Restaurant Life, but Make It Horror: A Look at “We’re So Dead”

We’re So Dead is a scrappy, service-industry fever dream. It feels like someone took every nightmare restaurant story ever told, compiling them into this holiday-shift horror-comedy.

It’s messy, loud, occasionally unhinged, and unmistakably made by people who’ve actually lived the life.

And that’s where its charm lies: in the heart.

The film comes from writer-director Ken MacLaughlin, a longtime collaborator and friend of Darron Cardosa,  better known to the internet as The Bitchy Waiter.

Cardosa says he signed on because MacLaughlin believed in the idea long before the crew, cameras, or even the money existed:

“When he suggested we make a movie together a few years ago he had enough confidence in it to make me believe that it could happen. He was right!”

Cardosa plays a bartender in the film, leaning fully into the persona his followers know best.

“We figured since we were raising the funds for the movie through the Bitchy Waiter social media channels, it would be a disservice to play the character any other way,” he explains. “I leaned pretty heavily into the Bitchy Waiter persona.”

The movie’s greatest strength is its inside-joke authenticity.

Only people who have spent nights sprinting between tables or ducking into walk-ins to breathe can deliver the portrayal given on screen.

Cardosa describes one moment on set that felt like pure restaurant catharsis:

“We were running around the restaurant screaming and freaking out then as soon as the camera stopped rolling, we would start laughing. It was just so much fun to shoot this in a real restaurant because anyone who has worked in one would love the chance to run through it, screaming at the top of your lungs.”

It’s full of chaotic humor that will land harder for some than others.

But as an industry artifact, a community-funded, restaurant-worker-made project, it’s genuinely compelling.

Cardosa reminds that this was a true indie effort, built from passion and small donations.

“I really want people to know that this was a passion project for so many of us. Almost all of the money raised to make the movie came from service industry people. Independent film comes with a lot of hard work and very little guaranteed reward. I want people to watch this movie, not only so we can pay back our investors, but so they can also see that no matter how big the dream is, it can be achievable…Independent film comes with a lot of hard work and very little guaranteed reward…And, by hosting it on our own platform, it truly supports the film because every dollar goes right back to the investors.”

What longtime Bitchy Waiter fans might appreciate most, though, is seeing him return to his first love: acting.

“People might be surprised I can act,” he laughs. “It’s really the only thing I’ve ever wanted to do.”

And if you’re wondering whether this movie is meant for you, he sums it up simply: “This is a movie made by the service industry for the service industry.”

We’re So Dead may be poetry in a way. A love letter to restaurant life, with all its chaos, absurdity, and shared trauma, it has a sincerity you can’t fake.

It’s a film powered by community, by long shifts and longer dreams, and by the small miracle of people coming together to make something just because they wanted to.

At the very least, it proves one thing: in the restaurant world, even our nightmares can bring us together.

Ready to relive the madness from the comfort of your couch? Click here to rent ‘We’re So Dead’ and see the restaurant horror-comedy everyone in the industry is talking about.