Friday Night Frights: Dearly Departed DVD Review

Dearly Departed Volume 1 is a virtual sightseeing trip around Hollywood not to see the homes of the stars but rather to visit the sites of their passing. Scott Michaels is the guide and he really knows his stuff. Armed with a folder of death certificates and information he sets off with the cameras rolling to point out these somewhat macabre locations to the viewers.

The dvd starts things off with a tour of the house of actor Albert Dekker, who died in the act of erotic asphyxiation in his bathtub. Apparently the new renter was unaware of the history but was suprisingly nonplussed at the vivid description. This was one of the more engaging moments in this documentary but there are quite a few others that I found fascinating as well. Scott Michaels has that gift of talk and has definitely done his research on the history of the death sites in the video.

The runtime for Dearly Departed is a bit long, as Scott rambles a bit off topic between sites. I see where this is an important element to taking a real tour to keep things flowing during travel but in this virtual version it could have been trimmed up a bit for a tighter final cut. I found myself watching it over a 2 night period as I got a bit antsy at the halfway mark on night one.

Dearly Departed is a video version of Scott Michael’s popular Hollywood tour. It is a bit rough in spots, with transitions and text looking very do it yourself. The content itself is quite interesting, especially the stuff on Sam Cooke and DeeDee Ramone. This release is selling for $7 through sites like Amazon and is definitely worth picking up for documentary buffs and fans of those local ghost and celebrity home style tours. If and when volume 2 is released I will definitely check it out.

Dearly Departed is available now, courtesy of Echo Bridge Home Entertainment.