Bloodwank A solid step ahead for director Curtis Harrington and writer Robert Bloch from their collaboration on The Cat Creature, The Dead Don't Die is a delightfully unhinged and at times surprisingly chilling supernatural mystery, hearkening this time back to the 1930's but doing rather better in capturing the anything goes pulp serial atmosphere of that time. The story has Navy man on leave Don Drake on a mission to clear his brother's name, said brother having been executed for apparently killing his wife. On the trail he gets warned off by strange beauty Vera LaValle, and comes to find that something really rather bizarre is going on. Now although it's been more than a decade since I read Bloch's original story so I can't compare writing and adaptation, but Harrington expertly captures the surreal and melodramatic night- realm of great 20th century horror. Barely any scenes take place in daylight even when the timeline seems to indicate that they should, but the film makes all this night-time scrambling seem perfectly natural, as if the film takes place in some strange, half dreamt but grimly real region where light itself is unnatural and solutions or escape fleeting. Though the story ultimately comes down to traditional zombies stretched into a slightly ill conceived conspiracy, the general atmosphere and smattering of creepy details (like skin crawling dance marathon moments) brings the film into quality disturbing psychotronic territory. The generally great performances do a great deal as well of course, George Hamilton bringing things together as a rock solid, faithful and committed man steadily harrowed by strange circumstance, Reggie Nalder giving real heft to a traditional ghoul role, Ray Milland wearing his tired, worn and corrupt character with easy style and not a little sympathy, and Linda Cristal evocative as the haunted beauty of the film. The pace is somewhat measured and the set pieces (such as they are) evenly spaced, so those seeking swift gratification will surely be disappointed, and the sadly fairly poor quality of most copies of the film currently in circulation may well put off others, but for the dedicates of this kind of cinema, The Dead Don't Die is a definite winner. It's a great example of traditional zombie horror at a time when the Romero paradigm was close to taking over, the cast is classy and the scares still resonant despite the lack of any gruesome or outré shocks. All in all a solid 7/10 from me, highly recommended to fans of this sort of thing.

TheLaughingWolf This long forgotten gem gets my vote as the gr8est zombie movie ever. it was creepy, scary and haunting. Some of DDDs images will stay with you for a long time. George Hamilton does a great job as the lead. I've seen him in a lot of comedic roles and on all those 70's-80's wacky game shows but he pulls this off as a serious actor.I think the biggest mistake horror movies make is when they try too hard to mix comedy in and I was sure that, that was what Hamilton was supposed to do. BOY WAS I Surprised! You won't laugh once. Definitely one for the collection.Buy it... wait till midnight, turn out the lights and enjoy DDD!

Backlash007 ~Spoiler~ While it may be badly dated, The Dead Don't Die is not nearly as bad as other IMDb'ers will have you believe. As I am writing this (check date above) the film has a rating of 3.5. That's a grave injustice. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but 3.5...come on! For a 1975 TV movie, it's not bad. Of course, it was penned by the man who brought us Psycho, Robert Bloch, so that helps. The film deals with George Hamilton trying to find out who's behind the murder that his brother was executed for. Not what you were expecting? The Dead Don't Die is a great horror title, but this movie feels more like a detective story; something you'd find in a hard boiled dime novel. It does deal with zombies and zombie lords, but in a voodoo mysticism-type way. It's not your traditional zombie flick but the super creepy Reggie Nalder (Barlow from Salem's Lot) is among the undead. You know what, forget super creepy. Nalder may be the scariest man to ever stalk the earth. And Ray Milland is no pushover either. If you enjoyed Dead and Buried, check out this little 70's gem.

LionClaw I remembered seeing this movie when it first aired (on NBC, I think), and I seemed to remember it being above average for a TV movie. So I found a copy of it for under $5 and watched it again, nearly 30 years later. Wow, what a difference time and experience make. The premise is an interesting one, and the film relies more on subtlety than shock value. But, man is it slow. I found myself losing interest in it a couple of times. This is a movie that screams to be remade.