The Curse Of The Living Corpse (1964)

The Curse Of The Living Corpse


 Actor, director, producer, ect Del Tenney partnered with drive-in theater chain owner Alan Iselin to produce a string of low budget horror films, that would be released by Twentieth Century Fox, two of these films were The Horrors Of Party Beach, and The Curse Of The Living Corpse.  The Horrors of Party Beach was a low budget b-horror film that goofed on 1950s creature features, and beach party movies that were popular at the time, and has gone on to be a cult classic.  The Curse Of The Living Corpse, on the other hand is a low budget period horror film, that in is as much of a murder mystery as it is a horror film, and it plays out like a more traditional horror film, though not incredibly original, it does work well, and is effective as a mystery, I honestly didn't see the ending coming, though there were hints along the way.

The Curse Of The Living Corpse was written, directed, and produced by Del Tinney.   The film was distributed by Twentieth Century Fox in 1964, and opened to mostly scathing reviews.   The film has gone on to be a cult classic, often packaged as a double feature with The Horror Of Party Beach, which upon release in some locations was also packaged together as a double feature.  The movie was filmed in Stamford Connecticut.

The Curse Of The Living Corpse stars Helen Warren as Abigail Sinclair, Roy Scheider plays Phillip Sinclair, Margot Hartman plays Vivian Sinclair, Robert Milli plays Bruce Sinclair, Hugh Franklin plays their cousin James Benson, Candace Hilligoss plays his wife Deborah Benson, Jane Bruce plays the cook, Linda Donovan plays the maid Letty, J. Frank Lucas plays the gardener Seth Lucas, Dino Narizzano plays the family attorney Robert Harrington, Paul Haney plays Constable Barnes, George Cotton plays Constable Winters, and William Blood plays the minister.   Most of the cast are relatively unknown actors though Candace Hilligoss also played the lead role in Carnival Of Souls (one of my all-time favourite films), and she got her friend Roy Scheider the role of Phillip.   Roy Scheider went on to become quite a recognizable character starring in films such as Jaws, Jaws 2, The French Connection, Seaquest DSV among many other roles.   The acting in the film is okay, there is nothing great, but the actors all adequately bring their characters to life, I don't think anyone was really bad, just also not great.

I enjoyed this film, it works effectively as a murder mystery film.  I was surprised by the ending, at first I was confused how there could be any mystery to it, because it is set up in a way that you just assume that there won't be a twist, but then at the end there is the twists, out of nowhere, and you start realizing that there were little things dropped along the way that pointed to who it was, and I like how that was done.  Like I said the acting is just mediocre, but not truly bad by any means, but the characters work, most of the characters are despicable people and some of them it is hard to feel any pity for them, but there are a couple characters that seem genuinely good as people, and I felt bad for their fate.   This is by no means a must-see film, but it if you are a fan of cult classic b-horror films then I do recommend checking it out, for example I wish that I could share this one with my mom, she would have really enjoyed it I think, she loved both b-horror films and murder mystery films.    Overall this is a film that is definitely worth watching, so if you find a copy of this, especially as a double feature with The Horror Of Party Beach, I highly recommend picking up a copy. 




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