The Booth Brothers are famous for producing, writing and directing very gory horror films that win awards within this genre. Dead Still came about because they became fascinated in the 19th Century Victorian practice of making "Death Photos" whereby the photographer would pose dead people as if they were living. Because they are horror film aficionados, they of course wrote and directed a film that deals with a haunted camera that needs bodies so causes terrible deaths of anyone who gets their picture taken using an ancient camera.

Ben stars in the movie, called Dead Still, as Brandon Davis, a near-do-well wedding photographer with a young son, who inherits his great-grandfather's creepy house (a terrific real relic of a place in Louisiana where the film was shot) as well as his camera. It seems that whenever he uses this camera to take a photograph, the subject of the picture will die a horrible death. Brandon's assistant figures out what is happening, but Brandon is pretty impervious to hints. Then, the assistant gets sucked into the camera because it's haunted by Ray Wise, a great character actor, who stars as the great-grandfather, Wenton Davis, who's trapped in the camera creating these death photos.

The horror continues when Brandon's son gets trapped in the camera and Brandon figures out that the only way to rescue him is to get sucked into the camera's world. There, he must deal with the dead and Ray Wise to ensure that his son survives.

The movie is not well written or well acted except for Ben and Ray Wise (who chews the scenery as usual). Most of the reviews fault the paltry budget of $2 Million for the quality of the film. While other reviews are really harsh about the quality of the acting, including Ben's but especially the female actors. I think it's unfair to say Ben is stiff in his role because what they are really quibbling with is the fact that this guy he's playing is really dumb and doesn't realize until too late that people who he photographs die really bloody deaths, including his wife and son. So, the script must have been difficult to act due to how stupid the character was made out to be.

In addition, although there was lots of practical gore, there was limited ability to do the kind of CGI that this film called for so all the reviews called out the cheesy ghosts and demons. It seems that great-grandpa, Wenton Davis (Ray Wise) was cursed. And this curse plays out until Ben gets to die really well again.

Here's the best review from Horror Film Review:

"Is "Dead Still" perfect? Hell no. I've yet to see something which is. However there's some damned fine acting with Ben Browder never less than ideal in his role as Brandon, and Ray Wise is everything one could want from the maniacal Wenton. "