Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust

Regularly amusing and well made horror spoof with Charles Band and some Full Moon Productions buddies in ultimate 'taking the mickey' out of themselves mode. Stand-up comedian K-Von is suitably selfish as a kind of Charles Band head -of-studio who has inherited his father's love of low budget horror films and his studio (cue Albert Band's influence for his son). The Gingerdead Man accidentally finds his way to the studio and causes havoc as would be expected. It is difficult to say much about the film without giving the main jokes away, but for those familiar with Full Moon's output and Band's reputation then this is a hoot. Brother Richard Band provides a good score and some of the most talented Full Moon bunch are involved (think writer William Butler). I suspect that director Sylvia St. Croux is really Band himself and further testament to the sense that he knows how bad he can be (e.g. not paying staff). Ricardio Gill is great in a brief Phil Fondacaro spoof scene (clue: Phil swears about Band a lot). Older British actor Jacob Witkin is almost as good as the similar and great Pupper Master Guy Rolfe (Witkin was actually in 'Puppet Master Legacy'). Kelsey Sanders is an attractive female lead, one-to-watch.

Gingerbread Man 2 (2008) is available for free on Tubi and continues our tale onto a Hollywood movie set where they make...really bad movies. Can the failing movie studio finally do something right and stop the Gingerbread Man or will he be the straw that breaks the studios back? This horror movie is directed by Silvia St. Croix (Corona Zombie) in her first major motion picture. I actually enjoyed that the film didn't take itself seriously across the board - the characters, action scenes and lines all fit the content perfectly, like a comic book in a way. The Gingerbread Man lines were hilarious. The cast was bad but fun and includes Michelle Bauer (Sexual Witchcraft), Michael Deak (Deja Vu), Travis Joe Dixon (NCIS) and Junior Hoang (Watchmen). Overall this is a film you watch for entertainment value, like Killjoy, and keeps you laughing throughout. I'd give it a 5/10.

The sequel nobody asked for, from Full Moon. Despite the lack of Gary Busey I felt this one was a slight improvement over its predecessor, although that really isn't saying much. There's a certain amount of self-referentiality to the production which sees the titular menace turning up at the shoot of a low budget B-movie and proceeding to wreak havoc among the cast and crew. It's inane and cheesy throughout, with cheap gore effects and absolutely horrendous acting: par for the course for Full Moon, then. Incredibly, a further sequel followed before a collaboration with the similar stoner comedy EVIL BONG series.

I basically love any and all movies Full Moon releases, so yea I liked this movie. I like that it was set on at a movie studio - obviously one just like Full Moon.

This was campy fun, with some gore, and a nice stupid twist right at the end. Oh, and it also had a dose of Satanism! Which, for me, anyway is something that is near and dear to my heart. In a way, this whole movie is kind of a spoof of Full Moon productions. It also touches a lot on the whole internet driven movie fandom as well as what its like to run a low-budget movie house. Oh, did I mention there is a crazy gingerbread man running around killing people? That alone makes this 100% of awesome.

If you haven't seen the first Gingerdead Man film (trust me you didn't miss much), you needn't worry the entire thing is recapped in the first few minutes or so of this one. Nope Gary Busey isn't in this one, but he isn't missed much as the Gingerbread man is pretty much a background character in this movie, most of the story is on the satire of the happenings of a Full Moon-esquire studio. Filled with in-jokes and b-movie mainstays both in front and beyond the camera sending themselves up, this film was indeed a cut above the previous one and my preferred film starring the Gingerbread Man of the three that he's been in (he made a cameo in "Evil Bong" as well)

My Grade: C+

DVD Extras: A promo for Full Moon website; Trailer for this movie; and trailers for "Dangerous worry dolls", "Evil Bong", & "Decadent Evil 2"