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A Look Back At the Haunted Casino Movie; Accuracies and Inaccuracies
The Haunted Casino, later retitled as Dead Mans Hand, was released in 2007 and focuses on Matthew Gragna who inherits a rundown old casino from his deceased uncle.
Matthew, his girlfriend and a group of friends take a road trip to Las Vegas to check out the casino. When they get there they learn that the casino is haunted by the ghosts of a Vegas mobster and his henchmen. Dead Mans Hand was very poorly received among fans and critics alike, even finding itself at the top of IMDB 25 worst movies of 2007. The Haunted Casino/Dead Mans Hand is the 25th in a long line of horror movies by American director, writer and producer Charles Band and has worked with some of leading names in horror such as John Carradine, Jose Ferrer, Sue Lyon, Christopher Lee and Roddy McDowell. You can find out more about Charles Bands various productions at Full Moon Features.
The film contains all of the elements you would expect within a horror film. When the group of friends arrive they explore the casino, of course everything inside is blanketed by cobwebs, the power is out so they walking around in the dark with a couple of faulty torches, but the slot machines still work.
Then they meet the ghosts.
Heading up the ghosts within the Haunted Casino are Sid Haig as Roy the Word Donohue and Michael Berryman as Gil Wachetta. There is a creepy bartender, a cold blonde and a crazed blackjack dealer. All in all there are five ghosts, perhaps symbolism for the five cards in a poker hand.
It soon becomes pretty clear that the ghosts have no intention of letting the friends leave alive, they must literally gamble with their lives. One of the friends meets his death simply for asking for another card when he plays blackjack. You can test your blackjack and memory skills with the all new Blackjack Memory Game from Ladbrokes, we promise nobody will try and kill you if you ask for another card.
The movie has all the blood, gore and special effects you would expect from a typical horror movie, particularly in the final third of the film. With the friends getting picked off one-by-one, its down to Matthew playing poker for his life against the main ghost, Roy the Word Donohue, now that is a very high stakes game of poker indeed. In a gripping back and forth game with everything riding on the final hand.
Black Aces and Black Eights, the infamous Dead Mans Hand.
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