DEATHBED

Produced by Stuart Gordan and Danny Draven
Directed by Danny Draven
Written by John Strysik
Edited by Danny Draven and Dennis Petersen
Director of Photography - Mac Ahlberg

Karen - Tanya Dempsey
Jerry - Brave Matthews
Art - Joe Estevez
Female Ghost - Megan Mangum
Male Ghost - Dukey Flyswatter

In recent years, DEATHBED Director Danny Draven and actress Tanya Dempsey have become popular Full Moon staples. Draven directed HORRORVISION, CRYPTZ, and HELL ASYLUM, and Dempsey has acted in HELL AYSLUM, SHRIEKER, and WITCHOUSE 3, which while directed by J.R. Bookwalter, was shot by Draven. For both, DEATHBED is a departure from everything they've done for the company to date. It's much more mature and elegant, and hopefully indicative of things to come.

Dwelling on themes of sexual repression, DEATHBED revolves around a haunted bed. Modern theory suggests that ghosts and hauntings are stored energy captured by an event's surroundings. Walls and objects effectively become recorders forever playing back magnetic disturbances created during traumatic events. It stands to reason that an iron bed might retain the energy released during a long dead serial killer's torture and murder of his victims, if the bed is in fact where the murders took place.

From the moment they come across the bed, Karen, played by Dempsey, and her new husband Jerry go through a complete 180 degree turn regarding their sex life. Forever stuck in the missionary position, all Jerry wants is for Karen to take her place in the saddle and get on top just once. She refuses simply because it hurts. Their first night with the new bed results in Karen's inner-sex kitten being unleashed through the spirit of a 1920's flapper. Karen is now more than willing to take the reigns and ride the pony, being the aggressor instead of the passive wife fulfilling her husband's urges. Terry, on the other hand, sees his sexual appetite venture into the negative zone as he takes on the mental physicalities of the murderer and finds that asphyxiation is now a turn-on.

I'm not sure I agree with how the wife is initially portrayed, all doe-eyed, pouty, and weak-willed. She comes across as a victim even before she's victimized. Readers might want to take note and seek out WITCHOUSE 3, Dempsey plays a similar character with much more effective results. My dissatisfaction doesn't have to do with the actress rather than what she's given to do and say, which is mostly to repeat how much she loves her husband.

Once the haunting kicks in, Dempsey takes Karen in a totally different direction, and it works. Frustrated and angry, she's determined to seek out the origins of her otherworldly roommates as her consciousness drifts between her reality and theirs'. It's as if there's residual empowerment from the murdered woman, who while the true victim of the story, is portrayed through Dempsey's re-enactments as a total tigress.

Listening to the commentary as Draven, Producer Stuart Gordan, and writer John Strysik discuss the movies that inspired DEATHBED is more fun than watching the movie. All three are so well-versed in horror lore that one would think they would make a movie more emotionally complex and all-around disturbing than this. Where DEATHBED fails is that it never goes far enough in exploring the parallels between the two couples. Other than the sex and flashbacks, there's no real clues as to who the dead spirits where. The same can be said of Karen and Jerry, two characters we know little about other than their jobs and sex life, and unfortunately can't relate with.

By far Draven's best movie since HORRORVISION, DEATHBED possesses the thematic material to be the best movie Full Moon release since CASTLE FREAK, which due to Stuart Gordon's involvement in production is the reason for its inclusion on the DVD, but DEATHBED doesn't delve deep enough into the character's personal relationships like it's companion film. Perhaps a follow-up film is in order, one that does nothing more than reveal the character's histories, in a much darker taboo-crossing fashion.

Full Moon Pictures
Danny Draven

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