House of the Living Dead

Hey folks. You can all relax. I'm back. Working on an audio review for the YouTubes and got caught up in that, forgetting not everyone subscribes to that. So back ta da blog!

Well found YET ANOTHER Zombie flick and yes it also has multiple titles. This hails from a 12 pack by Mill Creek Entertainment and shock of shocks, it also has Horror of the Zombies a.k.a. Ghost Galleon and predictably, Night of the Living Dead in its illustrious alumni. On a South African plantation, a diseased maniac is rampant, killing first the plantation animals and then sets on the humans! Gasp! This is House of the Living Dead a.k.a. Curse of the Dead a.k.a. Doctor Maniac a.k.a. Kill, Baby, Kill.

Ring Wraith stealing a goat in daylight??!!

Well with that fine collection of titles, how can we go wrong? Just looked at 15 different covers, just looking at the print of this poor film; it has been treated like the town trollop. Passed around again and again. Redistribution to the likes of Night of the Living Dead. Ahem, with that in mind, on with the film.

Under the cover of day, a hooded figure in a black cloak abducts a baboon because... oh hell your guess as good as many and possibly less filthy.    A mad scientist Dr. Breckinridge Brattling (Yes I swear that is the character's name!) is conducting illegal human experiments on his family estate. Guess the sound proofing there dulls down the screams. Twisting God's work into his own hellish nightmares, he dare put his scientific curiosity before common decency. So in general, he's a dick. Striving to put different souls into other people, (Yeah I can't make this nonsense up) he has had a few setbacks.

The town villagers are convinced something is going on but seem reluctant to gather pitchforks and torches to go and kill the monster. Kind of surprising really.

Oh ho, my milkshake does bring all the boys to the yard.

With various animals disappearing in the village, you think people would figure out that just possibly that it could be THE HOODED FIGURE roaming the countryside acting all suspicious??!!! FYI, not the Hooded Figure in Rotten Reelz Reviews Video Reviews. Pretty sure he's not abducting animals and people. Well, more or less sure.

A set of twins runs the plantation. Breckinridge's brother Michael (Mark Burns of Death in Venice, A Day at the Beach, Juggernaut, Rosebud and The Maids) runs the household while Insano Breck performs his madcap experiments attempting to transmigrate a soul outside the human body. Hmm, maybe some opids might be in the doctor's diet.

Jiggly fiancee' Mary (Shirley Anne Field of Peeping Tom, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, These Are the Damned and Wild for Kicks) cannot wait to marry MichaelNow, many of you know I abhor two things. A vacuum and spoilers. That being said, THERE ARE NO ZOMBIES! Yes, with all the potential voodoo, genetic experimentation, viral outbreak and how about Hell just getting full of pervs, people that talk in the theater and Nazis?

So yeah, I can only reason it was titled thus so to cash in on Romero's success of Night of the Living Dead; given Dawn of the Dead wasn't released until 1978. Redistribution is probably closer to blame.

Made in 1973 but took an entire year to release (Yup we are in good hands), our magnum Opus was actually filmed in South Africa. Nifty, right? Look, Vancouver has been Faux Detroit, NYC, Chicago, San Francisco and Post Apocalyptic Jersey and that is just the handful of flicks I have seen, so yes I am surprised they got shot on proper location. I TAKE MY HAPPYS WERE I CAN!!! STOP JUDGING MEEEEEE!!!!

Shot in 35 mm Spherical on Arriflex Cameras, yes the sound is mono but thankfully in Color and not Technocolor. The print is positively horrendous. This was a VHS to DVD translation and never went through an image rendering process. Loosely translated, it looks like crap. Which is too bad because it was professionally shot well but again VHS crap!!!

Now to change Bobo into a donkey.  Because SCIENCE!!!