BLOOD
OVERALL
BEASTS
BREASTS
Original title: The Dead One
Director: Barry Mahon
Writer: Barry Mahon
Cast---
John McKay ...  John Carlton
Linda Ormond ...  Linda Carlton
Monica Davis ...  Monica
Clyde Kelly ...  Jonas
Darlene Myrick ...  Bella Bella
Lacey Kelly ...  Lacey
Paula Maurice ...  Kooch Club Proprietress
Robert Henderson   
Wilson Scott  

Runtime: 71 min | 55 min (DVD)
BLOOD OF THE ZOMBIE (1961)

  In the early sixties, zombie cinema was very different than it is today. Tales of voodoo zombies ruled
the imagination of writers and the like. It wouldn't be until 1968 that George Romero would turn zombies
into the lumbering flesh-eaters we know and love today. Until then, though, we had movies like this.  

  John and Linda have just been married. For their honeymoon, they are heading to the New Orleans
plantation that John has just inherited. But first, he tours the French Quarter with his new bride and
meets up with old friends, showing her how scummy and sleazy he once was before he got the old ball
and chain strapped to his leg. Linda wants to stay in town longer, but John feels he should hurry along
to the plantation and deal with his cousin Monica, who has been living at the house. She is also a
voodoo priestess, and raises her zombie brother Jonas (who has long hair and looks like Keith
Richards) from the grave to do her evil bidding. Her bidding at the moment is to kill Linda so John will
leave.

  He arrives at the Kenilworth plantation and finds Monica a stubborn bitch. She feels that she and her
brother Jonas still rule Kenilworth, even if their grandfather's Will read that when John gets married
everything is his. That night, Monica rouses her slaves (or servants) and holds the voodoo ritual to
awaken her decomposing brother. John and Linda hear the voodoo drums and leave the house to
investigate. Monica sends her brother into the house to murder Linda, but finds Bella instead. Bella was
a stripper the couple picked up on the side of the road on their way to the plantation. I've skipped her
story until now when she dies in Linda's stead. The couple returns to find Bella missing and go looking
for her. They find her body in the yard and call the police. Monica sees the body as well and realizes
that Jonas has killed the wrong girl. She rounds up the voodoo squad and starts the ritual again. As
Jonas approaches his crypt to get some rest, he is called back into service and stumbles toward the
house again.

  John hands Linda a gun and locks her in the bedroom while he explores the grounds for the source of
the voodoo drums. He finds the voodoo shack and busts in on the ceremony, but is captured by a burly
slave (servant, butler?). Meanwhile, Linda cowers in her bedroom when Jonas breaks down the door
and shuffles toward her slowly to strangle her. John manages to get free and throws the voodoo drums
out a window, causing the ceremony to finish abruptly and sending Jonas back to his grave without
finishing the job. John returns but doesn't believe Monica's story, so they hurry to the family crypt to see
if Jonas really is alive and of course they find the shambling zombie heading home. John empties his
gun into the ghoul to no avail, then Monica shows up to warn Jonas about the sunrise and how
dangerous it is. The cops show up then and shoot and kill Monica accidentally. Of course this pisses
Jonas off and as he rushes the cops, he steps into a ray of morning sunlight and evaporates into
nothing. With Monica gone, nothing stands in the way of John and Linda's plan to sell the place and they
couldn't be happier to be rid of the rotting old plantation.

  Directed by Barry Mahon (The Adventures of Busty Brown, The Diary of Knockers McCalla), who's
idea of directing is filming everything in a wide shot, this old-fashioned voodoo zombie movie plays more
like a Southern chamber drama than an all-out zombie romp. The film isn't terrible, and the story is
sensible enough, but the problem is that it is incredibly dull. It takes too long to get started and for an
incredibly short movie like this it makes it feel top heavy. The last twenty minutes are entertaining with
yellow-faced Jonas wandering around, killing, or trying to kill, women. But the long haul before it is
tedious and yawn-inducing. This is strictly for zombie completists or the occasional Barry Mahon fan...if
any exist that is.

                                                                
                                                                                                          - Jose Prendes
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BLOOD
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Blood of the Zombie (1961)
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