Run, run as fast as you can!
"Save room for dessert cause I'm coming after you."
—Millard
The Gingerdead Man is a 2005 horror-comedy film made by Full Moon Features and Charles Band, starring Gary Busey as Millard Findlemeyer, a criminal who is sent to the electric chair, comes back to life as a Gingerbread Man, and goes out to kill the woman who sent him to jail.
Followed by two sequels, Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust and Gingerdead Man 3: Saturday Night Cleaver as well as a crossover with Evil Bong, in which Busey did not participate.
Tropes:
- Anachronism Stew: In the third movie, a Simpsons arcade cabinet can be seen in the background at a 1976 roller rink.
- And I Must Scream: In Gingerdead Man vs Evil Bong, Gingerdead Man was going to have to go through an eternal life of being eaten alive and reformed as a punishment for all the crimes he committed. Luckily for him, he escapes this horrifying fate.
- Antagonist Title: Named after a killer gingerbread man.
- Anthropomorphic Food: He's a gingerbread man who by the very design is anthropomorphic food but is also alive.
- Some other sentient food items appear in Saturday Night Cleaver, being imprisoned and studied by (and no I am not making this up) "The Scientific Research Institute For The Study Of Homicidal Baked Goods".
- Arch-Enemy: Sarah Leigh has Millard Findlemeyer, a Serial Killer she testified against who came back as a gingerbread man for revenge.
- Attack of the Killer Whatever: A gingerbread man possessed by a serial killer.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "You are here by formally charged with murder, mayhem, callousness, wantent, drug use, all of these, and your worst offense, you taste like poop."
- Big Bad: Millard Findlemeyer, a Serial Killer possessing a gingerbread man.
- Cruel and Unusual Death:
- The gay guy's death in the second movie where he gets a curling iron shoved up his ass.
- Also, the Gingerdead Man's deaths are also this, especially in the second movie where he gets crucified, set on fire, and shot several times for good measure.
- Death as Comedy: It's a gingerbread cookie that kills people. How can you take that seriously?
- Death by Cameo: Robin Sydney makes a brief cameo in the third movie, only to get electrocuted to death.
- Demonic Possession: Happens to whoever eats the Gingerdead man.
- Deus ex Machina: In the second movie, the puppets from the Film Within a Film suddenly turn out to be sentient and kill the Gingerdead Man.
- In the third movie, a couple of '70s kids who found and used the time machine earlier go forward in time and stop the Gingerdead Man from escaping the asylum and everyone who was killed comes back to life. They also somehow got a winning lottery ticket despite being minors, saving the roller rink from getting closed down.
- Diner Brawl: The film starts with Findlemeyer killing people in a diner before being caught.
- Evil Plan: Millard Findlemeyer possesses a cookie to kill the woman who got him executed.
- Evil Versus Evil: Two kids in the third movie bring in Adolf Hiter, Charles Manson, Lizzie Borden, and Jeffrey Dahmer through time travel to kill the Gingerdead Man.
- Eye Scream: In the second movie, Gingerdead Man rips out a crew member's eye.
- Gambit Roulette: Findlemeyer's family scheme to bring him back to life apparently involved sending his ashes mixed with a gingerbread spice mix at a bakery, where he would then require to be cooked as in a human shape, with one of the employees cutting himself and leaving blood inside it and finally lightning striking the oven where he was being cooked.
- Gonk: The gingerdead man is quite ugly looking.
- Gorn: A lot of deaths in the series, especially in the second and third films.
- Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death: Parodied with a pun.
- Just Eat Him: The Gingerbread Man is defeated in the end by being eaten. Though he resurrects through his eater by Demonic Possession.
- Our Monsters Are Weird: Our monster is a possessed gingerbread man that kills people.
- Pun-Based Title: "The Gingerbread Man"+"Dead."
- Punny Name: The Final Girl of the original movie who runs a bakery is named, Sara Lee, as in the bread company.
- Resurrected Murderer: Millard Findlemeyer was a criminal who attacked a diner and killed two of Sarah Leigh's family members. After his arrest, he was executed and cremated, with his ashes being sent to his Wicked Witch mother, who mixes the ashes with an enchanted gingerbread spice mix. She leaves the mix on the doorstep of the Leigh family's bakery, and they decide to use it to make a gingerbread man, only for it to be brought to life, reviving Millard, who proceeds to go on a vengeful killing spree.
- Rich Bitch: Lorna comes off as the snobby daughter of a man who owns a much larger and more lucrative business than the Lees.
- Time Travel: In the third film, the Gingerdead Man travels to The '70s.
- Versus Title: Gingerdead Man vs Evil Bong.
- Whole-Plot Reference: Half the third movie is one to Carrie.
