The Undead (1957)

The Worst Film Ever

Yo, there's no way for me to review this film without saying, take your *insert ethnicity + "ass" here* to see this film,like now. You have to see it in order to know what you're really messing with.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

The story is silly. We must all agree to that. But the acting, cinematography, music, editing are all professional. This makes this movie very watchable. Some decent effects. The dialogue along with the story is silly.This is a 1957 B/W production. When viewed in light of the period made, the low budget, high professional production, and silly story, it makes for a fun movie. No gore to be seen. But some decent twists. Helens choice at the end was commendable. And Quintes getting stuck in the past is also a good twist, he can't get back to the present because the live link of Helens death.Rating is a C, or 5 stars. Roger Corman does it again.

This is my style of 1950s horror. It's has the elements for a fun horror: time travel, hypnotism, witches, a devil, medieval setting, and magic. The film also has great direction, cinematography, casting and story with an awesome atmosphere.It's hard to believe this film has such a low rating; its' severely underrated - in my opinion. This is a B film... a low budget film. The critics should never watch a low budget film if they are going to complain about it being on a low budget - that seems to be a big complaint about this film - not enough money. Sure if they had more money to make this film then it would have been even better that it already is.Another complaint about this film is it's mistakes. Every single film out there has mistakes in it - including multi-million dollar films. Read the "goofs" section - every film will have them.This is a fun fantasy-horror that is easy to kick back and enjoy. Ignore the critics and judge the film for yourself. This film is entertaining in it's own way.8.5/10

With Halloween coming up,I started searching round for Horror DVDs that I could list on Ebay,and I stumbled across a title that I had picked up years ago for a £1,that was actually rather rare!,which led to me getting ready to witness the undead come to life.The plot:Wanting to explore the outskirts of the mind, psychical researchers Quintus Ratcliff & Prof. Ulbrecht Olinger hire prostitute Diana Love to be their unsuspecting test case.Pushing Olinger's doubts aside,Ratcliff begins to help Love to remember her past.Looking beyond her current location,Love discovers that she is a reincarnation of Helene,whose spirit has not been able to fade due to Helene wrongly getting killed for being a "witch."Feeling an intense connection to her past life,physical features on Helene start to appear on Love.With Love having built s strong bridge to her past,Ratcliff decides that he must get his brainwave to cross over with Love's,so that he can finally put a stop to Helene/Love's cycle of pain.Crossing over to Love's past life,Ratcliff soon discovers that a real witch has her own spell for him.View on the film:Casting the film in a gloomy Gothic Horror backdrop,the screenplay by Charles B. Griffith & Mark Hanna cuts deep into the chills with a delicious comedic relish,as the grave digger sings folk songs that are given a nasty twist,and an imp/dwarf dashes across the screen in order to do his masters bidding.Whilst they dip the movie into pretty funny comedy waters,Griffith and Hanna make sure that the Gothic Horror backbone stays strong,with the search for Love's past digging up memories that should remain hidden. Diving into Love's mind,the writers end the exploration on a wonderfully cynical,down- beat note.Perfectly capturing the atmosphere of the screenplay,director Roger Corman and cinematographer William A. Sickner take the movie down some charmingly bonkers avenues,which goes from the main witch reappearing/disappearing as if she was in a TV Comedy show from that era,to some stunning girls performing a graveyard dance.Filmed in 6 days at a disused supermarket,Corman matches the titles sweet sense of humour with a stylish Gothic Horror edge,as the soaked in shadows,burnt out villages perfectly reflect the fragmented mind of Love.Moving across minds, Val Dufour gives a very good performance as Ratcliff,who Dufour makes to look really puffed-up at the beginning,but to slowly reveal a warm sense of sincerity towards Love. Lighting up the screen like bolts of lightning each time they appear,the ravishing Allison Hayes & Pamela Duncan each give eye- catching performances,with Hayes delivering each of boo-hiss witch Livia's whip-smart one- liners with a real curl of the lips,whilst Duncan gives Love a fragile sense of fear,as the undead arise.

I liked how when the film began, it had a little prologue where the Devil himself talks to the audience. In most films, this would be a negative, but for a Roger Corman horror film, this sort of thing worked well--after all, these sort of films should never be taken too seriously. And, later in the film, this same silly spirit remained--with witches appearing and disappearing, changing form into animals and doing all kinds of incantations! And, an adorable pointed-eared Billy Barty was also on hand as an imp!! You really can't take this film very seriously--and I liked that.The film begins at the present day. Two psychic researchers are trying a strange experiment using a prostitute ( no, not THAT sort of experiment--you sicko). They use hypnosis to take her to past lives to prove that reincarnation is possible. By the way, this is actually the plot of an Ed Wood (BRIDE AND THE BEAST) that was made just a year earlier--though the lady was not a prostitute AND it turned out in a past life she was a gorilla!!). Unlike the Wood film, most of the film is spent in the past--seeing her past life acted out for the audience. And, late in the film, one of the researchers himself goes to the past to rescue her when she is in peril! When they use regression, it seems that the prostitute was a French woman who was accused of witchcraft centuries ago. It turned out that real witches framed her in order to get her out of the way. A female witch wanted the lady's boyfriend and framing her of consorting with the forces of darkness was a convenient way to get rid of her. And, because the psychic researchers somehow interfered with time, they must go back and correct any changes their study has made--and battle the Devil himself along the way! Explaining the plot any further would probably confuse you--it is pretty weird and incomprehensible.The film's strengths are it unusual plot, very odd ending and self-deprecating humor. Minuses are the cheesy special effects (at times), such as the bats with very obvious wires supporting them as well as the confusing explanations as to how time will be affected by the woman's life or death. Overall, it's a cheesy movie that actually works pretty well and is very watchable--much more so than most of Corman's films of this era.