Horror Movie Review: Death Bed: The Bed That Eats (1977)

Feeling a bit sleepy? Feeling like a nice lie-down in a comfy bed would be just what you need? Well, whatever you do don’t sleep in the death bed, it will eat you alive!

As B-movie horrors go Death Bed: The Bed That Eats might be one of the corniest & laughable ones I’ve ever seen yet it has a charm about it that makes for an interesting watch.

The movie opens with the sounds of a large 4-poster bed snoring & grunting while a man complains about being stuck behind a panting on the wall. To say I was confused might be an under-statement but the sound effects are incredibly amusing. The bed wakes up with a yawn as a young couple approach the abandoned house that holds the bed.

They get in it & start fooling around while the bed helps itself to the apples & wine they brought before it turns its attention to them. They sink into the bed to be digested in the beds stomach fluids while the man behind the painting teases & mocks the bed for killing its only chance to get out of the basement.

You see long ago a demon fell in love with a woman, turned itself human & had sex with her on the bed. She died in the process & the demon, heart-broken cried tears of blood onto the bed turning it into the monster it is now. Over time the bed has killed every owner & user except for the man behind the painting who it condemned to immortality watching from behind.

The bed is used to having its way with all guests who arrive until 3 women turn up & find it. One of the women in particular scares the bed as she bears a resemblance to its mother, who died during the night of passion with the demon.

Unwilling to let her leave she is trapped until her brother arrives having been looking for her. Will they escape the beds evil plan or will they just end up as another meal?

One of the only impressive things about Death Bed: The Bed That Eats is the dream-like surreal nature of the film. The internal conversations, the narration by the man behind the painting & the way in which the bed feeding is filmed creates a really enjoyable atmosphere.

The story, particularly the demon stuff & associated flashback scenes are pretty interesting & make it seem more fable-like. It does mean though that the film takes on a more serious tone, something that inevitably hampers the enjoyment of a bed that eats people.

It is a pretty dire movie overall as the acting alone will see shudders running through you, cringe-worthy almost all the way through with more wood in dialogue delivery than your average forest. Throw in the awful effects that mark it out as super-low budget & you’ve got a movie that could have been so much more.

The biggest problem with Death Bed is that it doesn’t seem to know what kind of movie it wants to be. Artsy at times, flashes of gore, tongue in cheek bed sound effects & deeper than expected storyline yet it’s a horror about a bed that eats! Perhaps it shouldn’t have taken itself so seriously…