Paul Brian McCoy" />
Psycho Drive-In logo
Search
  • PDI Press
    Featured
    • BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

      Paul Brian McCoy
      January 17, 2022
      Fiction, PDI Press, PDI Press Writers
    Recent
    • BETTY WHITE VS THE STUPID WORLD: The Movie

      John E. Meredith
      January 17, 2022
    • Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Seven)

      John E. Meredith
      January 16, 2022
    • Betty White Vs the Stupid World (Chapter Six)

      John E. Meredith
      January 15, 2022
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    Featured
    • X (2022)

      Paul Brian McCoy
      April 22, 2022
      Movies, Reviews
    Recent
    • X (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      April 22, 2022
    • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      April 15, 2022
    • The Adam Project (2022)

      Nate Zoebl
      March 16, 2022
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
    Featured
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 13, 2018
      Interviews
    Recent
    • Interview with Indie Horror Master, Chris Bickel

      The Final Girl
      July 13, 2018
    • David Black: Carnies, Carnage, and the Creative Chaos of Darkness Visible

      Dan Lee
      March 7, 2017
    • Jaiden Kaine joins the Marvel Universe as new Luke Cage baddie, Zip

      Andre Lamar
      September 29, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Batman: The Killing Joke

      Jason Sacks
      July 28, 2016
    • SDCC 2016 Interviews: The Cast and Creators of Syfy’s Van Helsing

      Dave Hearn, Paul Brian McCoy
      July 27, 2016
    • Wondercon Interview: The Cast of Damien

      Gary Richardson, Laura Akers
      April 16, 2016
  • News
    Featured
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 30, 2019
      DVD/Blu-ray, News
    Recent
    • John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum arrives on Digital 8/23 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD and On Demand 9/10

      psychodr
      July 30, 2019
    • X-Men: Dark Phoenix arrives on Digital 9/3 and 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD 9/17

      Paul Brian McCoy
      July 16, 2019
    • Avengers: Endgame arrives on Digital 7/30 and Blu-ray 8/13

      psychodr
      July 16, 2019
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Breaking
  • X (2022)
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)
  • The Adam Project (2022)
  • The Batman (2022)
  • Entropy (2022)
  • Killer Sofa (2019)
  • RSS
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Who We Be
  • Contact
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
Home
Movies

EZMM Day 1.2: Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972)

Paul Brian McCoy
April 14, 2014
Movies, Reviews, Zombies 101

EZMM2014logo

It’s that time of year again! Time to celebrate the Resurrection with a weeklong plunge into all things zombie! Here’s the history: In 2008, Dr. Girlfriend and I decided to spend a week or so each year marathoning through zombie films that we’d never seen before and I would blog short reviews. And simple as that, the Easter Zombie Movie Marathon was born. For the curious, here are links to 2008, 2009 (a bad year), 2010, 2011, 2012 (when we left the blog behind), and 2013.

This year, we’re going old school and present to you the Easter Zombie Movie Marathon 2014: Classic Edition!

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (part two)

CSPDT-Poster

Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1973)

Directed by: Bob Clark

Written by: Bob Clark & Alan Ormsby

For their first attempts at a feature-length horror film, Alan Ormsby and Bob Clark, took inspiration from the box office success of Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but with a decidedly different stylistic and philosophical approach. Their horror-comedy Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things proved to be exactly what the drive-in movie market was looking for next. It proved so successful in fact, that they were able to raise five times the Children budget for their next horror experiment, the fascinating and disturbing Dead of Night (aka Deathdream). That film played with the idea of a young man dying in Vietnam and returning home as a zombie. Sort of. He’s more of a vampire-type. Regardless, it’s a film that is well-worth watching.

But back to Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things.

CSPDT-Titles

If the name Bob Clark sounds familiar, it should. He also directed the horror classic Black Christmas, the sex romp classic Porky’s, and the holiday classic A Christmas Story. Co-writer Alan Ormsby went on to also script My Bodyguard, Cat People, and Porky’s II: The Next Day.

Children was filmed in two weeks for a budget somewhere between fifty and seventy thousand dollars with Ormsby providing much of the zombie make-up effects and starring as the mean-spirited and annoying leader, also named Alan, of a small theater troupe. It’s a decidedly low-budget affair that spends the majority of its 87 minute runtime establishing that the cast of characters are insufferable and kind of deserve what’s coming to them.

Or coming for them, if you will.

