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If I Die Before I Wake
List Price: Unknown [Buy now and save at Amazon]
A few years ago, some friends of mine and I watched "Fear" on the Fuzzy Campus Movie Channel™, expecting a goofy thriller with Mahky Mahk overdramatically bellowing, "If I can't have you, nobody can!" Although our expectations were pretty on-target, we were all a bit surprised by the tension and genuine excitement generated by the scenes where the Funky Bunch have Mahk's would-be lover and her family trapped in their house, removed from the outside world and forced to fend for themselves. "If I Die Before A Wake" is sort of like those final reels expanded to feature-length and cranked up to eleven. "I Know What Your Breasts Did Last Summer" alumni Muse Watson is the backwater Daryl, who, with his two backwater brothers, spot a pleasant-enough looking home in an Ohio suburb, and seeing as how it's the last house on the left, Daryl and his kinfolk reckon it's high-time for some re-enactin'. Little do they know (I could stop the sentence here) that such easily-incapacitated parents could produce a plucky, resourceful kid like Lori Beth (Stephanie Jones), who's learned enough from "Home Alone 3" and "Hints From Heloise" to grab ordinary household items and exact revenge against her attackers so she can rescue her little sister and the rest of her loving family.
"If I Die Before I Wake" is as relentless as it is derivative, making for a taut and suspenseful, if unoriginal, thriller. The acting, particularly from lead Stephanie Jones, is a cut above similar exploitation flicks from decades past, and writer/director Brian Katkin has clearly immersed himself in enough of these sorts of films to know what works and what doesn't. Whereas other thrillers offered maybe twenty minutes of suspense and an hour of padding, Katkin strips the film down to the absolute bare essentials, featuring wall-to-wall action for its brief hour-fifteen runtime. "If I Die Before I Wake" isn't nearly as sleazy as grindhouse revenge flicks like "Last House On The Left", "Death Weekend", or "Naked Vengeance", with the most brutal moments largely obscured or occurring off-screen. Still, the film owes more to that sort of 42nd Street tradition than the glut of one-note direct-to-video thrillers that flooded rental shops in the mid-'90s. Anyone who thought the claustrophobic scene in "Halloween 5" with Danielle Harris shimmying up the laundry chute made the rest of that largely-uninteresting movie seem worthwhile will probably enjoy "If I Die Before I Wake".
Video: I was surprised that a peek at the IMDb entry for "If I Die Before I Wake" lists it as a '98 release. The slightly muddy, grainy image looks more like a 16mm cheapie shot a full decade earlier, but that rough-around-the-edges quality suits the film well, even though "If I Die Before I Wake" early on isn't much different than watching a movie through a screen door. This is presumably how the film has always looked, and Artisan's presentation seems accurate enough.
Audio: The stereo surround audio does an excellent job of heightening the tension. Sounds effects are full, and the score never drowns out the almost-always discernable dialogue. Some very light hiss seemed to be present, though it's rarely noticeable. More or less average.
Supplements: Trailers and cast bios.
Conclusion: "If I Die Before I Wake" is an above-average, unrelenting thriller that would make for some solid weekend viewing during one of those lulls where no interesting horror movies hit DVD. Since we seem to be in one of those now, "If I Die Before I Wake" is recommended.
"If I Die Before I Wake" is as relentless as it is derivative, making for a taut and suspenseful, if unoriginal, thriller. The acting, particularly from lead Stephanie Jones, is a cut above similar exploitation flicks from decades past, and writer/director Brian Katkin has clearly immersed himself in enough of these sorts of films to know what works and what doesn't. Whereas other thrillers offered maybe twenty minutes of suspense and an hour of padding, Katkin strips the film down to the absolute bare essentials, featuring wall-to-wall action for its brief hour-fifteen runtime. "If I Die Before I Wake" isn't nearly as sleazy as grindhouse revenge flicks like "Last House On The Left", "Death Weekend", or "Naked Vengeance", with the most brutal moments largely obscured or occurring off-screen. Still, the film owes more to that sort of 42nd Street tradition than the glut of one-note direct-to-video thrillers that flooded rental shops in the mid-'90s. Anyone who thought the claustrophobic scene in "Halloween 5" with Danielle Harris shimmying up the laundry chute made the rest of that largely-uninteresting movie seem worthwhile will probably enjoy "If I Die Before I Wake".
Video: I was surprised that a peek at the IMDb entry for "If I Die Before I Wake" lists it as a '98 release. The slightly muddy, grainy image looks more like a 16mm cheapie shot a full decade earlier, but that rough-around-the-edges quality suits the film well, even though "If I Die Before I Wake" early on isn't much different than watching a movie through a screen door. This is presumably how the film has always looked, and Artisan's presentation seems accurate enough.
Audio: The stereo surround audio does an excellent job of heightening the tension. Sounds effects are full, and the score never drowns out the almost-always discernable dialogue. Some very light hiss seemed to be present, though it's rarely noticeable. More or less average.
Supplements: Trailers and cast bios.
Conclusion: "If I Die Before I Wake" is an above-average, unrelenting thriller that would make for some solid weekend viewing during one of those lulls where no interesting horror movies hit DVD. Since we seem to be in one of those now, "If I Die Before I Wake" is recommended.
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