Macabre…ish Horror Review: Dead & Breakfast


 

Dead & Breakfast, 2004/ 88 min

 

 

Friends, David (Erik Palladino), Johnny (Oz Perkins), Christian (Jeremy Sisto), Kate (Bianca Lawson), Sara (Ever Carradine), and Melody (Gina Phillips) travel to a wedding in Galveston via RV, for their friend, Kelly (Portia de Rossi). But they get lost on the way and stay the night at a bed and breakfast in a small town called Lovelock.

 

The B & B is owned by the eerie, Mr. Wise (David Carradine) and there is a chef, Henri (Diedrick Bader), who they immediately offend by first urinating in the bushes (David) and then knocking his food to the floor.

 

After turning in for the night, David goes to the kitchen to search for food and since he’s eating in the dark, he totally misses Henri’s corpse hanging on the wall and spatter all over the room. It’s not until Kate walks in and turns on the light that they realize anything is wrong.

 

Mr. Wise also has a heart attack in the next room and so they go looking for help after they discover the phone line down.

 

The next morning the sheriff (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Deputy Enus (Mark Kelly) turns up and blames them for the deaths and the friends are warned not to leave town. Enus later returns announcing they arrested a drifter (Brent David Fraser) for the murder. But the friends still can’t leave because they are now material witnesses. And there’s no plan for the phones to be fixed, in town, until next week.

 

At the police station, the drifter warns Sara and Christian about an ancient wooden box that contains a spirit that possesses who ever opens it, to slaughter whoever else is around. The box was last in Mr. Wise’s possession.

 

Back at the bed and breakfast, Johnny opens the box. The now possessed Johnny goes on a killing spree through town using whatever he can find as a weapon. And all of his victims turn into zombies and he puts various body parts in the box, from his victims, which puts them under his control. Enus is forced to shoot up a dance after Johnny rips off some of his hair and puts it in the box. The sheriff is alerted that Johnny has opened the box and he’s missing and they go to the dance hall.

 

Back at the dance, all hell has broken loose and while the friends try to escape the melee, Christian is decapitated by Johnny. And the now dead towns people are ordered to ‘recruit’ the rest of the town.

 

The friends that are left, board up the b&b with  the sheriff and the drifter, after they realize they can’t leave in the RV because the now zombie Enus, still has the keys. And the drifter tries to explain what’s happening and how it might be stopped. So they arm themselves and wait. As expected the townspeople show up for them.

 

This horror musical was written and directed by Matthew Leutwyler. I really enjoyed the cinematography and the art in this film and the phenomenal cast. This is very gory and in that 80s style. It’s also a comedy and some of the kills are funny. There’s a band, led by a bass player (Evan Helmuth) that randomly breaks out in sequences that could be rap, could be soft rock, could be lounge music and once in a while includes a zombie line dance. Some of the kills are unique and the physical effects are good!

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