They’re very much like the kids who show up a couple of years later in Tobe Hooper’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre; self-absorbed, obnoxious, and symbolic of a generation that has gone off the tracks somehow from the ideals of the Sixties. Here there are blatant references to murder cults at a time when the Manson Family murders of Sharon Tate and six others were still fresh in the minds of everyone, and the theater troupe itself is a den of backstabbing, abuse of power, and empty aspirations of creativity.

CSPDT-Orville-Resting

The group, under Alan’s leadership, boat out to an island of buried criminals just off the coast of Miami, for a night of devil worshipping and witchcraft. Using a grimoire and a corpse they’ve dug up (named Orville), Alan performs a ritual with the coerced help of the troupe that is intended to raise and enslave the dead. When nothing happens, Alan melodramatically curses Satan to the mockery of the rest of the group. Not to be denied his entertainment, Alan orders them to bring Orville back to the cemetery caretaker’s abandoned house for more insults, degradations, and corpsal abuse until the dead finally do rise and no one gets out alive.

If there’s a major complaint about the film, one could complain that it’s not until the final half hour of the film that the dead actually rise; and by then you’re kind of rooting for them. Although anyone who has spent time doing Community Theater will recognize these characters. That they are performers allows the script some leeway with the witty banter and theatrical flourishes of the dialogue, but it’s going to put off some viewers, I know.

CSPDT-Alan

For me, however, it’s the gleefully nihilistic undercurrent of the film that makes it a classic. At least in Night of the Living Dead, the script held out the opportunity for hope only to snatch it away at the end. Here, the strongest voice in the film, Alan’s, is hopelessly bleak. He glorifies the idea of a meaningless world where “man is a machine that manufactures manure” and the dead are just clay and bone – worthless except as playthings for the living.

In a sense, it’s not just the dead that Alan rages against, but the world itself. He’s the despot of a tiny community that hangs on his every pronouncement – and his paychecks – to the extent that the troupe is willing to take his verbal and psychological abuse in their own vapid desires for fame. The present that he lives in is one where all the dreams of art and beauty have collapsed in on themselves and when push comes to shove, he’s just a clerk with delusions of grandeur; and enough money to coerce others to be his “children.”

CSPDT-No-Escape

And yet for all his proclamations of the emptiness of life, when the dead come for him, he clambers for more time – even going so far as to throw his death-obsessed (and slightly insane) girlfriend Anya (played by his real wife, Anya Ormsby) to the zombies. It’s a brilliant moment where Clark slows everything down and Anya seems to almost float away into the crowd of walking corpses while even the dead seem shocked by Alan’s betrayal.

The final scene of the film is bleak, as the zombies pile onto Alan’s boat and set off to invade Miami. It’s very similar to the closing scene a few years later in David Cronenberg’s Shivers (aka They Came from Within) and satisfies the very EC Comics feel to the entire proceedings.

For those interested, the 35th Anniversary Exhumed Edition DVD release below is a nice one, loaded with extras and interviews, letterboxed, and featuring the most complete cut of the film available.

APPIP ERROR: amazonproducts[
AccessDeniedAwsUsers|The Access Key Id AKIAIIK4RQAHE2XK6RNA is not enabled for accessing this version of Product Advertising API. Please migrate your credentials as referred here https://webservices.amazon.com/paapi5/documentation/migrating-your-product-advertising-api-account-from-your-aws-account.html.
]
(Visited 257 times, 1 visits today)

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Share on Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Alan OrmsbyBob ClarkChildren Shouldn't Play With Dead ThingsEaster Zombie Movie MarathonEZMMEZMM 2014Paul Brian McCoyzombies

EZMM Day 1.1: Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Agents of SHIELD 1.17 “Turn, Turn, Turn”

About The Author

monsterid
Paul Brian McCoy
Co-Founder / Editor-in-Chief / Dreamweaver

Paul Brian McCoy is the Editor-in-Chief of Psycho Drive-In. His first novel, The Unraveling: Damaged Inc. Book One is available at Amazon US & UK, along with his collection of short stories, Coffee, Sex, & Creation (US & UK). He recently contributed the 1989 chapter to The American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1980s (US & UK). He also kicked off Comics Bulletin Books with Mondo Marvel Volumes One (US & UK) and Two (US & UK) and PDI Press with Marvel at the Movies: 1977-1998 (US & UK), Marvel at the Movies: Marvel Studios (US & UK), and Spoiler Warning: Hannibal Season 1 - An Unauthorized Critical Guide (US & UK). Paul is also unnaturally preoccupied with zombie films and sci-fi television. He can be found babbling on Twitter at @PBMcCoy.

