Wake the Dead

Without spoiling anything, Wake The Dead definitely moved forward at a nice pace that built to a good ending! I liked the acting, and that it had good female characters. It is Horror, but could also be funny at times. It also played with a couple of old conventions and brought an offbeat humor to them. I got involved with the characters and it was scary, there was also a hint of Fantasy-Horror, especially with one of the characters. It played with the idea of what's reality and what isn't, and it worked.

All in all I liked this film, much better than most that I've seen at this budget level.

While never having ever heard about this 2017 horror movie titled "Wake the Dead", from writer and director Michael Luceri, as I stumbled upon it by random chance here in 2025, of course I opted to give the movie a fair a chance, as I am an avid horror fan after all.

Well, from the very first scene it was painstakingly obvious that this was a low budget attempt at making a horror movie, because the green screen scenes were pretty terrible to look at.

The script felt like a scrambled mess, as if writer Michael Luceri had been randomly scribbling down scenes as they popped up in his imagination and had to piece them together. The narrative felt disjointed and erratic, making it difficult to feign an interest in the storyline. The narrative stooped on in a bland and monotonous pacing.

I was not familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, and that was something that spoke in favor of the movie. The acting performances were generally fair; some of the performers did well, while others not so well.

Visually, then "Wake the Dead" was not a great movie. The effects were quite a mixed bag of nuts; some of the effects were fair, others downright laughable.

Needless to say that the movie's cover was the best thing about the entire ordeal, and it over-sold the movie by a landslide.

If you, like myself, enjoy a good horror movie, spare yourself the anguish of sitting through 84 minutes of this movie. It just simply isn't worth the effort.

My rating of writer and director Michael Luceri's 2017 movie "Wake the Dead" lands on a rather generous three out a ten star rating.

This film begins one night in 1924 with a man forcibly abducting a woman who is walking on a city sidewalk all alone. He then takes her to his house and begins torturing her. The scene then shifts to the present day with a young man by the name of "Dom" (Ryan Ford) buying that same house from a real estate agent and then surprising his fiancé "Kristin" (Nadia Gillespie) with it. That night, although Dom is romantically inclined, Kristen falls fast asleep and leaves him a bit frustrated. The next morning, Dom suggests that she stop taking both anti-depressants and sleeping pills as they might cause hallucinations. However, she firmly rejects his advice and immediately ends the conversation. Not long afterward, five members of Kristen's family arrive to visit and that's when Kristen begins to experience more than just mere hallucinations. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that I thought this film started off really well. Unfortunately, the plot seemed to take a bad turn after about 30 minutes or so and veered completely off the tracks from that point on. It totally crashed and burned. That being said, while it's certainly not the worst ghost film I have ever seen, I would have a hard time recommending this film to other viewers and I have rated it accordingly. Below average.

Quirky, fun, low budget horror film! I found this movie to be a fun, suspenseful watch.

It did a good job mixing comedy and horror in a way that is disarming and keeps the story moving well. I thought that the performances were all believable, the visual style was nicely done too.

I won't spoil anything, but I especially liked the "evil" in the film. It's the iconic type that's creepy enough to see further explored in a sequel or possibly a prequel.

I highly suggest watching this film.

This independent horror film has a lot going for it. It strikes a nice balance of serious spooky, while still acknowledging and embracing some of the silliness that we all love in horror films. Much of the acting was good, especially the supporting cast! Would love to see more from the filmmaker!