Leofwine_draca I remember seeing CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS years and years ago, back when zombie films were few and far between (unlike today, where the opposite is true). It came across as an amateurish, oddball remake of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, done as a comedy horror with some very poor acting. So how would it hold up today?Well, the truth is that the film does hold some quirky charm, mainly due to the year it was made and the outrageous fashions on display. It's easy to forget that this was made by Bob Clark just prior to BLACK Christmas, so at least it set him up to make at one classic horror movie. The truth is that CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS is only semi-successful at best, as the entire first hour is pretty much a waste of time. It consists of various goofballs wandering around a cheap-looking cemetery, digging up a corpse and spouting some inane dialogue.Things do change for the admittedly scary climax, which is a brief re-run of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD as the reanimated dead gang up on a remote house to chow down on those within. It's fair to say that Alan Ormsby's unforgettable anti-hero is more of a villain than the undead themselves; what a guy, what a performance, it's not one you'll easily forget! If you can get past the poor make-up, Halloween costume-style look of the effects and the non-existent acting, you might just find a quirky little movie with some things to recommend it.

artpf Actors led by Alan Ormsby go to a graveyard on a remote island to perform a necromantic ritual. The ritual works and soon the dead are walking about and chowing down on human flesh. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (also known as Revenge of the Living Dead, Things From the Dead, and Zreaks) was directed by Bob Clark. This low-budget zombie film is the third film of director Bob Clark, who later became famous for directing the films Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Porky's.The film was shot in 14 days on a budget of $70,000. Clark employed some of his college friends on it. This is truly a great film within the genre. Had I seen this as a kid, I would have had nightmares for years. It's not so much that the special effects are good, or that the zombies look like real walking dead, nor that the plot is especially believable. It's just that the entire movie is so damned creepy.The way it unfolds makes your flesh crawl. The zombies are really disturbing. And there is something about how aggressive they are that will stick with you long after the movie is over. A few years ago there was an announcement that Gravesend was going to re-make the film. It was supposed to start filming in 2011. I hope the deal fell through because it could never improve on this movie.

johnstonjames not all horror movies have to have a large scale budget and slick polish to be scary. not everything can be 'The Omen' or 'The Exorcist'. personally i think cheapie creepers like this one can be the scariest.this movie was a prelude to much of the horror genre. this pre-dated direct to home video videotaped horror, it features a book of the dead bound in human flesh, and it was well before zombie flicks were filmed in color. it also had a ending similar to Cronenberg's 'It Came From Within' which was a few years later. this film really was one of the first of it's kind.pretty much dime store production values to begin with, it still seems cheaply made but effective. it really is the ideas here that work the best. desecration of the dead, satanic verses, necromancy and necrophilia, all really obscene and profane subject matter. i've always felt it was the subject matter not the budget that make the film. and the subject matter here is very creepy.so much has been overplayed since this time that it's probably difficult for younger audiences to appreciate how effective this film once was and still is in my opinion.this truly is a evil and despicable little film, and it embodies the spirit of what horror movies are all about. they don't make 'em like this anymore which is probably a good thing because we'd all be scared to pieces. try watching this one alone in the dark.

Woodyanders A flaky theatrical group led by the arrogant and obnoxious Alan (deliciously essayed with lip-smacking hammy brio by co-writer Alan Ormsby) go to a small island. Alan inadvertently resurrects the moldy old corpses from a nearby cemetery after reciting a spell from a grimoire. Director/co-writer Bob Clark does a bang-up job of creating and sustaining a genuinely spooky and unsettling misty midnight-in-the-graveyard gloom-doom ooga booga atmosphere, further jazzes things up with a wickedly funny line in spot-on sardonic humor (the biting, barbed, insult-laden dialogue is often quite amusing and definitely keeps things buzzing throughout), and really pulls out all the stops with the supremely grisly and harrowing climax with the angry zombies attacking the group as a large seething mass. The remote island setting adds an extra unnerving feeling of vulnerability and isolation. The zombies are truly scary and hideous-looking. The game cast have a ball with their colorfully quirky parts: While Ormsby clearly dominates the whole show with his gloriously over-the-top scenery-chewing histrionics, he nonetheless receives sturdy support from Anya Ormsby as the kooky Anya, Jane Daly as the sweet, lovely Terry, Valerie Mamches as the sarcastic Val, Jeff Gillen as dim-witted lunk Jeff, Roy Engleman as the mincing, effeminate Roy, and Seth Sklarey as ghastly ghoul Orville Dunworth (there's a nicely icky suggestion of necrophilia in the scenes between Alan and Orville). Both Jack McGowan's rather rough and grainy, but still occasionally striking cinematography and Carl Zittrer's odd, droning score are up to speed. Although a tad slow in spots and certainly ragged around the edges, this movie overall sizes up as essential viewing for devout fans of 70's oddball horror cinema.