A bankrupt family are forced to move into an abandoned home in Los Angeles that they have inherited, only to find it occupied by a street gang when they arrive. The gang is ousted, but that doesn't put an end to the conflict. Complicating matters ... the house is haunted. While I admire the attempt to mix two genres here, neither genre is done particularly well. Still ... between the two, there's enough here to keep you moderately entertained. The actor and actress playing siblings in this film seem to forget these characters are related and play them as disturbingly flirty. The only actor you'll recognize here is Todd Bridges, which says volumes about the quality.

i remember when i saw this in the theater with a few of my friends. we were just kids so i pretty much liked this better then than i do today, but having just recently revisited it after a while, i still like it. it's no Halloween or A Nightmare on Elm Street, but Twice Dead is at least competent while some horror flicks of that time (and most of them today) fell flat. Bert Dragin's haunted house/ghost story may not hold together as a whole, but it gives us a solid setup, better performances than most from its genre, a strong visual mood, and a few very bloody, very satisfying death scenes, delivering everything a horror film needs. an extended prologue shows us 1930s actor Tyler Walker hanging himself in the attic of his home just as he's about to be evicted, but the main story takes place in 1988, with the Cates family, good people who've had their share of bad luck. there's mom and dad, older brother Scott (Tom Bresnahan) and his stunning sister, Robyn (Jill Whitlow), trying to get back on their feet after a bankruptcy. bad luck gets worse when they're forced to move into the Walker home, which they've acquired through an inheritance. they find the place to be a dump in a bad neighborhood with even worse company. right as they walk up to the front door, they have to shake off Silk (Christopher Burgard) and his gang of nasty punk sh!theels who've taken to squatting in the Walker house as a hangout. now add in the outstanding factor that Walker's ghost still haunts the grounds...Yeah, these poor bastards already have more than their share to worry about. as they attempt to settle in, Scott researches Walker's history, learning he was a tortured and broken soul. Robyn has a more difficult time adjusting, as she has becomes the object of desire for the switchblade-wielding Crip (Jonathan Chapin), a very mysterious and arguably the most disturbed of Silk's gang. after enduring fistfights, the slaughter of the family cat, and a creepy attempted rape, Scott and Robyn just want to be left alone and even turn to defensive measures (an altogether ludicrous sequence that would be stupid if it weren't so clever and fun). but Silk, all nasty and vengeful, stirs up his sh!t blizzard of harassment and terror, eventually turning things homicidal. that's where Walker's ghost comes into play. to say anymore would ruin the satisfying rampage in the film's last act when Silk briefly gains the upper hand. the body count is actually kept to a minimum, but needless to say, a few cringing deaths are in order and a few (one involving a motorcycle and another involving an electric blanket) definitely get points for creativity, while two other deaths are enough to make you jump. one death even involves the obligatory (and very gratuitous) horror flick nudity from the gorgeous Charlie Spradlin, the slinky sexpot of Silk's gang. the movie relies a lot on its two leads. Whitlow is so damn pretty, we lecherous scum won't be able to think about anything else and Bresnahan is good as her likable brother. Todd Bridges is okay as the only well-meaning character the Cates come across. It's Burgard and Chapin who take the show, the former eating all his scenes while the latter plays it down. all in all, this is a solid movie. there are some loose ends left hanging and some scenes are perfunctory while others just don't belong, but anyone expecting Citizen Kane with this is overshooting. i won't deny that i have some sentimentality on this one, but there are plenty of flicks i hated when i revisited them and this certainly wasn't that. this won't change the world for anyone, but it's entertaining, quick, and not a massive waste of time. worth a look.

The Cates family inherited an old mansion in Beverly Hills from their late uncle Tyler Walker, who was a well-known stage actor. When they get there, they find the rundown place to be overrun by some street punks who want nothing but trouble. After the Cates' teenagers make fools of those punks, they want to make their lives living hell. But also their uncle Tyler's spirit still hangs around the house, and doesn't seems to like the street punks' intrusion.Roger Corman's Concorde churns out an uneven, but well intended low-rent b-horror film that stage an entertainingly weird mixture, where it has the story criss-crossing into campy fields of supernatural and revenge, and then finally combining the two. Everything about it is stereotypical with the usual shenanigans, but director Bert Dragin does a well enough job with his pacing and makes the twisty style unpredictable and always engaging. Limitations don't hold it back, as the competent make-up and special f/x generates some creative and effective moments. It slowly builds itself up, for a crackerjack closing half. Some demented scenes towards the end, are well worth the attention. Sure the technical side of the production might not be perfect (with the boom mike constantly becoming visible), but it was surefooted. Zoran Hochstatter's murky camera-work sometimes had a neat frenetic touch and dreary colour use, and David Bergeaud's simmering music score stewed up some spooky cues to add to the atmospheric urban setting of the grand looking mansion. The gimmicky screenplay by Bert Dragin and Robert McDonnell seems to work, but if you don't take it for what it is. The ludicrous, and somewhat illogical and loose nature might be hard to shake. Also its change in moods, from being broodingly dark to suddenly comically light might be an inconsistent turn off. The script feels one-note for most part, but weaves in some amusing flourishes of dark humour; jaw-dropping dialogues and an oddly unforeseeable twist here and there. The performances are well suited and come across fair. Tom Bresnahan and Jill Whitlow are likable as the siblings. Christopher Burgard chews it up as smarmy gang leader and Todd Bridges shows up in a little part.Junky entertainment, but I wasn't expecting the modest quality that it dished up. Fans of low-budget horror should give it a try.

This movie is so horrid it is hard to put into words.It starts off okay, introduces the characters and sets up the situation. A family moves into a house that is haunted. Duran Duran has turned to the dark side and formed a biker gang.The weirdest biker falls in love with the family's daughter (Jill Whitlow). I don't blame him.After this, the movie starts to disintegrate. The couple leaves their children alone in the house for some reason.The daughter goes out alone, at night, wearing lingerie and yelling "Meow" to attract her cat. The brother gets beaten up very badly trying to rescue her when the bikers get her. He is so badly beaten he can't stand and has trouble breathing, yet there doesn't appear to be a mark on his body.After this the parents leave the kids alone.The bikers invade and try to kill everything. At this point, the film gets the look and feel of a troma film.After the killing, the surviving biker girl comes up and is now best friends with everyone. She provides the missing pieces of the plot.