Daily Top Ten

  • The Magicians 1.09 "The Writing Room"The Magicians 1.09 “The Writing Room” by Allison Mattern
  • Muppets Most Wanted (2014)Muppets Most Wanted (2014) by Jessica Sowards
  • Women in Horror: Soledad MirandaWomen in Horror: Soledad Miranda by Serdar Yegulalp
  • Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012)Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning (2012) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Supernatural 10.05 “Fan Fiction”Supernatural 10.05 “Fan Fiction” by Laura Akers
  • House of Wax (2005)House of Wax (2005) by The Final Girl
  • Advance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-rayAdvance Review: The Legend of Tarzan (2016) Blu-ray by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Anything Joes: S01E37 - G.I. Joe #12 / Three Strikes For Snake-Eyes!Anything Joes: S01E37 – G.I. Joe #12 / Three… by Greg Engle
  • The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006) by Corin Totin
  • Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers Advance DVD ReviewThor and Loki: Blood Brothers Advance DVD Review by Paul Brian McCoy
400x400 GI Joe Funko Banner

Weekly Top Ten

  • The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)The Final Girl: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy”Adventure Time 6.06 “Breezy” by Dave Hearn
  • Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010)Women in Horror: I Spit on Your Grave (2010) by The Final Girl
  • House of Wax (2005)House of Wax (2005) by The Final Girl
  • Shakespeare's Macbeth (2010)Shakespeare’s Macbeth (2010) by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Scream 4: Sidney’s Final KillScream 4: Sidney’s Final Kill by The Final Girl
  • Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985)Sick Flix: Guinea Pig 2 – Flower of Flesh and Blood (1985) by Corin Totin
  • Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975)Sick Flix: Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975) by Corin Totin
  • Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers Advance DVD ReviewThor and Loki: Blood Brothers Advance DVD Review by Paul Brian McCoy
  • Drive-In Saturday: Heavy Metal 2000 (2000)Drive-In Saturday: Heavy Metal 2000 (2000) by Alex Wolfe
400x400 UA Affiliate Banner

FACEBOOK

FACEBOOK

Latest Reviews

  • X (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    April 22, 2022
  • Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    April 15, 2022
  • The Adam Project (2022)

    Nate Zoebl
    March 16, 2022

psychodrivein

Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 412: Good Omens (2014 BBC Radio Dramatisation)

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch was first published in 1990 and was a comedy about Revelations and Armageddon.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #GoodOmens #NeilGaiman #TerryPratchett #BBC #MarkHeap #PeterSerafinowicz #JimNorton #AdamThomasWright #JosieLawrence #Charlotterichie #ColinMorgan #CliveRussell #JuliaDeakin #BBCRadio
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Anything Joes: Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Anything Joes: S01E36 - Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2022

Greg & Jaren recount their experience meeting Larry Hama at the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2022. Plus, the latest news, recent acquisitions, and listener mail!
---
Listen to Greg and Jaren's podcast at the link in our profile!

@anythingjoespod #AnythingJoes #GIJoe #Mezco #LarryHama
Today at https://psychodrivein.com X (2022) Ti W Today at https://psychodrivein.com

X (2022)

Ti West is a director I haven’t fully enjoyed, though I would say X is his most accomplished film to date for me. 
---
Read more of Nate's review at the link in our profile!

#X #TiWest #MiaGoth #Slasher
Today at https://psychodrivein.com Lost in Transl Today at https://psychodrivein.com

Lost in Translation 411: The Secret of Marvel's Success

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been dominating the box office since the release of Iron Man.
---
Read more of Scott's article at the link in our profile!

#LostInTranslation #Marvel #MarvelStudios #MarvelCinematicUniverse #MCU #IronMan #Avengers #MoonKnight #WandaVision #Hawkeye #RobertDowneyJr
Today at https://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2022 Day Today at https://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2022 Day 9: All of Us Are Dead S1 E7-12

There are enough plot threads left dangling to give us a good launching point for a future second season, but if that doesn’t happen, All of Us Are Dead can stand as a solid one-and-done.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2022 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #EasterZombieMovieMarathon2022 #AllOfUsAreDead #Netflix #LeeJaiKyoo #KimNamSu #ChunSungIl #JooDongGeun #YooInSoo #ChoYiHyun #OhHyeSoo #YoonChanYoung #LeeEunSaem #YangHanYeoi #JinHoEun #HaSeungRi #SonSangYeon #zombies
Today at https://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2022 Day Today at https://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2022 Day 8: Return of the Living Dead III (1993)

