It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of those Indie B Films that is so awful that it's good. Remember that it's a COMEDY-Horror when watching - it is not a pure Horror flick.It takes the first hour of the film to build the story and suspense before the zombies arise. That first hour is my favorite part of the film.I was born in 1972 and grew up with the 70s humor - stupid dark humor like in this film - so it's right up my alleyway. This is the first time in years I've seen this movie and it's great to watch again - even though it's a mess of a film.7/10

It wasn't until the VHS boom that I was finally able to see this film. I watched it and wasn't all that impressed having built up my expectations based on a poster I'd seen and word of mouth on the movie. Sure it was a decent horror film but by this time I'd seen three George Romero zombie films and countless others as well. This movie lacked the fine tuning of those when it came to quality of production, screen writing, etc.So now the movie comes out from VCI in Blu-Ray format. They've released it earlier in standard DVD format but this was a special edition. Has it improved in the 44 years since it was first released? Truth be told, yes it has. I was surprised at how much better it seemed after all this time. Not only that but the quality of the print here, remastered by VCI for this edition, actually made a difference as well. No washed out tones, not scenes too dark to see in and sharper than before, enough so that the titles seemed to pop off the screen.The movie is definitely 70s material with a hip acting troupe taking a small boat out to a mysterious island that director Alan (Alan Ormsby) says is haunted and filled with the dead bodies of murderers and criminals. The island does have a huge graveyard in it, one that we saw a gruesome ghoul of a creature digging in and attacking the caretaker. Alan moves his group through the wooded areas of the island, across the graveyard and to an old abandoned building that they break into.He has brought the troupe here with the intent of raising the dead with a book of demonic spells calling upon Satan to help him. At the same time what might be his bigger objective is to insure that all members are put in their place, beholden to him for a paycheck and willing to do whatever he tells them to. Their inclusion in this ceremony is just an example of his control over their lives.The group heads to the cemetery and digs up a grave, Alan speaks the spell in the book and…well I'll leave that surprise for those who haven't seen the film. Once that finishes he orders the group to take the body that was in the grave back to the house where he talks to it, ridicules it and basically tempts fate with his desecration of a corpse. Stereotypical characters surround him from the diva to the handsome lead actor to the Trippe backstage assistant who seems to see something mystical in all things. Eventually all come together when the spell that Alan uttered actually raises the dead and people begin to fall under their attacks. Just who if any will survive and how they can fight this evil waits to be seen.The first thing many should know about this film is that it was directed by Bob Clark, listed here as Benjamin Clark. If that name sounds familiar it should. Clark went on to direct the cult classic horror film BLACK Christmas, then created/directed the PORKY'S movies, the great Sherlock Holmes movie MURDER BY DECREE and eventually A Christmas STORY, that perennial favorite come Christmas time. When this film was made he was just starting out having directed only two other features by this time. What he accomplished here with a minuscule budget and an aspiring cast is quite good actually. There is some dialogue that is questionable when it comes to being believed but much of it rings true. You can actually believe that these characters are saying what was written. The hippie/Trippe portions that are found might seem dated at best but there were plenty of movies using that same style of dialogue at the time.The movie itself offers a few jump moments and actually does have some truly scary parts that will be sure to haunt the dreams of young viewers who are allowed to watch. The movie is unrated and doesn't include any nudity but the gore effects (quite well for the time) and mentions of Satan will make this a movie parents will want to offer supervised if at all. For most it will be a harmless creature feature, one that terrified their parents years ago but might seem mild for kids these days.Look, I grew up with the drive-in as a source of entertainment with new movies twice a week. Some were the best Hollywood had to offer at the time, some were low budget films that were coming out and many of the second features were movies that were there just to offer a second film. Those movies were made by people who loved movies, who wanted to make the attempt at creating something original and who wanted to see their efforts on the big screen. That the people behind this went on to make bigger films (those noted by Clark as well as Ormsby going on to write MY BODYGUARD, CAT PEOPLE and THE SUBSTITUTE) shows that in some of the smallest films there is talent waiting to explode. That they could make a movie this good with no budget speaks volumes as well. Kudos to VCI for making sure that a movie like this isn't lost and has received such caring treatment. If you love horror movies then this is a must have for your collection.

Judging by its title I was not going to expect any award winning movie but seriously this is surely one of the worst horror movies I have seen. I thought it was going to be at least a bit funny or entertaining but not it was a bore and a drag from start to end. The only reason I kept watching was because it was part of a Challenge I'm participating in. The 1 point I'm giving it is for the nice make-up of the zombies and the sequence where they come out of their graves that was cool. For the rest the movie is basically one hour of nonsense of how a group of young hippie people will wake up the dead which is supposed to be funny. The lame jokes didn't even give me chuckle. Than we get less than half an hour of zombie invading the cabin which looks like a bad parody of Night of the Living Dead. Not scary, not funny, not entertaining. At least those losers did what they deserved in the end but it's a long long wait. Puzzling that this one still rates above 5 on average. I'm amazed they almost filled 1 and an half hour of film for such a lame story. Erotic horror parodies are surely more entertaining to watch than this one. Maybe some nudity would have helped this one, but I sincerely doubt it. Maybe a very trimmed version of it would have worked as an episode of a comedy horror show.

I'd like to start by acknowledging how much I dig old school schlock, cult classics, obscure gems, the bizarre, and of course, just all around bad movies. Even bad movie lovers have their limits. One thing that I've never been able to tolerate is the dull, the boring and most of all the overrated. Which brings me to this criminally overrated, Florida bore-fest. A film that seemingly everyone likes. A film that is apparently considered by many to be "alot of fun", as well as "genuinely creepy". A film of which I've never heard an unkind word spoken. This needs to change.To me, Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, this film that seemingly everyone just adores, is nothing but 90 minutes of a bunch of wannabe hippie actors playing wannabe hippie actors making smug comments to each other, and spouting lame, pseudo-witty one-liners, while hanging out in a burial ground at some Island, and trying in vain to frighten each other. Although, not really hanging out so much as attempting to raise the dead with their "powers". Yep, hippies with a purpose. The lucky corpse, that may get a second chance at life (or something similar) is a deceased fellow named Orville. The head hippie guy (Alan Ormsby) tries, and tries, and tries to coax Satan into giving him a hand, with his some stupid voodoo ritual, or black magic, or whatever the hell. Of course these idiots underestimate the black arts, as well as the man downstairs, and you guessed it... All hell breaks loose. So, yeah. the actual storyline finally starts rolling, and contrary to what absolutely everyone else says, it ain't that groundbreaking, and it ain't "one of the greatest zombie flicks of the 70's. I guess it's semi-atmospheric, and I have seen worse locations, but What an annoying movie... It's just dumb. Now, I'm hearing that there's gonna be a remake some time in the near future. If this matters to you, then that surely makes one of us. If it's really quality 70's schlock, which actually deserves its reputation, that you're after, my advice to you would be to go for something more like Blood Freak, or The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are here! And, so, I've pretty much accepted the fact that you'll most likely consider my not-so-well-thought-out review to be completely worthless, as you'll most likely adore this garbage, just like everyone else, proving once again that I am truly alone in my disgust and total lack of interest in Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things. Well, whatever. That title still doesn't make any sense. 2/10