‘You only have one life to lead… but there are many ways to die…’
Death Warmed Up – aka Death Warmed Over – is a 1984 New Zealand science fiction horror feature film directed by David Blyth (Ghost Bride; Wound; My Grandpa is a Vampire; Red Blooded American Girl and sequel; ) from a screenplay co-written with Michael Heath (My Grandpa Is a Vampire; Next of Kin). The movie stars Michael Hurst, Margaret Umbers, William Upjohn, Norelle Scott, David Letch, Geoff Snell and Gary Day.
Australian company Umbrella Entertainment released Death Warmed Up on Blu-ray for the first time ever on April 3, 2019 with the following special features:
- Audio commentary with Director David Blyth and Writer Michael Heath
- I’ll Get You All: Interview with actor David Letch
- Deleted/Missing scenes with optional audio commentary
- Original New Zealand 4:3 VHS cut
- Interview featurette with David Blyth and Michael Heath
- Theatrical trailer
- VHS Trailers
- TV Spot
- Image gallery
Plot:
Locked away in a psychiatric hospital for the murder of his parents, no one believed Michael Tucker when he told them he was programmed by a genetic surgeon. Released into the world, he wants revenge.
Doctor Archer Howell has been experimenting on humans at Trans Cranial Applications, drilling the skulls of his patients and injecting drugs into their brain to create psychotic killing-machines. Isolated on an island and left to his own devices, Doctor Howell is about to have a deadly visitor…
Reviews:
” …most of the film makes zero sense (especially toward the end), but who needs plot when you basically throw a bunch of teens headed by an albino dreamboat and sadistic mutants together in a psychedelic hospital? Recommended alone for the brain surgery scene with the team of sexy nurses, Death Warmed Up has got the early ’80s horror juice that just keeps on giving.” All Movie
“The ugliest, most repulsive movie made in New Zealand.” Cue magazine
“If you enjoy madcap B-movie splatter films in the vein of Peter Jackson’s early stuff I think you’ll find a bunch to enjoy here, just don’t expect the Citizen Kane of splatter films, this is a strictly lo-budget affair with on-the-cheap effects and a visible boom mic, but it’s fun, fast and wonderfully demented.” McBastard’s Mausoleum
“The film is highly inventive in its enterprising low-budget and looks and moves far more slickly than many American counterparts on similar budgets. There are some inventively el cheapo costumes and corrugated tin sheet hospital sets […] Particularly noticeable is the absence of anything remotely resembling a plot or rational imposition of narrative.” Moria
“Everything they could think of seems to have gone up on the screen, but no one seems to have been too concerned with making it all fit together. So you won’t be bored — there’s too much going on for that. Just don’t expect it to make much sense.” Rivets on the Poster
Cast and characters:
- Michael Hurst … Michael Tucker
- Margaret Umbers … Sandy
- William Upjohn … Lucas
- Norelle Scott … Jeannie
- David Letch … Spider
- Geoff Snell … Jannings
- Gary Day … Doctor Archer Howell
- Bruno Lawrence … Tex
- Ian Watkin … Bill
- David Weatherley … Professor Tucker
- Tina Grenville … Netty Tucker
- Nathaniel Lees … Jackson
- Karam Hau … Berry
- Jonathan Hardy … Ranji Gandhi
- Norman Fairley … Barman
- Eva Radich … Sister Scott
- Judy McIntosh … Duty Nurse
- Ken Harris … Janitor
- Melissa Miles … Nurse
- Rebecca Saunders-Smith … Nurse (as Rebecca Saunders)
- Donna Oldmall … Nurse (as Donna Oldnail)
- Julie Cooper … Nurse
- Michelle Yates … Nurse
- Dianna Guthrie … Nurse
- Rochelle Lawrence … Nurse
- Deborah McKinlay … Nurse
- Rochelle Drumm … Nurse
- Angela Needham … Nurse
- Erna Larsen … Nurse (as Erina Larsen)
- Victoria Bogle … Nurse
- Betty Wok … Nurse
- David Parry … Milkboy
Filming locations:
Auckland and Waiheke Island, New Zealand in late 1983.
Technical credits:
85 minutes