Return of the Living Dead III is, quite simply, one of the best examples of the genre.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2022 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #EasterZombieMovieMarathon2022 #zombies #ReturnOfTheLivingDead3 #BasilWallace #BrianYuzna #JTrevorEdmond #KentMcCord #MelindaClarke #SarahDouglas
Today at https://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2022 Day Today at https://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2022 Day 7: Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)

While I really didn’t like Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City very much, I want to give it a fair shake.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2022 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #EasterZombieMovieMarathon2022 #ResidentEvil #ResidentEvilWelcomeToRaccoonCity #WelcomeToRaccoonCity #JohannesRoberts #RobbieAmell #HannahJohnKamen #TomHopper #DonalLogue #NealMcDonough #KayaScodelario #AvanJogia #MarinaMazepa
Today at https://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2022 Day Today at https://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2022 Day 6: Kingdom: Ashin of the North (2021)

Vengeance. That’s what Ashin is doing. That’s what she’s been doing from behind the scenes all along.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2022 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #EasterZombieMovieMarathon2022 #Zombies #TheKingdom #TheKingdomAshinOfTheNorth #AshinOfTheNorth #Ashin #Netflix #JunJiHyun #KimEunHee #KimRoiHa #KimSeongHun #KimShiAh #ParkByungEun
Today at https://psychodrivein.com EZMM 2022 Day Today at https://psychodrivein.com

EZMM 2022 Day 5: Wyrmwood: Apocalypse (2022)

Wyrmwood: Apocalypse is definitely a more mature film from definitely more experienced filmmakers.
---
Read more of Paul's review at the link in our profile!

#EZMM #EZMM2022 #EasterZombieMovieMarathon #EasterZombieMovieMarathon2022 #zombies #WyrmwoodApocalypse #KiahRoacheTurner #TristanRoacheTurner #BiancaBradey #JayGallagher #LukeMcKenzie #JakeRyan #NickBoshier #ShantaeBarnesCowan #TasiaZalar
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Latest Columns

  • Anything Joes: S01E37 – G.I. Joe #12 / Three Strikes For Snake-Eyes!

    Greg Engle
    May 11, 2022
  • Lost in Translation 412: Good Omens (2014 BBC Radio Dramatisation)

    Scott Delahunt
    April 29, 2022
  • Anything Joes: S01E36 – Lexington Comic & Toy Convention 2022

    Greg Engle
    April 27, 2022

TWITTER

My Tweets

Look Who's Talking

Oliver Ghingold
Oliver Ghingold - 2/18/2022
Muppet Madness: You’re the Director
Do you still have these tapes? I've been looking everywhere for them! I loved the Interactive Vision...
white swan
white swan - 12/22/2021
The Hills Have Eyes (1977) vs The Hills Have Eyes (2006)
I enjoyed the article though I would never call brutality gorgeous.
Shawn EH
Shawn EH - 10/26/2021
13 Days of Halloween Day 12: Halloween Kills (2021)
Very disappointing, it's true. And very mean-spirited murders of nobodies. And I don't even see how...
RSSTwitterFacebookinstagramtumblr

Archives

Large_rectangle_336X280
All work on this site is Copyright © each individual writer.
  • PDI Press
    • PDI Press Catalog
    • PDI Press Writers
      • Fiction
  • Columns A-D
    • A Fistful of Dollar Comics
    • ABCs of Horror
    • All Binge… No Purge
    • Anything Joes
    • Beautiful Creatures
    • Big Eyes Smart Mouth
    • Big Sleeps and Long Goodbyes
    • Cahiers du Horror
    • Dispatches From the Field
    • Drive-In Saturday
    • Dungeons & D-Listers
  • Columns F-P
    • The Final Girl
    • First Looks… Second Thoughts
    • The Flesh is Weak
    • Innocence and Experience
    • Lost in Translation
    • Page to Screen
    • Popcorn Cinema
    • Psycho Essentials: The ’80s!
  • Columns S-Z
    • Schlock & Awe
    • Shakespeare on Film
    • Shot for Shot
    • Sick Flix
    • Unnatural Selections
    • Versus
    • Video Word Made Flesh
    • We Got Lists
    • Women in Horror
    • The Xeno File
    • Zombies 101
  • Reviews
    • Books
    • Comics
    • DVD/Blu-ray
    • Movies
    • TV
    • Series
  • Interviews
  • News
    • Trailers
  • Psychos
  • Merchandise
%d bloggers like this: