Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (also known as Revenge of the
Living Dead, Things From the Dead, and Zreaks) is a 1972 comedic
horror film directed by Bob Clark. It later became a cult classic. This
low-budget zombie film is the third film of director Bob Clark, who later
became famous for directing the films Black Christmas, A Christmas
Story, and Porky's.
The
story focuses on a theatre troupe, led by Alan. He is a mean-spirited director,
who travels with the others by boat to a small island for buried criminals to
have a night of fun and games. Once on the island Alan tells his group—he calls
them his "children"—numerous stories relating to the island's history
and buried inhabitants. At midnight using a grimoire, Alan begins a séance to
raise the dead after digging up the body of a man named Orville Dunworth.
Though the original intent of the ritual may have been solely as a joke, Alan
appears disappointed that nothing happens.
Afterwards
the party continues and Alan goes to extremes to degrade the actors, using the
corpse of Orville for his own sick jokes. Then, however, animated by the fell
ritual, the dead return to life and force the troupe to take refuge in the old
house… (condensed from Wikipedia)
Star
Alan Ormsby also wrote this script and created the make-up effects. He wrote
and co-directed “Deranged,” and wrote “Deathdream.” Later, he wrote the screenplays for “My
Bodyguard,” “The Little Dagons,” “Cat People” and “Porky’s II.”
“Children Shouldn’t Play with
Dead Things”” is available from The RetroFilm Vault, “the original and
definitive one-stop source for public domain movies and television for
broadcast programing or stock footage use. From the heart of movie land, The
RetroFilm Vault has the largest virtual catalog for broadcast quality public
domain films on the planet.”
Also listed as PD here: http://www.moviesmademe.com/lists/37
http://spookyfests.com/html/pdlist.htm
https://actv20.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/saturday-fright-special/
http://www.x-human.net/trades.shtml
Reviewer:
TheRoaringVertex
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favoritefavoritefavoritefavoritefavorite -
April 7, 2019
Subject:
Incredible Masterpice
Michael Jackson's Thriller refrenced this in the short film.
Reviewer:
Pete/WUVT-FM/Sat7-9AM
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favoritefavoritefavorite -
January 28, 2015
Subject:
Great Ending!
O.K., the acting is wooden and the story is stupid. BUT the last 10 minutes of this movie reaches you on a elemental level. It speaks to the scared kid in all of us. The cheap makeup even makes it scarier. It borrows heavily from "Night of the Living Dead", but so do a lot of low budget zombie films. Give it a shot for a short bit of time travel to a Saturday night at the drive-in theater in '72.
Reviewer:
skybandit
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January 27, 2015
Subject:
Not PD, just orphaned
A valid copyright notice is seen around 3 1/2 minutes in, meaning it's NOT PD, no matter how many people say so. If it's so widespread, it's most probably orphaned, which means any day somebody's grandchild could stumble upon some old papers and end up making a claim. Tricky business.