The Gingerdead Man (2005)

Dir: Charles Band

I have no idea what happened to Charles Band. In the heyday of Empire Pictures, he funded and/or directed some of my favourite 80s genre flicks, from bonafide classics like "From Beyond" to enjoyably puerile trash like "Ghoulies" or "Trancers", so how did it come to this? Did killer alien puppets eat his brain? "The Gingerdead Man" looks like it's made by teen amateurs, rather than someone who's been in the business for over 30 years. It's a cheap, shot-on-video affair about an executed serial killer (Gary Busey) whose ashes wind up, improbably, in some dough mix. Cue a 12 inch killer gingerbread man who can wield a knife, shoot a gun and even drive a car. This sounds like great fun, I know, but the level of gore matches the FX budget (ie: very low), the acting is terrible and the script is clumsy and meandering. Even at a scant 71 minutes, it felt like I was watching this terrible sub-home-movie junk for hours. Avoid. *