recommended

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Better Late Then Never

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Years ago, a ship sunk and it contained a chest filled with diamonds. However, each expedition that attempted to recover the treasure was eliminated by zombies who guard the wreck! can a new expedition manage to salvage the diamonds once and for all? Or, will they all soon become zombie chow?This is an odd film, as not only do the extras playing zombies act like the living dead but some of the actors playing non-zombies seemed to think they were zombies as well! The acting, in some cases, was simply horrible. My favorite was when one of the women was supposed to be afraid. My daughter and I couldn't tell if this was the case or if she was just having an asthma attack! It also didn't help that the dialog was simply horrible as well. While this could have been a fun little horror film, it's really just an un-fun little horrible film! Dull and rather stupid. So, despite this coming from a respectable studio (Columbia), it looks every bit as bad as a film from an earlier poverty row studio like PRC or Grand National.

The year is 1894 and somewhere off the coast of Africa a crew from the ship "Susan B" raids an ancient temple and seizes a cask full of diamonds. A violent quarrel then erupts within the crew leaving around 10 of them—to include the captain—dead. However, when the crew tries to leave, the dead crew members return and kill them. The "Susan B" is sunk and the diamonds are left in her cargo hold. Many years later an American ship arrives and her captain, "George Harrison" is intent upon getting his hands on the diamonds. With him is his wife, "Mona" (Allison Hayes) and a skilled diver named "Jeff Clark" (Gregg Palmer). What they don't fully realize is that this treasure is guarded by zombies who have been resurrected by a type of voodoo. Neither do they realize just how incredibly strong the zombies are until one of them captures a pretty blonde named "Jan Peters" (Autumn Russell) and Jeff almost dies in the attempt to free her. Still, greed is a powerful force and it gets the best of them as this group continues to try to get this treasure even though 4 or 5 other European groups have died in the attempt over the past 50 years or so. Now, people who aren't accustomed to "old-style zombies" may not like or appreciate this film too much. After all, it's in black and white and the zombies are nothing like what we currently see in the movies today. They don't bite and infect anyone with a virus. And there are no graphic scenes. Additionally, the acting wasn't that great either. But this was what horror films looked like back in the 50's and while it isn't necessarily "scary" by today's standards, it does have some suspense and creepiness all the same. Again though, this film may not appeal to everyone. But I enjoyed it and I rate it as slightly above average all the same.

For all of the critics who rated the film less than 5 stars, well... It is a campy example of 50's B movie making. It isn't supposed to be anything more than that! To its credit, the film has some atmospheric moments. The sets are pretty good and the acting is better than bad. Mona (Allison Hayes) steals the show with her good looks and crazy persona. There are not a lot of production flubs given the low budget. This film compares favorably with other B efforts of the 50's. Check out Allison in the 50 foot woman flick. This was her most famous science fiction role. My advice: watch 'Zombies' it and enjoy it for what it is...!

There's nothing particularly remarkable about "Zombies of Mora-Tau", but it isn't the worst way to pass about an hour of your life. Fans of Eddie Cahn will see the resemblance to his voodoo-themed "Four Skulls of Johnathan Drake" which are a strong contrast to his more modern (and influential) zombie/apocalypse films "Invisible Invaders" and "Creature with the Atom Brain." This places this film in the older tradition of zombie movies, some kind of descendant of "White Zombie" and "I Walked with a Zombie" (both of which are superior to the film in question). The zombies in this film are reanimated sailors who must guard a cursed treasure (remind anyone of any recent mega-hits?). They look pretty silly in their striped shirts; it doesn't look like anyone even thought to make them look a bit aged or anything like that.The film's best asset is Allison Hayes and the scenes involving her character, including the memorable scene where she's clearly a zombie but nobody wants to believe it, so they lead her back to the house and surround her with candles at the old lady's (Marjorie Eaton) insistence. Shades of the old vampire movies and their garlic cloves here. Hayes is lovely and her acting adequate. None of the other leads are particularly memorable.There are a few scenes that will draw unintentional laughter from a modern audience but not all that many. Probably the atmosphere in the film was intense enough to scare some young kids who saw it in the '50s. We have scenes of graveyards and so forth – I think it's quite a nice effect when the old lady shows the group all those graves and when asked who they are for says "they're yours." But I can hardly imagine any person older than 5 who would be scared by this film in the 20th Century because it really doesn't even try that hard. Once you get to the scenes with the underwater treasure search you realize this is, like "Invisible Invaders", more of an action/adventure film than a horror film.It's not nearly as inept as some posters here have said, but it's clearly a movie that didn't have high ambitions. Within the scope of its own goals I would say it is reasonably successful.