I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)
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27% of critics liked it
(11 reviews) -
76% of users liked it
(190 ratings)
Aris Iliopulos directed this campy comedy utilizing schlock filmmaker Ed Wood's last unproduced screenplay. Stock footage and old hygiene films are intercut with this near-silent story following a cross-dresser (Billy Zane), who escapes from the Casa de la Loco Sanitarium, manages to acquire… More Aris Iliopulos directed this campy comedy utilizing schlock filmmaker Ed Wood's last unproduced screenplay. Stock footage and old hygiene films are intercut with this near-silent story following a cross-dresser (Billy Zane), who escapes from the Casa de la Loco Sanitarium, manages to acquire some money, and then loses it at a funeral attended by eccentric mourners. He then seeks them out, killing them one by one. Some script instructions appear as titles. Bud Cort makes an uncredited appearance, and Wood aficionados can spot Kathy Wood (the filmmaker's daughter) in a walk-on, while Maila Nurmi re-creates her famed Vampira characterization. Larry Groupe's punk score alternates with standards by Nat "King" Cole and others. Shown at the Toronto Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Directed By
- Aris Iliopulos
- Genres
- Comedy
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Sep 13, 1998 Wide
Critic Reviews
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J. Hoberman, Village Voice
Wood's bargain-basement aesthetic is impossible to parody. That this mime show works better than it should is, in a sense, the ultimate dis.
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Anita Gates, New York Times
It's sad and misguided and boring. Pretending to make a pathetically amateurish movie isn't nearly as effective as accidentally making one because you don't know any better.
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James Berardinelli, ReelViews
I can recommend three more enjoyable alternatives: counting the number of hairs on the back of your forearm, practicing breaking a cinder block in half with your bare hand, or submitting to a colonoscopy.
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Shane Burridge, rec.arts.movies.reviews
The budgets of [Wood's] own efforts would have been splurged within the first minute of DIED's title credits
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Phil Hall, Film Threat
As funny as a funeral.
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Cast
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Billy Zane
as The Thief
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Sandra Bernhard
as Sandy Sands
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Ron Perlman
as Cemetary Caretaker
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Tippi Hedren
as Maylinda
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Andrew McCarthy
as Cop
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Will Patton
as Preacher
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Carel Struycken
as Undertaker
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Max Perlich
as Ass't Undertaker
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John Ritter
as Robert Forrest
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Eartha Kitt
as Cult Leader
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Ann Magnuson
as Loan Secretary
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Vampira (Maila Nurmi)
as Vampira
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Christina Ricci
as Teenage Hooker
- Kathy Wood
