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Released by: Full Moon Entertainment
Released on: May 1, 2012.
Director: Charles Band
Cast: Eric Roberts, Jean Louise O'Sullivan, Jessica Morris, Ariana Madix, J. Scott
Year: 2012
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The Movie:
Charles Band's latest offering through Full Moon Entertainment starts in the roaring twenties as a popular silent film actress named Rose Pettigrew (Jean Louise O'Sullivan) throws a party at her mansion. While the guests upstairs drink and chat, in the basement below she and three companions - Sonny Barnes (Eric Roberts), "Tubby" Fitzgerald (J. Scott) and Erik Burke (Robert Zachar) - indulge their kinky side with a pair of nubile and naked young ladies. As their orgy gets underway, they're interrupted by Rose's agent who tells her that her career is basically over. Talkies have come to town and there's no room left for a silent screen starlet anymore. She goes on a bit of a shooting spree and then kills herself.
Fast forward eight years or so and Rose's mansion has remained vacant for decades. Enter Reese (Jessica Morris) and Danni (Ariana Madix), the self proclaimed sexiest real estate agents around. They're here to meet a nameless client who has agreed to buy the aging estate but when he turns up to be a no-show, our foxy friends soon learn the hard way that the ghosts of Rose and her three friends still haunt the building… and they're still really into kinky orgies and stuff.
This one is kind of odd, even by Full Moon standards. It almost feels like two movies crammed into one fairly short feature length running time, but by the time it ends it's all cohesive enough that you probably won't spend too much time thinking about that. The production values aren't half bad in the 20s scenes - the house looks a little more modern than maybe it should but the guests are dressed in period attire and O'Sullivan definitely gets the 'hot flapper' chick look right. Her performance is, like everyone else in this movie, okay. Not great, but okay. She puts some effort into it and the results are better for it. It's odd to see Eric Roberts pop up here, and he does as good a job as he can with the material, never giving less than what the role asks of him. He seems to be having fun in the part, and how could he not? He spends most of the movie surrounded by lovely naked ladies and sometimes wearing cheap (but admittedly fairly cool looking) latex monster make-up.
In the end, this is twisted enough to work and despite the fact that you know very early on in the second half where it's heading, it's entertaining enough. There isn't much in the way of gore but the naked lady quotient is high and the movie was shot with enough style to at least generally look pretty good. Not a new classic by any stretch, but certainly a fun and trashy little movie that fans of low budget genre pictures will probably get a kick out of.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer presents this low budget shot on video production looking about as good as you'd realistically expect it to. While this was obviously made on the cheap the movie is actually quite well shot and as such, we get a clear, stable image. There's a bit of shimmer here and there but detail is alright and the colors look quite good.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track but it gets the job done. This isn't all that immersive a mix but the dialogue stays clean and clear throughout and the levels are well balanced.
There isn't much here in the way of extras but the fifteen minute making of featurette is worth checking out if you want to hear Eric Roberts talk about making this picture and you want to hear J. Scott talk about how he tried to channel Fatty Arbuckle for his role. Aside from that, there's a trailer for the feature and a few other Full Moon features, menus and chapter stops.
The Final Word:
The Dead Want Women turned out to be a lot of good, goofy fun. Don't take it too seriously, you might hurt yourself, but if you're in the mood for some low rent entertainment, check it out. Full Moon's disc is light on extras but it looks and sounds good and while the film is no classic, if you can look past its flaws, it's enjoyable enough for what it is.
