Cujo108 An archaeologist and his students go looking for Indian artifacts at a burial mound in the Florida Everglades. Unfortunately for them, this mound belongs to Tartu, a long-dead medicine man who has the power to shape-shift into various animals from beyond the grave.Inventive and quite entertaining film with convincing animal attacks and an appealingly unique setting in the weedy depths of the Everglades. There's also some unintentional humor to be had, such as one of the idiotic students dancing with a wooden branch as if it were a cane. Naturally, he looks like a total moron in the process. The film sports a solid ending involving quicksand, and a scene of Tartu rising out of his tomb makes for a particularly striking image.Worth a look, though it's far from great.

bfan83 A team of young archaeologists who disturb the burial site of an evil Seminole witch doctor. He returns with a vengeance in the form of an animal and knocks off most of the cast. DEATH CURSE OF TARTU is made B-movies are truly made for! From the ridiculous dialogue, to the ludicrous acting, and unbelievable situations. The 50s and 60s were saturated with films of this ilk. It's these kinds of films that set the bar for B-movies today.Despite all the cheesiness, the landscape of the locations were beautiful photographed. Pop this in on a Friday night and enjoy making fun of it with your friends.

moycon I vaguely recalled this creepy movie from watching it years and years ago on Elvira's Movie Macabre. It was a movie I had no clue what the title was but certain scenes were forever burned into my memory. After the internet came along, I began searching for some of the old horror movies from my childhood. This one took some time finding because I could have sworn it was a B&W film. (If I had to guess I watched it on a B&W TV) After checking out several old movies including Omoo Omoo the Shark God and not seeing anything that I recalled, I literally stumbled upon Death Curse of Tartu for sale used on VHS one day and had in in my movie collection for probably a year before watching it. After the first few minutes it became clear this was the movie I had watched!!Don't let others dissuade you, this is a GREAT spook movie! No where else will you see a beefy dead shape shifting Indian chasing teens through the Florida Everglades for disturbing his sacred ground with their go-go dancing in such vibrant color! (I actually turned the color to B&W the first time I watched this flick so I could watch it as I remembered it) The movie is obviously VERY low budget, but to me, it just adds to it's charm. As hokey as it is in parts, the death scenes are shocking and creepy. Naturally when SWV released this movie I HAD to upgrade. If you haven't had the pleasure and like fun, older spook flicks, I highly recommend this one.

Paul Andrews Death Curse of Tartu is set in the Florida Everglades where Ed (Fred Pinero) & his wife Julie Tison (Babette Sherrill) are anthropology teachers who are educating some teens out in the field. They are supposed to meet up with Ed's mate Sam Gunter (Frank Weed (!) who is also listed in the credits as 'Animal Trainer') who isn't where he 's supposed to be, like a typical woman Julie begins to worry for no reason but it seems that she might be right to worry as they discover an ancient tablet of rock with some ancient writing on it which talks about an incident some 400 years ago when some local witch doctor named Tartu (Doug Hobart) died & put a curse on the land (well, he probably put the curse on the ground before he died), the curse states that anyone who violates his burial ground will meet a horrible death at the hands of an animal, or something like that. Ed, being the level headed guy that he is, thinks it's nonsense but when two of his students Tommy (Gary Holtz) & Joann (Maurice Stewart) are attacked & killed by a shark he might have to rethink...Written & directed by William Grefe Death Curse of Tartu is quite simply one really bad film, it's as simple & straight forward as that. The script is a joke, it's awful it really is. For a start it is incredibly boring to sit through, there are so many drawn out scenes & sequences here it's conceivable the term 'padding' was coined for this film while most of it is just dull people walking through the Everglades getting from 'A' to 'B' & not doing much when they eventually get there either. The 60's inspired dialogue is embarrassingly bad, did people really talk like this even in the mid 60's? I have my doubts with lines like 'Cindy your a real drag' inspiring bouts of laughter from me. Damn, I hate this film. The character's are poor, the whole film is utterly predictable & without any sub-plots extremely one dimensional & dull. Nothing is explained that well, the whole nature theme is muddled & has little impact & it lacks any decent exploitation elements. Death Curse of Tartu is an absolute waste of time with no redeeming features, do yourself a favour & don't bother.Director Grefe sure knows how to put his audience to sleep, this thing is so boring it makes a party political broadcast look exciting. There are constant boring shots of the Everglade area & some of it's wildlife. The murders are all committed by animals as in the curse but don't expect much violence or gore. There is one funny bit at the start though when a huge Python literally jumps out of a tree & wraps itself around someone, I didn't know snakes had the ability to jump sideways out of trees, did you? I also have to mention the almost constant sound of drums in the background, after about an hour of it it was really getting on my nerves.The budget for this might not have been as low as one thinks, I mean it was hot in colour wasn't it. Then again considering what ended up on screen I'd imagine that's where most of the money went. It's a pretty shabby film set almost entirely in the Everglades & it has an awful soundtrack as well. The acting was poor & there's nothing else to say.Death Curse of Tartu is one seriously crap film, it's just that it's so slow & tedious to watch. The stupid, dull, boring & one track storyline doesn't help much either when I think about it. Not good folks, not good at all. Probably best to avoid this one.