Alan (Alan Ormsby) is the leader of a theatrical troupe. Alan is a sadistic asshole who bullies the members of the troupe and makes them do whatever he wants. Alan takes five of them, Val (Valerie Mamches), Jeff (Jeff Gillen), Anya (Anya Ormsby), Terry (Jane Daly) and Paul (Paul Cronin) with him to an island off the coast of Florida. The island is used as an old graveyard. Alan plans on digging up one of the bodies and performing a satanic ritual to raise the dead.
The troupe is unaware that Alan has already sent a couple other troupe members, Emerson (Robert Philip) and Roy (Roy Engelman) to the island to set up an elaborate scare. They’ve already dug up the body of Orville Dunworth (Seth Sklarey). Emerson then buries Roy in his place.
The troupe sets up shop in an old caretaker’s house not far from the cemetery. From a large trunk Alan pulls out a robe and a large book of spells. He then takes the troupe into the cemetery to dig up Orville for the ritual. In reality they are digging up Roy, who was put in Orville’s place. Alan’s cohorts, do their little jump scare. Alan does his ritual. Nothing happens, at lease for a while. They all head back to the caretaker’s house with Orville’s body. Then the dead rise and go looking for the acting troupe.
“Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things” AKA “Revenge of the Living Dead” AKA “Things from the Dead” AKA “Zreaks” was released in 1972 and was directed by Bob Clark. It is a horror film with camp overtones and is a cult classic. The film was written by Bob Clark and Alan Ormsby. Ormsby also did much of the great zombie special effects makeup.
The characters in the film are all annoying so when the killing starts, there aren’t any tears for the soon to be zombie burgers. The comedy in the movie is basically the characters criticizing each other so don’t look for it to be funny. It takes a long time to get to the zombies, but when it does, the action is pretty fast.
The tombstones were made out of Styrofoam and the names on them were of various crew members. Some of the prints of the movie are really dark. The film takes place all in one night so finding one that is bright enough to really see what is going on can be challenging.
Director Clark had planned on doing a remake of the film in 2007. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident before production plans could get going.
The film stars Alan Ormsby and his then wife Anya Ormsby. Bruce Solomon plays a zombie called Winns.