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. This low-budget zombie movie is the third film of director Bob Clark, later becoming famous for directing the films Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Porky’s.

Last night I threw this old gem on. I have seen it a few times and have wanted to update HorrorManiac.com to share this DVD review. Now over 35 years old, this classic zombie tale… In November 2010 was confirmed that Gravesend Film Enterprises produce the remake, the film is set to begin with shootings in spring 2011.

Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things

from wikipedia: The story focusses on a theatre troupe, led by Alan (Alan Ormsby). 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 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 (Seth Sklarey). 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. They must decide whether it’s best to stay put until day, provided the old house holds up against the undead onslaught, try all to escape through the pitch black cemetery and forest to the boat, or have one person try this and bring back help. Unfortunately for the group, the dead get their revenge, and in the movie’s closing credits we see the group of corpses boarding Alan’s boat with the lights of Miami in the background.

Last night I wanted to watch something I had been meaning to watch for awhile!

George Romero’s Diary of the Dead is actually quite good. Those tired of zombies may want to watch something else but its not like the old zombie movies and I encourage all to check it out.

I really started to get into it once they enter the hospital. It is a good one, definitely worth being added to your horror DVD collection.

Diary of the Dead (also known as George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead) is a 2007 American/Canadian horror film by George A. Romero. Although independently produced, it was distributed theatrically by Dimension Films and was released in cinemas on February 15, 2008 and on DVD by The Weinstein Company and Genius Entertainment on May 20, 2008.

Diary of the Dead is the fifth film in Romero’s highly acclaimed Dead series of zombie films. It is not a direct sequel to previous films in the series, and “a rejigging of the myth” according to Romero.

Diary of the Dead follows a band of people making a horror film at the time of the first outbreak who decide to record the epidemic incident documentary-style and end up themselves being chased down by zombies.

Diary of the Dead DVD

Growing tired of anything else to watch other than horror, I have been watching zombie movies more lately. Last night I put on one of my all-time faves, Return of the Living Dead the great classic horror movie on DVD.

“Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the cemetery’those brain-eating zombies are back and hungry for more tasty mortals. A fiendish mix of outrageous humor and heart-stopping terror, The Return of the Living Dead is a veritable smorgasbord of fun (LA Herald-Examiner) filled with skin-crawling jolts, eye-popping visuals and relentless surprise! On his first day on the job at an army surplus store, poor Freddy unwittingly releases nerve gas from a secret U.S. military canister, unleashing an unbelievable terror. The gas re-animates a corps of corpses, who arise from their graves with a ravenous hunger for human brains! And luckily for those carnivorous cadavers, there is a group of partying teens nearby, just waiting to be eaten!”

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Finally, the last few “horror movies I have watched were not even worth updating the site about. My apologies for the last of updates, as I have been very busy lately. Anyhoo, on to Trick or Treat DVD release, and it is certainly a treat for the horror movie fan.

The doorbell rings, the cry goes out: Trick ‘R Treat! But, wait. What’s actually going on during this ghostly All Hallows Eve? Something eerie and unexpected. Something splattered and spooky. Something that brings ghouls, vampires and werewolves into the night. Answer the door – a shocking surprise awaits. From producer Bryan Singer (director of X-Men and Superman Returns) and writer-director Michael Dougherty (co-scripter of X2 and Superman Returns) comes a multitale bag of wicked yarns, four cleverly interlocked stories built on Shocktober admonitions like always check the candy and don’t extinguish the jack-o-lantern before midnight. So answer the door now: Experience horror made for today’s fright fan.

Get your copy of Trick or Treat

Also, after today starts the zombie fest! I will be reviewing and updating the site with more zombie movies!

If you have not seen this, you should make it a point to do so as soon as possible. Black Sheep is one of the best horror movies I have seen in a long time, LOL and that ain’t saying too much.

But there is something super cool about sheep attacking and eating people after genetic engineering experiment goes wrong while trying to make sheep produce better wool. The town is then terrorized by flesh-eating sheep.

