Bring Him Back Dead: Louis Mandylor Hunts Gary Daniels

Miss Manners should have had a column explaining how rude it is to keep your gang waiting a long time for their split of the loot. It might have helped mean old Trent. Instead, he keeps his band of armed robbers impatiently holed-up in his cabin while one of them slowly bleeds all over the couch. That allows too much time for complications in Mark Savage’s Bring Him Back Dead, which releases today on VOD.

It was supposed to be an easy score, but the erratic Killian started shooting the guards. Alex nearly killed him himself when they reached the cabin—and Trent sort of regrets stopping him when he arrived. Poor Geoff took a slug in the gut, but he might just be immortal considering how long he keeps moaning on death’s door. Of course, his condition puts everyone on edge when Trent tells them they all have to chill for a few hours, until his buyer arrives.

Alex has other ideas. He knocks everyone out with drugged whiskey, so he can take off with all the loot (he has a more pressing need for it). However, he did not count on Trent’s ex-junkie daughter Lisa coming with him, as a somewhat reluctant accomplice. Of course, he did not knock them out for long, so the hunt is soon on.

BHBD is a grungy but efficient caper-gone-bad movie, but if it had been released in the early 1990s, some critics probably would have hailed it as an indie landmark (not that anyone is saying it is). The best thing going for it is Gary Daniels, who is still in terrific shape. Frankly, it is hard to believe Louis Mandylor’s Trent could go toe-to-toe with him, when you compare their respective physiques, even given Alex’s serious bow-and-arrow wound.

Regardless, Daniels still makes a charismatic (in a steely kind of way) action lead, maybe now more than ever. Mandylor is appropriately grizzled and gristly as Trent, while Katie Keene brings a bit more nuance to Lisa than the typical VOD industry standard. Daniel Baldwin also turns up in a small role, at a critical juncture, but he isn’t given much to work with.

Regardless, there are some decent fight scenes in the film, which obviously plays to Daniels’ strengths. You really have to pull for an action star, still showing off legit chops in his mid-to-late-50s. (Believe me, you truly do.) He really deserves a late-career breakout role. Until then, Bring Him Back Dead is recommended for his fans and audiences of straightforward, unfussy action fare, when it releases today (8/2) on VOD.