Caught this one at a drive-in theater recently as part of a zombie movie marathon. This isn't actually a zombie movie of any sort, the killer is the ghost of a little girl who goes around making people commit suicide by staring at them spookily. The reason it got lumped in with zombie flicks is because of it's alternate American re-release title of CURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD as part of the ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD triple feature. The version they showed, strangely enough, didn't have any title on it though so I'm not sure how edited or not it was.
While this is not my favorite Bava film, even his lesser stuff is done so well filmed that's it's hard to dismiss it completely. Erika Blanc shows up in an unusually not very sexy role. There's a good witch vs. bad witch-sort of ending. Some of the plot points, perhaps due to the editing of the version I viewed, doesn't make a whole lot of sense but then again ghost movies are not usually my thing anyway. If they are more your style this one might be more of a thrill. AKA DON'T WALK IN THE PARK, CURSE OF THE DEAD and OPERATION FEAR
Italian poster:
Japanese poster:
British poster:
Played with that movie with the invisible dinosaur monster!:
and on the famous ORGY OF THE LIVING DEAD triple feature!:
I saw a "restored" version of this on YouTube about a month ago, mixing different language versions together that basically served to explain all the nonsense I could never piece together. Everyone in the village has a secret, a piece of the puzzle, to explain the haunting, and one individual is the key without even realizing it. Very good outing once it makes sense. I've seen several terrible versions which are, as you said, completely nonsensical.
ReplyDeleteI've been quite fortunate lately finding these restored gems (one was Lady Frankenstein), and you end up with cuts in Spanish, Italian and English. Even restored Ultraman with undubbed scenes in the original Japanese that were cut from either broadcast or commercial release.
I'm really enjoying YouTube these days!
Yeah, I really need to watch that version. The American dubs of these older films often left out important elements which is a shame. Thanks for the comment.
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