen how this movie ends," he says. "I ain't dying first, man, I've seen Scream 2, Ghost, The Unborn." This represents an express acknowledgement of the 'first to die' trope associated with African-American characters in horror.

So Nwaka's film takes advantage of the climate recently created by Jordan Peele's Get Out (2017) to reinvest and refresh the horror genre with black perspectives. It is just a pity that in other respects Are We Dead Yet? is so messily unfocused. The ongoing sub-Ritchie criminal capers never sit well with the more supernatural material - and a greater tightness to the writing would have better served the more original inflections in Nwaka's voice. Maybe in his next feature.

Are We Dead Yet? was seen and reviewed at Arrow Video FrightFest 2019.

What is going on?

[takato0524 · 1/10 · 2 February 2021]

Bad acting alone, I couldn't understand majority of the cast. Perhaps because I'm not British, but mainly because the accent they all had was ugly. Throw in all the "horror" parts in pitch black rooms, and comedy that wasn't funny, and that's this movie.

This movie is actually good.

[tjrarmm · 9/10 · 28 October 2020]

I don't understand why so many bad reviews, this movie is good, the story line is actually good, it is funny the actors are good, makeup fantastic, I have seen it twice, and truly don't understand why people are saying is bad. I truly recommend to watch it.

Digital Dead review

[nromain1 · 6/10 · 27 November 2019]

This year's FrightFest, Britain's largest horror festival, saw the premiere of Brit horrorcomedy "Are We Dead Yet?". This features a gang of lovably inept London criminals on "one last" raid, hiding in a haunted castle to evade the police.

They find themselves in the middle of a curse which needs to be lifted, but finally they find themselves in a New York bar, celebrating their ill-gotten gains. One of the criminals glances up to the ceiling to see the remains of an antique china doll staring at them and realises the curse has followed them - leading possibly to the sequel.

Director Fredi Nwaka said: "It was great to have our film premiere at FrightFest, and get our actors and crew in front of a crowd of horrorhounds. All those freezing night shoots in castles last year was worth it to hear the applause and questions we got at the end of the screening!

"It's not a traditional horror comedy in that it features serious actors as well as musicians, social media influencers and comedians. The black culture generally have very little to do with the horror genre and 'duppies' (ghosts) as we call it so I wanted to play on this.

"People wanted to know will there be an "Are We Dead Yet?" sequel and what we are going to shoot next -- it was great to get so much positive feedback. It inspired me to start writing my next horror!"

A fun Horror

[cindycfh-26064 · 8/10 · 30 October 2020]

I love the fact it's British, it's a horror and it's funny. It's not often you find that combo so watching this is worth it.

Highly recommended

[JulianLavanini · 9/10 · 9 February 2021]

A great chill out film, full of comedic and horror action. Thanks Fredi, I'm looking out for your other.