A fine dose of New Zealand splatter , read more…

A delirious mix of broad comedy and wall-to-wall splatter, the New Zealand feature Black Sheep makes a convincing case for sheep as the new modern horror icon. These sheep aren’t the garden variety grass eaters, however; they’re genetically altered sheep who develop a ravenous hunger for human flesh after an experimental fetus is accidentally unleashed on a sprawling ranch by a hapless environmentalist (Kiwi actor and broadcaster Oliver Driver). And to make matters worse, those bitten by the monster sheep transform into monstrous “were-sheep” (spectacularly absurd creations by the Weta Workshop). The resulting clash between man and sheep is soaked in gore, of course, but the violence is taken to such outlandish extremes that only the easily nauseated or terminally grumpy will find it offensive. Writer/director Jonathan King’s debut feature juggles the gore and the gags (many of which gleefully tread the lowbrow path) with skill thanks to an energetic cast, especially Nathan Meister as the sheep-phobic hero and Danielle Mason as an animal rights crusader who discovers her inner carnivore. The unrated DVD includes commentary by King and Meister, a 30-minute making-of featurette which includes an interview with Richard Taylor of Weta on the film’s elaborate creatures, a smattering of deleted scenes, blooper reel, and a half-minute visual joke titled “Early Morning” that was shot especially for the DVD release. — Paul Gaita

It’s basically an experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a sprawling New Zealand farm.

Black Sheep (Unrated)

And it’s unrated for some great gore you’d normally not see, great stuff.

(spoiler) Especially when the guy gets his penis bitten off!

I never like to read too much about the movies I am going to watch before I do, so I can just see it and get it over with. Last night, I was surprised, and caught some old performances from two greats. Michael Berryman, famous for The Hills Have Eyes, and Lawrence Tierney, of Reservoir Dogs fame, and it also happened to be a Troma flick.

The title you ask? Wizards of the Demon Swords (1992). I know, I know. Laugh. But if you haven’t seen it, you’re missing some great sword play and one liners you’ll never forget. In addition, some great scenes and spliced in “dragons” that are actually Stegosaurus clay animations. Funny.

I also really enjoyed the crystal dagger, and the moment two goon run to a cliff (which looks more like a ten foot drop) and say “she must’ve jumped.” LOL It will keep you on the edge of your sofa, and laughing. Those looking for ladies in their horror are in for treats, I believe its not intended for minors.

Trust me, order your copy of Wizards of the Demon Swords now, it will definitely be a great addition to your horror collection.

Sure it’s cheesy. The acting is pretty bad, but who watches these for the plot? Pretty girls, guys with swords, and silly fight scenes. Invite a friend over though, may be too much to watch alone.

Ok, so it’s been a little while since I updated this site. But tonight I picked up a copy of this old flick: Frogs. I’m not particularly into the horror movies with action scenes, and boats, but this one turned out alright. I wanted to see it more because it had Ray Milland in it than any other reason. However, seeing a young Sam Elliot in it was a surprising bonus. I didn’t notice he was in it until after he was on screen.

Anyhow, I really like Ray Milland in Dial M For Murder, so I went ahead and watched this without hesitation. My complain though, I can’t stand fake “Southern accents” in movies, so this kind of drags on for me.

I’m also not that scared of frogs, are you?

“A shocker reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds” (Variety), this amphibious horror flick is teeming with thousands of nasty-tempered creatures that are hopping madand murderous. Jumping with action, suspense, revenge and Southern Gothic charm, Frogs’ stars Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark and Ray Milland are constantly a lily pad away from croaking! Jason Crockett (Milland) is an aging, physically disabled millionaire who invites his family to his island estate for hisbirthday party. The old man is more than crotchety he’s crazy! Hating nature, Crockett poisons anything that crawls on his property. But on the night of his shindig, it’s nature’s payback time, as thousands of frogs whip up every bug and slimy thing into a toxic frenzy until the entire environment goes environ-mental.

Order a copy of Frogs DVD from Amazon.

After cutting the grass today on my new lawn mower I decided to watch something I had not seen in awhile.

Part of the charm of anime is the fractured storytelling, the disjointed style, which is often a result of trying to fit everything from the manga (Japanese comic book) into the movie. Devilman, for example, opens in a wooded paradise where beautiful and naked fairy women fly about and are then attacked by dinosaurs and demons, until a six-armed fairy warrior shoots down explosive balls of light at the demons. Cut to explorers in the caves of Antarctica, not quite surviving a cave-in and the appearance of a demon. Dissolve to rabbits in a hutch that have been killed. What’s going on? It’s hard to say, but it sure is interesting.

