Back from the Dead

If like movies of people talking to each other, then boy this one is for you! Pretty much this whole movie is just scenes of people talking. They show a dog for a couple minutes and there's like a scene and a half where someone actually does something. This movie is worse than Manos: The Hands of Fate. This movie is about black magic and being possessed. So, if that stuff is up you alley, maybe you will like it. I don't know, not for me. (...I just wanted to write a short review, but I'm still 40 characters short of the minimum required.) Maybe you'll like it. Just my thoughts. Have a good day.

After his new wife Mandy (Peggy Castle) has a seizure, Dick Anthony (Arthur Franz) finds that she has become possessed by the spirit of his first wife Felicia, who drowned six years earlier. Dick's sister-in-law Kate (Marsha Hunt) suspects that Felicia's mother is somehow responsible and goes to occultist Maitre Renall (Otto Reichow) for help.

Back From the Dead is one of the earliest horror movies to deal with the subject of Satanic cults and of possession, sub-genres that would become much more popular in the late-'60s and early-'70s thanks to films such as Rosemary's Baby and The Exorcist.

The reason this one isn't better known is that, despite its intriguing premise, the script is strictly second-rate and the pacing dreary. Director Charles Marquis Warren is clearly out of his comfort zone, his stock-in-trade being the Western, and he fails to conjure up any real atmosphere or suspense, the overly talky material not helping matters.

Castle is captivating as Mandy/Felicia, her beauty one reason to seek out the film, but this is an unremarkable movie on the whole, one that ends in a muddled and rushed manner as though even Warren had grown tired of it.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Charles Marquis Warren; Produced by Robert Stabler for Regal Films; Released by 20th Century-Fox. Screenplay by Catherine Turney from her novel; Photography by Ernest Haller; Edited by Leslie Vidor; Music by Raoul Kraushaar. Starring Peggy Castle, Arthur Franz, Marsha Hunt, Evelyn Scott, Marianne Stewart and Don Haggerty.

Supernatural terror outing concerning a second wife who is haunted by the lingering presence of her predecessor. The film benefits from the extensive use of the "lady in a white nightgown" and the "waves pounding against the rocks" bits of Gothic schtick.

This movie managed to pack a lot into its short length, was well acted and didn't go over-the-top, as too many horror/thriller movies tend to do, especially when part of the plot is about Satanism/devil worship/alternative religion, whatever you want to call it. That so often leads to a lot of melodrama, with black hoods and chanting, and a lot of anti-GOD remarks, but thankfully, that doesn't happen here. Instead, you get quiet remarks like, "You have your religion, I have mine", and while there are a few of those sacrificial scenes, they're part of the story, not thrown in for effect.

Peggy Castle did a great job in her dual role, never overacting, and very convincing as she transformed from one woman to the other. In fact, all the acting was good, and it makes you feel (despite the subject matter) that you're watching something from real life, happening to real people and how they deal with it.

The music was perfect, setting the tone and blending with the story, rather than overpowering it.

My only complaint is the fate of that dog, who was too wise for his own good. There was no fooling him, but why couldn't they just have had him run away??? I might have given the movie another star if they had.

I recommend this for anyone who likes the supernatural but doesn't like it overdone.

Dick (Arthur Franz) is puzzled. While his first wife, Felicia, died long ago, suddenly after listening to a weird record, his second wife becomes possessed with the soul of the first wife! Oh, and the first wife just happens to be evil and will do ANYTHING to keep this new body. Can Dick or his nice sister-in-law (Marsha Hunt) manage to put things right and bring back the second wife once and for all? Or, is this simply a case where it's too late...and she's been repossesed?

In some ways, the plot to "Back from the Dead" is like taking Daphne Du Maurier's "Rebecca" and injecting it with EVIL and the supernatural...or perhaps a bit of LSD! Either way, it makes for a strange yet watchable horror/supernatural film...one worth seeing IF you like the genre and have a high tolerance for the silly.