Horror Movie Review: The Gingerdead Man (2005)

There are some films that you just have to shake your head & laugh…The Gingerdead Man. A horror film about a homicidal maniac re-animated inside a Gingerbread Man. It’s quite something…

In a small diner in Texas a madman, Millard (Gary Busey) is holding a family hostage. The father tries to reason with the man but is gunned down for his troubles. Millard then shoots the boy of the family but leaves the daughter & mum alive.

The man is caught & sentenced to die in the electric chair all thanks to the daughter he left alive in the diner, Sarah.

Much time later the 2 survivors of the shooting, mother & daughter now run a small-town bakery. It’s not in a good way as the mother has become a drunk & across the road a rival bakery is attempting to put them out of business.

Sarah sends her mother home with one of the employees, Julia & agrees to let the other, Brick go to Wrestlepalooza where he will take part as The Butcher-Baker. Yes, he says that with a straight face…

Before he goes though he mixes up a batch of dough using a spice mix that turned up at the door mysteriously, he then cuts himself & bleeds into the dough mix. Sarah is unaware of this as she makes a big Gingerbread Man out of the dough & puts it in the oven to bake.

After getting into a scuffle with the rival owners daughter an accident causes an electrical surge turning the baked Gingerbread Man into a Gingerdead Man. He breaks out of the oven & begins a murderous rampage through the bakery while spouting off way too many puns.

It’s safe to day that The Gingerdead Man is not a movie that takes itself seriously at all & is best to watch it with this in mind. The dialogue is so hammy at times its borderline painful such as anytime The Butcher-Baker speaks. Seriously his face-off against the Gingerdead Man near the end is excruciatingly bad yet there is something very entertaining about it.

Gary Busey doesn’t have to do much as the voice of the doughy psycho but the puns that pour from his mouth are amusing. The Gingerdead man does look pretty cool & the up close bits show a nasty snarling face removing any semblance of cute from the iconic Gingerbread Man.

The violence & gore isn’t too over the top sadly with only a knife to head really standing out as memorable death. A lot of the film is unremarkable & the side story about rival businesses seems to have been in place just to add more fodder for the Gingerdead Man to kill.

A sequel-bait ending is of no surprise for a movie like this. It has franchise written all over it. Entertaining mostly but drags in some places & won’t live long in the memory.