Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, (1972)

     I know. Great name, eh?

     So, a small, occult-curious theatre group are on a sort-of field trip to an remote island where criminals are buried. Led by an obnoxious, self-important, hippie director, they proceed with all manner of psuedo-witchery including digging up a corpse and attempting to raise the dead through Satanic rituals.

     The whole affair seems as if the troupe are creating disgusting scenarios to perform for each other, and even as they start to realize what they are doing: unearthing a dead body, desecrating a grave and “playing” with a corpse, they continue to go along with the games, following their director’s cult-like grip on the group, so afraid to be banished from their dreams of stardom. Among the scenes they play out is a incantation to Satan found in a in some Grimoire asking to raise the dead. True, they don’t expect the ritual to actually work, but *spoiler alert* It does! What follows is… Well, one can guess.

     This is among the very first movies to embrace Romero’s walking dead and as such, received criticism for its similarities: the recently deceased coming back to life and attacking and eating the living, the shambling method in which they walk, and even the attempt to fortify an abandoned house by the living against said deceased. These devices are now in about nine out of ten “zombie” movies, sure, but, after only four, (or five, depending on your source,) years after Night of the Living Dead, it must have seemed pretty derivative.

     End result, however, is that this was a pretty entertaining early entry into the Living Dead genre. The movie had a couple of unexpected plot twists which both provided and broke the tension, some good scares, some genuinely creepy scenes, (the rising from the graves is really enjoyable, y’know, in a macabre, horror fan-type of way,) and the effects, (I don’t know if they qualify as “special,”) are convincing enough considering the budget of the production.

     So, I ran this forgotten gem across the ol' Zombie Movies Reviews Rubric and it received an objective score of 2.875. Pretty respectable no matter what year! Highest marks went to the Zombies and the cause of outbreak while lowest were the effects, (though forgivable,) and the characters, (though fun and strangely enough, believable.) 

     So, yeah, the ZMR gives it a 2.875, but I might have been a bit more generous and granted this ‘cult fave’ a little more. I dug it. I will be watching it again, I’m sure.

Trailer available on the ol' Tube de Vous right here! CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS