Michael_Elliott Tales from the Quadead Zone (1987)* 1/2 (out of 4) A woman (Shirley Latanya Jones) is in her small house with the ghost of her dead son who wants to hear some stories. She sits him down in a chair and gets the book called Tales from the Quadead Zone and reads him two tales. The first story deals with a family of eight who only has enough food to feed four. The second story deals with a brother who steals the corpse of his much more successful and popular brother.Yes, those are the two stories, which might confuse you since the title says "quad" and you might be expected four films. No, you get two and then a wrap-around story dealing with the mother and her ghost child but you have to wonder why a fourth film wasn't added or the title changed. Either way, this here is from filmmaker Chester Novell Turner whose previous movie BLACK DEVIL DOLL FROM HELL is without question one of the zaniest and wickedly bad movies ever made. This one here is just as bad on many levels but at the same time there's no question that both films has a certain charm if you're a fan of bad movies.This thing here is certainly a mess because the first story dealing with the hungry family clocks in what seems like under ten minutes. The story is pretty much set up that the family is hungry and then it's over without any type of conclusion. A real head-scratcher of a sequence. The second story goes on and on and on with the brother constantly talking and laughing at the dead corpse. The first story should have been expanded and the second cut down for sure. Then there's the story with the mother and her dead son, which just drags out to get the running time to a total of 62 minutes! If you're unaware of Chester Novell Turner then you should know that his movies were recorded on a camcorder with unprofessional actors. The camera-work is pretty bad and even worse is that a lot of times the added on music score is so loud that you can't hear the dialogue being said. Apparently the budget of this was just $11,000 and it certainly shows. With that said, there's no question this is a "bad" movie but if you're into these types of films then it's actually fairly entertaining. It's certainly feels long even at just 62 minutes but bad cinema lovers should eat it up. The rest should just avoid.

Woodyanders Chester Novell Turner, the fiercely independent and idiosyncratic Do-It-Yourself cinematic auteur who previously blessed us with the immortal "Black Devil Doll from Hell," returns for his second (and alas final) feature with this exceptionally inept horror anthology clunker. A loopy mother (essayed with an appealing lack of subtlety by Shirley Jones) reads a couple of bizarre stories to the ghost of her dead son. First yarn, "Food For?" - Hunger takes a bitter toll on a dirt poor white trash family. This outing boasts a gloriously ridiculous massacre and one hell of an idiotically abrupt ending. Second anecdote, "The Brothers" -- Sibling rivalry takes a turn for the super twisted when bitter loser Ted (a lame lead performance by Chester's real-life brother Keefe L. Turner) steals the corpse of his recently deceased and much more successful brother Fred so he can get the last laugh by humiliating the dude by dressing him up in a clown outfit and burying him in the basement of his house. This extremely drawn-out tale offers the single most sorry and unscary clown in horror movie history (the bozo's electronically distorted voice renders everything he exclaims almost impossible to understand). The wrap-around segment reaches its own grim and tragic conclusion complete with a spectacularly sidesplitting sequence of clumsily staged domestic violence. Better still, hardcore aficionados of choice crappy celluloid swill will also relish Turner's slack (non)direction, the plodding pace, a monotonous synthesizer score, the ugly shot-on-video cinematography, some shoddy gore, the tin-eared dialogue, the chintzy (far from) special effects, the hopelessly lousy acting from a pitiful no-name cast, and the uproariously atrocious theme song that's sung and written by Chester and Keefe. An absolute cruddy hoot.

mdholman After searching high and low I was finally able to procure a copy of this remarkable film. I have to say, it was worth the trouble. As bad movies go, this is the cream of the crop. Though not as wonderful as the splendidly terrible "Black Devil Doll From Hell", "Quadead" does manage to reach tremendous heights of amusement. Bad movie lovers everywhere should track down this film and marvel at its splendor.

Alan Fare C. M. Turner did it again with TALES... and this time it was even better! Rather then try to carry the entire running time of a movie by holding onto one story, Mr Turner throws out four stories to make it more interesting (?). Shirley Jones returns as the mother of a dead son who returns from the other side with a book, TALES FROM THE QUADEAD ZONE. As she reads the stories to him they come to life on the screen. You just have to see it to believe it but this is one feat to ever make it into the public market. I am a die-hard bad movie enthusiast and I love this flick so if you don't like it, don't say I didn't warn you.