Inside "Death Bed," the campy Metro Detroit horror movie that reawakened
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It's a terrifying tale of a bed that swallows people.
It was lost to the ages — or so its local creator thought — but reemerged as an underground success decades after being shot.
It's the campy horror film "Death Bed: The Bed that Eats."
Why it matters: The strange story behind George Barry's "Death Bed" is a perfect fit for Detroiters on Halloween.
- The film was shot in Detroit, Highland Park and Birmingham on a shoestring $10,000 budget around 1972-77 — starting while Barry was studying at Wayne State, per a 2004 Free Press article.
- Once editing finished, Barry of Royal Oak tried to sell the horror movie for distribution but couldn't land a deal.
- Barry went on to become a bookseller and died last November at age 73, per an obituary.
The intrigue: In the early 2000s, Barry looked online on a whim and discovered "Death Bed" had somehow been pirated. Not only that, but it had become an underground hit in England in the '80s with a "small cult following," the Free Press wrote.
- Since then it's been screened in theaters in the U.S., including locally, and released on DVD.
What he said: "I observed the discovery of the film like a dream. I feel sometimes like I'm not a part of it," Barry, who was retired and enjoying time with family, told Metro Times more than a decade ago. "I'm glad that some people like the movie, and I don't mind if some people laugh and they think it's terrible."
- On the piracy, Barry said it wouldn't have been viable to sue the English label that released "Death Bed," but he wished the bootlegger had told him.
Details: The movie follows a gothic four-poster bed that got cursed by a demon's bloody tears and became sentient. Filled with yellow digestive acid, it sucks in unfortunate folks and chomps up their bodies noisily.
- Shooting locations included the famous mansion built for inventor Gar Wood on the east riverfront's Grayhaven Island. It became a "rock 'n' roll commune" and hosted Van Morrison and the Allman Brothers before eventually being struck by lightning and destroyed.
💠Annalise's thought bubble: While the plot is tough to follow, the unrated and disturbing "Death Bed" is entertaining. It's filled with dreamy fantasy elements and creative special effects. It has hilarious moments — the skeleton hands part stands out — and it's fun to try to suss out where scenes were filmed.