The Dead Sleep

Sorry for the lack of update last weekend, but I've been out these past couple weekends living stories that would make you call "bullshit" if I told them to you faster than you would over... well, over the plots of these movies.  Anyway, since nobody reads this anyway, it probably doesn't matter that I'm half a week late.  But yeah, there'll be one this weekend as well so things'll be back on track.  As for this review... well, take a look:
We open with a guy talking to himself in the mirror after having slit his wrists. Then what I assume is a flashback to earlier since he's alive and his daughter waking him up. The daughter kinda looks like I've seen her in something else (something better than a movie on a “Midnight Horror Collection Vol 3”; we'll have to wait for the credits). Oh, hey, turns out she's got some burn scars on her back. That's probably going to be relevant later. Also, the guy kinda looks like James Spader and, when I get drunker, I might start to call him James Spader... so I'm just going to start doing that now. James Spader and his wife seem to be having some marital troubles, but after the daughter and wife leave for school and work, he sees a note she left saying “I still love you”. So that's nice.

So far the acting hasn't been that bad and the film-making is pretty top notch compared to the others so that's a plus.

Hmm, there's some conflict James Spader and his buddy from work seem to have gotten involved in. By the sounds of it they're embezzling money from their company. My mistake, turns out it's just James Spader that's been stealing and his friend's just been drawn into it because the boss came after him first. I have a drink to celebrate how much better this one is starting out than the others. Then another because I remember Backwoods Bloodbath starting out with potential too. Turns out James Spader still has most of the money he stole so they've come up with a plan for him to pay it back. Also, by the sounds of it, he only stole the money to pay for help with his daughter's recovery.

Now his boss (who may be connected to the mob somehow) has come over to his house to threaten James Spader and also to mildly creep on his teenage daughter (the boss is only 25 and she's 16 so... yeah, still creepy). It leads to an odd discussion about fish being smart if they jump out of their bowls and commit suicide. Now the problems with the wife come out again as she starts to suspect something.

Looks like this isn't a flashback after all (if you read the description of the movie beforehand you get why this is the case) since James Spader has started to get random headaches with screeching sounds, is starting to randomly write words backwards, and just saw his wrist covered in blood as he was sitting at dinner. He then has a conversation with his daughter about 'The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe' where she says “when you're dead, you're dead. You shouldn't come back” so that's a bit of foreshadowing, no doubt. On a side note, the daughter was the one that said fish were smarter than other fish if they know enough to jump out of their bowl.  Just saying, there's a bit of a trend in her thought pattern.  Another argument with the wife, then his work buddy calls and they meet for a drink so his buddy can tell him where the boss wants him to bring the money. Oh yeah, the money's all cash and the boss doesn't want it to be brought back at the office so they're meeting up outside somewhere at noon the next day.

This movie is less fun to make fun of than the other ones. It's actually pretty decent so far. Not sure if I'm disappointed or impressed. The camera work is a little bad in a couple chase scenes here, but if that's the worst part of the movie, that's saying something.

Now things start to pick up the pace a bit. All of a sudden he's back waking up in bed and he's beginning to randomly see his daughter bleeding (first from a major head wound, then straight from the eyes). Also, he's disoriented and remembering things differently, or flat out wrong, from what other people are telling him happened. There's trouble afoot.

I just realized how creepy 'Row Your Boat' is when a bunch of strangers on a bus are staring at you and suddenly start singing it for no reason. I need to get some people together to do this to someone. Even creepier, though, is when a lady with a bandage over her eye comes up to you right after that and says “excuse me: you're going to have to kill yourself, you know?” ...That part I may skip when doing this in real life.

This is odd. He brings briefcases to put the money in when he's already got the money in a case in the locker. A little sloppy, guys, but they need the scene to show he's got a gun as well, I suppose. Also that he's keeping a couple bundles of the cash rather than giving it all back. There have been worse scenes in bigger budget movies; I'll allow this.

This is actually fairly good preparation. He stuffs the gun and the cash he's keeping up under his house, carves a heart into the siding, and mails a letter with (I assume) instructions of where to find it to his family in case something goes wrong with the exchange. Not bad since it looks like something is definitely going to go wrong since his boss just pulled a gun on him and put a pre-written suicide note on him. Oh damn! Looks like there was no money in the suitcase. A shame the whole “running away” didn't work for him after that 'cause now the boss is pouring a bunch of gasoline to drown him in. This 25 year old is pretty bad-ass, he's even got his speech as he's killing a guy down to an art.

James Spader wakes up. As a ghost now since he can't talk to his daughter. And then the boss shows up to help console her. It's not as creepy as that sounds except that you know he's the one that killed her dad. Looks like his work buddy isn't exactly human either since he's here to help James Spader change things (I assume). The boss basically tells his henchman he'll kill James Spader's daughter himself if she finds out anything, even though it's been five years since James was killed and then the buddy gives an explanation of what they are and what's going on.

In case you hadn't guessed, it's not just the bundles he originally took that are under the house, it's all the money and the instructions where left with his lawyer to give to his daughter when she turned 21. That “five years later” bit also makes the boss probably banging James Spader's daughter now a bit more acceptable... so long as you ignore that he killed her dad.

Some more explanation of what's been going on after his death when they go visit his wife, and a nice little “we can explain not having to pay for a bigger cast” in that apparently, after you die and don't move on, you only see “loved ones, the people that matter”. Well played. Honestly, all kidding aside, aside from a couple minor details, I can't really find too much fault with this one so far. I'm not sure why this movie was included in a pack with crap like Zombie Dearest. Also, have to backtrack on the James Spader thing. Doesn't look much like him at all. Still going to call him that for the rest of the review, but don't take that too literally.

Actually, I'm just going to end the review here. A bunch of stuff's been going on (including a bit of bad acting, it's really a shame since up till now it's been pretty good), but on the whole it's good enough that I can't enjoy reviewing it like the others. This one I actually recommend people watch. Hell, so long as nothing happens at the end to ruin this, this one alone is worth the $5 for these movies.

Nope, nothing ruined it. They tied up everything that I can remember, made a pretty damn good ending, and all and all, made a movie that people should see. I kinda feel cheated in that I didn't even drink that much while watching this, but that's what the second disk is for.

Oh, by the way, the daughter was played by Sarah Foret and the name doesn't ring any bells so I guess I just mistook her for someone else. You know, in case that was really bugging you or something.