Director(s): Charles Band (Decadent Evil, Doll Graveyard)
Writer(s): Domonic Muir (Decadent Evil)
Starring: Gary Busey
The Gingerdead Man has been in development at Full Moon for more than half-a-decade. Stuart Gordon was actually once attached to direct it. But when your company goes kaput and you have to start all over, Stuart Gordon winds up out your price range, so you have to go back to the basics. Charles Band, who is of course the owner of Full Moon Pictures and Wizard Entertainment, directed this as a result. And while I’ve heard praise for it from three different people since its release a couple weeks back, I found it to be even worse than Decadent Evil. This makes it the worst of the three films that Band has directed after reforming Full Moon.
Once again clocking in at sixty-one minutes or so after you subtract the end and opening credits (which look fantastic by the way), Gingerdead Man attempts to replicate the success of the Child’s Play and Leprechaun films. Bringing in Gary Busey for a day to play a psychopathic killer who murders the brother and father of one Sara Leigh during a diner robbery, Band proceeds to resurrect a dead Busey as a killer gingerbread man. The John Carl Buechler-created-Gingerdead Man, who spouts off some one-liners that were recorded by Busey in post-production, then hunts Sara Leigh, her drunk mother, and various other victims in a bakery after hours.
Not that b-movies are expected to make much sense, but let me pose this question. The Gingerdead Man is brought to life thanks to a special mix brought to the bakery by Busey’s hooded mother. Only it seems the resurrection occurs simply because the dorkish boy who works in the shop accidentally bled in the mix. Would the Gingerdead Man only have come to life if blood got in the mix? If so, that’s a pretty stupid plan, seeing as how blood getting into a gingerbread man mix is a rare occurrence. Or at least I hope that’s the case. Maybe writer Dominic Muir used to work in a bakery and ritualistically drain his wrists of blood into the mixer on a daily basis to relieve tension. You never know.
I just didn’t like The Gingerdead Man. Gary Busey is awesome and all, but there’s two things wrong here. First, the material he was given to read is weak. And second, Busey recorded all of his dialogue in less than an hour because he met a woman who wanted to screw him at the recording studio (seriously). Thanks to both of these factors, the Ginderdead Man is definitely no Chucky.
The majority of the cast members are quite good, so kudos to them. As was the case with Doll Graveyard, Band has a good knack for finding non-union talent who know they’re not exactly making art.
This really should’ve been fantastic, but sadly, it’s far from it.
DVD: The big plus is a fantastic behind the scenes piece that includes the original Gingerdead Man footage from 1999 or so that used a CGI Gingerdead Man, a special effects segment with Buechler, and a lingering shot of Charles Band looking like he’s one more production problem away from choking someone. There’s also a nice little message from Charles Band.
