Wednesday, November 2, 2022

The Dead One (1961)

One of the earliest zombie movies in colour, quite terrible though reasonably interesting.

John (John McKay) and his new bride Linda (Linda Ormond) head up to the house in Louisiana which John has inherited. His cousin Monica (Monica Davis) already lives there and isn't that happy about John's arrival. She is into the voodoo cult which John dismisses as superstition in his typical bossy 1960s male way. 

At night Monica summons her recently deceased brother Jonas (Clyde Kelly) from the grave as a zombie (in a tuxedo). She sends him to kill Linda though he gets confused and kills a woman who was also staying in the house (Darlene Myrick) instead. John is still dismissive though soon realises the voodoo power is real...

A short movie though takes such an incredible amount of time to get going that it feels much longer. Not a terribly exciting story though an interesting example of a US indie film. One of the first two zombie films in colour, the other being Dr Blood's Coffin.