Grew up with this one, definitley a horror movie fan must! Cheesey enough to become a cult classic, laughable in some parts, but definatley a fright for some. If nothing else, a great part of the sixties/seventies big hair horror flicks. A must see!
I AM the horror movie Queen...
I've seen it several times since the 70's! Even though it had more than it's share of flaws, to me it was always fun to watch! The beginning in particular! It had one of the creepiest intro scores ever, I don't care what anybody say! The combination of the creepy choir music, the sound effects, the mansion, the paintings of each Beale family member and the showing how each died is some very creep stuff! This may have been a great movie if they did the rest of it as good as they did the intro! I hope some day they do a remake of this film, with the same music and sound effects,the same creepy house,paintings and atmosphere, but this time focusing on the Beale Family itself and how thier demise came about! I also hope the next time they do a good job on the whole movie, not just the intro!
shareJust caught it on TCM the other night. It was really bland but held my interest. As someone else mentioned, it didn't explain how David wasn't a zombie till he fell back in the grave, and why didnt he just stay in his current state? If someone can explain, it might seem better if it makes it seem more legit.
shareI first saw this movie in 1980 before zombie movies went mainstream (WORLD WAR Z stars Brad Pitt and costs $130 million, so if that's not mainstream, I don't know what is) but I too was creeped out by the opening and overall mood of dread in this film. I bought a DVD of it and watched it again and noticed that the color timing is off on the transfer. It's printed a lot brighter than when I first saw it. Really detracts from the mood. Second of all, I suspect this movie was heavily edited by someone (the distributor?) after it was finished. The movie is right about 90 mins. long and may have been trimmed down for either sale to TV or at someone's demand. There are places it honestly just doesn't make sense and I doubt it was due to neglect or ignorance on part of the filmmakers. I first became aware of this film when I saw a poster around 1978 for it showing a hand coming out of the ground and the cool tag line. It was copyrighted 1973. I saw it on TV in 1980. My guess is they shot the film, could not get a distributor for it, and sold it to someone who just haphazardly cut it to 90 minutes to insure it got picked up for syndication. A couple of years ago, a company announced a DVD of it with director commentary then cancelled it. Good news is that Severin Films announced a DVD/BluRay of it to be released June 11, with commentary by the co-producer and an archival interview with John Carradine. Hopefully, they will help solve the mystery of why this film just suddenly shifts gears at various points. It's too bad they can't get director Paul Harrison to spill the beans about it. I bet a commentary by him about this film would be fascinating.
shareIt was definitely theatrically released; vintage theater ads published in newspapers showing the image you described have been posted on the internet. As a low-budget "independent" movie it may not have had that wide of a release though.
I also first heard of this film circa 1978 but my experience was different, I heard of it when the complete movie was being released on Super 8 sound film for those with sound home movie projectors! Quite unusual at the time for a newish movie to appear in full release on that format, multiple 400" reels running approx. 18 minutes each. I think it was released by Niles Films, it was in their movie catalog and I recall they sent a cardboard poster-like ad for it too but I don't think it's the one you mention (I think this one had skeleton or zombie faces and an old house with gothic-like text print), this probably the cover sleeve image for the Super 8 boxes ala the dvd covers today. I still after 35 years have never seen this movie!! I am kind of fascinated by the cast, most of them well into middle age at the time. Interesting that Faith Domergue, then around 50, was the female lead. Given this was made in the early 1970's and very few women stars from her era were working I'm surprised they didn't go after and sign a bigger name like Jane Russell, Lana Turner, or Rita Hayworth, most of whom I think might have said yes since nobody else was knocking down their doors with movie offers and they might not have been all that more expensive than Faith to sign.
I saw the 1st 45 mins of it and then turned it off. I got bored.
The last part I saw was the scene w/her cat and she begins sobbing, of course.
After that, I lost interest.
What happens next? Does it actually get scarier?
It started @ 12:30 AM on TCM today.
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