I Woke Up Early the Day I Died

1998

1 hr. 29 min.

Comedy

List

27%

11 Reviews

Tomatometer

48%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A cross-dressing sanitarium escapee (Billy Zane) stalks and dispatches eccentric mourners he saw at a funeral.

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Steve D

Completely amateurish despite the cast.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/24

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Audience Member

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.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Audience Member

I like the ideal of telling this story visually. Having the actors go full pantomime with a pulp fiction Edward D Wood jr. script, gives this film quite a unique feel.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/28/23

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Audience Member

Had it been played it straight rather than for high camp, it might've worked. Comes off like lukewarm John Waters but still, some interesting bits.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

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Audience Member

One of the best frakkin movies I've ever seen. Saw the premiere at the Toronto Fil Festival years ago.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

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Audience Member

I've never seen a filmmaker so proud of himself for making crap as when I saw this at TIFF. The wonderful thing about Ed Wood was he was genuinely trying to make a good film whenever he made a turkey, and it really showed and made his films really endearing, almost sweet. This turkey is made by a bunch of people who think they're better than the material... guess what, they're not.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

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Aris Iliopulos

Director

Billy Zane

The Thief

Sandra Bernhard

Sandy Sands

Ron Perlman

Cemetery Caretaker

Tippi Hedren

Maylinda Austed

Andrew McCarthy

Maylinda Austed

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Owen Gleiberman

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: F

Sep 7, 2011

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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.

Apr 3, 2001

Full Review

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.

Rated: 1.5/5

Apr 3, 2001

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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

Nov 14, 2007

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Phil Hall

Film Threat

As funny as a funeral.

Rated: 1/5

Dec 4, 2003

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Cole Gagne

Film Journal International

Nothing could be more lethal to a Wood script than actors who not only think they're hipper than what they're trying to do, but who also make sure that the audience knows it.

Apr 3, 2001

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Synopsis

A cross-dressing sanitarium escapee (Billy Zane) stalks and dispatches eccentric mourners he saw at a funeral.

Director: Aris Iliopulos
Executive Producer: Jordan Gertner, Bradford L. Schlei
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Box Office (Gross USA): $863