Camp, Creepy & Cheap Looking
A small amateur dramatics group under the leadership of Alan (Alan Ormsby) head off to a remote island, the home of an ancient cemetery with the purpose of raising the dead with an old ritual. So they dig up the corpse of Orville Dunworth (Seth Sklarey) and perform the ritual which when nothing immediately happens they think was a waste of time. But having taken Orville's corpse to the cottage on the island they discover that not only was it a success but now the rest of the dead on the island are climbing out of their graves and heading their way for a feast of human flesh.
Oh to be a teen back in the 70s and being able to experience horror movies such as "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" for the first time when they came out as watched for the first time over 40 years later the experience is less than entertaining. With its obvious story inspired by Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" doesn't offer up much other than a campy style with all involved delivering over the top characters which border on the campy. What is worse is that for two thirds of the movie little happens which doesn't help matters when combined with a low budget look and pushes it towards being a movie which is a test of your staying power.
Now looking through director Bob Clark's filmography and he went on to much bigger and better things during the 80s with the popular "A Christmas Story" and popular for other reasons "Porky's" to his name but Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" has the feel of a group of fringe actors and crew pooling their resources to try and make a low budget movie which will get a college following and lead them to stardom. Sadly this is not the movie to do it as whilst it certainly had that low budget feel the look to the script and especially the acting is just wrong.
What this all boils down to is that "Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things" is one of those movies which probably still lingers in the minds of those who watched it as teens in the 70s. But for those who stumble across this zombie flick now it only ends up as low budget and campy.
Tags: Zombie Movies
