Dead Funny

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title: "Dead Funny" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1994-films", "american-drama-films", "american-independent-films", "1994-drama-films", "1990s-english-language-films", "1994-american-films", "english-language-drama-films"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Funny" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox film"]

Field	Value
name	Dead Funny
image	Dead Funny theatrical poster.jpg
caption	Dead Funny VHS cover
director	John Feldman
producer	Richard Abramowitz
Adam Brightman
David Hannay
Robert Marcus

Executive producers: Paul L. Newman Robert E. Baruc David Marlow Nigel Thomas Peter Watson-Wood | writer = John Feldman Cindy Oswin | starring = Elizabeth Peña Andrew McCarthy Paige Turco Blanche Baker Allison Janney Adelle Lutz Novella Nelson Lisa Jane Persky Michael Mantell Ken Kensei Bai Ling | music = Sheila Silver | cinematography = Todd Crockett | editing = Einar Westerlund | studio = Avondale Pictures Movie Screen Ent. | distributor = A-Pix Entertainment Ardustry Home Ent. Astral Films | released = | runtime = 96 minutes | country = United States | language = English

Dead Funny is a 1994 independent drama film directed by John Feldman. It stars Elizabeth Peña as Vivian Saunders, a woman who comes home from work and finds her boyfriend Reggie Barker (Andrew McCarthy) pinned to her kitchen table with a long knife.

Plot

Vivian Saunders (Elizabeth Peña) comes home one day to an unusual surprise: her boyfriend Reggie Barker (Andrew McCarthy) is lying on the kitchen table with a large sword sticking out of his body. At first Vivian thinks this must be some sort of joke, but she discovers that Reggie is indeed dead, and as she calls her best friend Louise (Paige Turco) to figure out what might have happened and what to do, it occurs to her that she blacked out after too much wine the night before and isn't sure what she did before she passed out. After a few phone calls, Vivian's women's support group arrives, and what to do about Reggie soon takes second place to what Vivian should do for herself.

Cast

Elizabeth Peña as Vivian "Viv" Saunders
Andrew McCarthy as Reggie Barker
Paige Turco as Louise
Blanche Baker as Barbara
Allison Janney as Jennifer
Adelle Lutz as Mari
Novella Nelson as Frances
Lisa Jane Persky as Sarah
Michael Mantell as Harold
Ken Kensei as Yoshi
Bai Ling as Norriko

Release

This film has only been released on VHS and LaserDisc format.

Reception

David Nusair of DVD Talk negatively reviewed the film, saying "By the time we find out what really happened to McCarthy's character, it's impossible to care." Time Out also negatively reviewed the film, writing "How did it happen? Who did it? Who cares? Probably not Feldman who seems more interested in shooting his actresses' naked thighs." The New York Times stated that Dead Funny "tries so hard to be ingeniously tricky and ambiguous that it ends up outsmarting itself".

Variety positively reviewed the film, praising Peña's performance.

References

"Mini Reviews (May 2002) - Reviews by David Nusair".
[http://www.timeout.com/london/film/dead-funny Dead Funny] {{Webarchive. link. (2014-03-02 Time Out)
(1995-08-25). "FILM REVIEW; Young Lovers, Their Practical Jokes and a Real Death (Published 1995)".
Eisner, Ken. (1995-05-30). "Dead Funny".

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