Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (1972)

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I have given this film a 10 as its' an extremely difficult production to rate due to its very nature. I enjoyed it as it made me question my sanity at staying up until 4:30am to watch it. I became hypnotised by the dialogue that went nowhere and the often comical 'scared' face the young lady keeps pulling for no apparent reason, yet the camera zooms in on her (you will see). Also loved the 'here come the dead, lets stay calm and when they go to eat us we will throw ourselves on them' like its an everyday occurrence. This film is a must watch, especially for the ending as you actually don't expect that to happen, no really, its not something you will expect but NO SPOILERS. Watch it. Its fun.

Originally reviewed rather poorly, and referred to for many decades as campy, cheesy, and low-budget schlock, the recent resurgence of the zombie genre has brought a new generation to Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and a whole new appreciation. This film holds up. It more than holds up, it gets better with age. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. 1973. Not only is this my favorite zombie movie, but it's my favorite movie of all time. For reasons that are as much emotional as intellectual. I first saw it on Elvira's Movie Macabre season 5 episode 17 when I was sixteen years old. The next morning I remember a cross country meet where I was running through the woods. Everyone on the bus had seen the movie the night before and what is forgotten in the descriptions of this movie as campy is that it's a scary movie. The scene where they look out into the night and the female zombie is eating Paul floored everyone. It was what everyone was talking about. Now it's more years since I saw CSPWDT for the first time than it was years since the movie was first made when I saw it that first time. Twice as many years, in fact, if any of that makes sense. http://www.thingsofthedead.blogspot.com/

Back in the old days, there was a place called a video store. This place held things called videotapes. One day, while hunting around for a good horror movie, my eyes fell upon a copy of CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS. And picking it up, I wondered to myself: Is this a zomedy (zombie comedy) like DEAD ALIVE? Is it filled with tons of living dead and gore? More than thoroughly intrigued, I rented it, got home and popped it into something called a VCR. Guess what? This movie qualifies as one of the worst zombie films ever made! And justifiably so, in my opinion. First off, none of the characters is vaguely likable. They spend more than an hour just talk, talk, talking until they're all blue in the face, pulling pranks on each other and repeating such memorable lines as "I peed my pants" a thousand times. Finally, when the undead do rise, thanks to these idiots using sorcery, they're all holed up in a house (hm, how original!) and are then killed one by one. Is it a bad sign that I cheered every time a character met his or her fate? That was the first and only time I will ever watch the movie. Still fifteen years on, I remember that experience like it was only yesterday. Shocking to think that Bob Clark, who made the wonderful Christmas classic "A Christmas Story" directed this crap! By the way, the zombie make-up is pretty bad, easily on-par with BURIAL GROUND and ZOMBI 4: AFTER DEATH. Even treating it as an unintentional zomedy might be testing the limits of your funny friends and humor. Just be happy they never made a sequel, I guess. As Ebert said "For every bad movie, there's a good movie counterpart." That movie would come seven years later when Lucio Fulci released ZOMBIE. Both cover zombies brought about by sorcery (or voodoo) but ZOMBIE is infinitely scarier!

I'd like to start by acknowledging how much I dig old school schlock, cult classics, obscure gems, the bizarre, and of course, just all around bad movies. Even bad movie lovers have their limits. One thing that I've never been able to tolerate is the dull, the boring and most of all the overrated. Which brings me to this criminally overrated, Florida bore-fest. A film that seemingly everyone likes. A film that is apparently considered by many to be "alot of fun", as well as "genuinely creepy". A film of which I've never heard an unkind word spoken. This needs to change.To me, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, this film that seemingly everyone just adores, is nothing but 90 minutes of a bunch of wannabe hippie actors playing wannabe hippie actors making smug comments to each other, and spouting lame, pseudo-witty one-liners, while hanging out in a burial ground at some Island, and trying in vain to frighten each other. Although, not really hanging out so much as attempting to raise the dead with their "powers". Yep, hippies with a purpose. The lucky corpse, that may get a second chance at life (or something similar) is a deceased fellow named Orville. The head hippie guy (Alan Ormsby) tries, and tries, and tries to coax Satan into giving him a hand, with his some stupid voodoo ritual, or black magic, or whatever the hell. Of course these idiots underestimate the black arts, as well as the man downstairs, and you guessed it... All hell breaks loose. So, yeah. the actual storyline finally starts rolling, and contrary to what absolutely everyone else says, it ain't that groundbreaking, and it ain't "one of the greatest zombie flicks of the 70's. I guess it's semi-atmospheric, and I have seen worse locations, but What an annoying movie... It's just dumb. Now, I'm hearing that there's gonna be a remake some time in the near future. If this matters to you, then that surely makes one of us. If it's really quality 70's schlock, which actually deserves its reputation, that you're after, my advice to you would be to go for something more like Blood Freak, or The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are here! And, so, I've pretty much accepted the fact that you'll most likely consider my not-so-well-thought-out review to be completely worthless, as you'll most likely adore this garbage, just like everyone else, proving once again that I am truly alone in my disgust and total lack of interest in Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Well, whatever. That title still doesn't make any sense. 2/10