Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things (1972)

After George Romero redefined what the living dead should (and could) be with Night of the Living Dead in 1968, there were scores of imitators. Most of them came from Europe (one of the best being George Grau's Let Sleeping Corpses Lie in 1974), but there were only a few American imitators.

This is one of them.

The story is pretty simple: a group of struggling actors accompany their hack of a leader to a remote burial island for criminals and general lowlifes; some real scum and villainy. The group is lead by the quasi-Manson, Alan (played to annoying perfection by Alan Ormsby, who also handled the make-up effects); basically, he knows these young actors are starving and hungry for work, so they'll do pretty much anything he says.

Alan's plan is to commit a little grave-robbing and hold a seance to raise the dead; knowing full well he's full of shit and merely wanting to have a laugh or three at the expense of his "children" in tow.

The catch? It works.

Before they know it, the acting troupe is surrounded by the living dead and seek refuge in an abandoned house (presumably the home of island's caretaker perhaps?).

Sure, the movie itself is really slow and the zombies don't show up until pretty much the last half hour or twenty minutes . . . but, there's just something about it that works. Honestly, I almost look at it as a prequel to Night of the Living Dead (the ending was later ripped off by Lucio Fulci for 1979's Zombie [aka: Zombi 2]).


The sequence where the dead return is truly creepy; director Bob Clark (of Black Christmas, Porky's and A Christmas Story fame) presents the action in an almost nightmarish way. Strange sounds pop from the soundtrack, a heavy mist envelopes the burial ground like a tablecloth, and some interesting zombie make-up all come together to make this sequence work.





If you're into gore, this movie might not be for you. Sure, there's a little bit of blood, but nothing to go hog wild over and, honestly, if you're a fan of Romero's zombies, you'll probably be disappointed.

One of the coolest things about the DVD version of this movie is the print quality. It looks like complete garbage. There's some incredible print damage, but it's not like the bootleg quality of Abby or Curtains -- just good old fashioned noise in the picture and scratches; hell there's even some really terrible color tone shifts and parts where the edge of the picture turns a minor red color! I love it! This really adds to the atmosphere and, for me, the overall enjoyment. I seriously can't imagine this movie looking as good some of the Blu-Ray remasters Anchor Bay or Blue Underground have released in recent years.

In the end, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things is a fun little movie that certainly has its faults, though it more than makes up for them with its charms and payoff. See it!