The story settles down when Akira is introduced. Akira is your typical schoolkid until his childhood best friend Ryo shows up and pulls him into a web of demons and deceit. As Ryo explains, Dante talks about demons frozen in the ice in The Divine Comedy, and now global warming is melting that ice, freeing them. Akira and Ryo decide to team up and save the world. Devilman is chock full of bizarre explanations about demon existence and behavior, demon-on-demon violence, and a little gratuitous nudity. The best reason to watch it is for all the bizarre explanations, which are too weird not to be entertaining. –Andy Spletzer

Devilman – The Birth/Demon Bird (Vol. 1 & 2)

The Omen Remake sucks.

All remakes are needless, but this update of “The Omen” is especially so.

Not only was there nothing wrong with the 1976 horror classic, in which the Antichrist wreaks havoc on Earth as an innocent-looking 5-year-old boy, but the original stands as one of the most frightening movies. Ever.

It’s so ingrained in our pop culture, all you have to do is say the name Damien and everyone instantly knows you’re talking about a demonic child.

So why mess with it?

Thirty years later, the makers of “The Omen” barely have. They’re exceedingly faithful to the original — too faithful, actually — including having “Omen” screenwriter David Seltzer return to tweak his own script.

It’s not a shot-for-shot remake like Gus Van Sant’s pointless “Psycho” from 1998, but it’s close. The structure, characters, setting, events and even giant chunks of dialogue are all the same. One can only assume the intention was to appease the purists, but in doing so, director John Moore (“Behind Enemy Lines”) has breathed no new life into the material.

Tiny changes here and there inevitably contemporize the film. It takes place in the modern day, so the characters have cell phones.

When Julia Stiles — filling in for Lee Remick as Damien’s unsuspecting mother — begins to think there’s something wrong with her child, she immediately goes into therapy.

And Liev Schreiber — standing in for Gregory Peck as the father who surreptitiously brings the demon spawn into their lives — cries way more than Peck ever would have dreamed. Peck’s Robert Thorn choked up a little when he learned his wife had died, but mostly he held it together; here, as troubles mount, Schreiber is wiping away tears half the time. It’s the sensitive-man remake of “The Omen.”

But in the most feeble effort at modernizing the material, this “Omen” vaguely attempts to be politically relevant. A montage of photographs at the start suggests that the devil is everywhere, all the time — on Sept. 11, at Abu Ghraib, etc. — and we just don’t know it. The visit to an ancient biblical city toward the end of the film features flashes of flags, both Israeli and Palestinian. Such references feel tossed in.

More important, though, it isn’t even scary. It’s so similar to the original that we already know what’s coming. And because it adheres so closely, it only serves as a reminder of the superiority of Richard Donner’s original.

Not to be confused with the band White Zombie, but this is a great horror flick if you have not seen it.

Check it out!

White Zombie

A young man turns to a witch doctor to lure the woman he loves away from her fiance, but instead turns her into a zombie slave.

Young couple Madeleine and Neil are coaxed by acquaintance Monsieur Beaumont to get married on his Haitian plantation. Beaumont’s motives are purely selfish as he makes every attempt to convince the beautiful young girl to run away with him. For help Beaumont turns to the devious Legendre, a man who runs his mill by mind controlling people he has turned into zombies. After Beaumont uses Legendre’s zombie potion on Madeleine, he is dissatisfied with her emotionless being and wants her to be changed back. Legendre has no intention of doing this and he drugs Beaumont as well to add to his zombie collection. Meanwhile, grieving ‘widower’ Neil is convinced by a local priest that Madeleine may still be alive and he seeks her out.

Wait, there’s more:

Bela Lugosi followed up his star-making role in Dracula with this ambitious low-budget horror film from the Halperin brothers, who effectively transplanted the misty gothic mood of the Universal horror films to their poverty-row studio. White Zombie drips with atmosphere from the opening, as eerie chanting accompanies the credits and Madeleine (Madge Bellamy) arrives at midnight to witness a mysterious burial before coming face to face with the satanic looking Murder Legendre (Lugosi with goatee and searing eyes), a hypnotist and voodoo master who has been supplying the local mills with an army of zombie laborers. Madeleine’s nightmare is just beginning. Having landed in a world of almost perpetual night, where hollow-eyed zombies lumber through the sugar mill and the ghostly town is eerily bereft of living souls, she becomes the object of desire for Legendre, whose plan to possess her involves her initiation to the world of the undead. This first zombie movie is also one of the best, with Lugosi’s archly sinister performance dominating the film (thankfully obscuring a lot of overacting by supporting players), and astounding sets and gorgeous matte paintings creating a wondrous sense of poetic doom. –Sean Axmaker

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