Directed by
Erin Berry
Written by
Leo Scherman
Cast
Kristy Swanson ………. Elizabeth
Greg Bryk ………. Victor
Josh Peace ………. Roman Arbogast
Kelsey Matheson ………. Melanie
Vik Sahay ………. Steve
DVD Release Date: December 12, 2006
Running Time: 84 minutes
Unrated
The Movie
Fresh off a stint on Fox’s ice skating reality show, the voluptuous Kristy Swanson stars in Living Death, a recent entry from Cutting Edge Films, the company which brought you such classics as UKM: Ultimate Killing Machine. Swanson plots to poison her rich, spoiled, BDSM-obsessed, Halo-playing husband, Victor, with the help of his lawyer/her paramour (Josh Peace). Unfortunately for them, they use pad Thai spiked with blowfish toxin, resulting in a Victor who is only mostly dead. Several teased autopsies, one funeral, three ambitious med students and some spilled viscera later, Victor is back to have his revenge on Buffy Classic.
All in all, Living Death is a surprisingly entertaining flick, with competent direction and a decent amount of actual information on poisons and historical torture techniques. Greg Bryk has a lot of fun playing the slimy, id-ruled Victor. Swanson is a little weak, but generally the acting in the film is passable. None of the characters are particularly likeable, but somehow the movie makes that work.
Imagine HBO’s Tales from the Crypt mashed together with USA’s Silk Stalkings. If that description makes you feel at all nostalgic, you’d probably enjoy this flick. Living Death feels a lot like that, despite not being a ’90s cable show.
The DVD
The disc doesn’t have any alternate audio tracks or subtitles, but there is a fairly entertaining Making Of featurette which runs about 20 minutes (although too much of that time is spent recapping the flick). The DVD contains some trailers as well, but that is it.
