Zombie

Come on, if you love B drive-in movies this is a must. Stocked entirely with a phoned-in plot, a great Johnny-Quest-like soundtrack, stereotypes (the devil-may-care, hunky romance-writer hero, expendable blacks & Latinos, bimbo wives with stupid jealous husbands, mad scientist, zombies with sunny-side-up eggs over their eyes & bad skin--it's got them all).

Like draftees into the government-sanctioned moral hygiene videos of the '50s & '60s, the C-actors seem quite willing to mutter the screenplay's bizarre malapropisms: Rich guy welcoming guests to dinner at his uncharted island plantation: "If you want those cocktails I'm afraid your'll have to bring them with you. Juarita (?) is an excellent cook. One thing she will not tolerate is food getting cold. Perhaps it's just as well--I have a Borjelais (sic) I'm very proud of. Hard liquor will just dull the palate." The Spanish is even more improvised--as if translated by Google.

No less fun (to me, anyway) for its utter predictability. Cashing in on the James Bond trend for the Busch-&-popcorn drive-in set 50 years ago (though substituting clashes of race and class for the Cold War), the scariest thing about it is the window it offers into prevailing views of (white) manhood, (white) womanhood, and the nefarious darker-skinned people who try stand in their way.

Del Tenney's I Eat Your Skin was filmed in Florida in 1964, under the working title Zombies. Alot of films were made at this time to cash in on the James Bond craze, Like this one. The opening and closing scenes are filmed at Miami's Fountainbleu Hotel, the same hotel where a few scenes of Goldfinger take place. This movie was originally titled Voodoo Blood Bath, but Tenney couldn't find a distributor and didn't have another feature to release along with it for a drive-in double feature. The movie sat on the shelf for years until, in 1971, producer Jerry Gross began searching for a film to release along with his I Drink Your Blood. Gross bought the rights for Tenney's film and retitled it. All of this explains why there is no skin eating in I Eat Your Skin.

I've seen this movie at least a dozen times. This is definately one of those, so bad it's good spook movies. The makeup effects, although cheap, are at the least memorable and not just grease-paint. The acting is also memorable, if only because it's so bad. The Uber macho-ism of lead character Tom Harris (played by a mostly shirtless William Joyce) will make you laugh out loud. I cannot recommend this movie enough. I was more entertained by this flick than the last 3 big budgeted movies I rented from Blockbusters!

I bought the "Elvira" version of this movie.The zombies with eyes that looked like fried sunny side up eggs were hilarious.They didn't have to spend too much on make up or clothing either.There is plenty of action combined with bad acting.The tantalizing and brief skinny dipping female in the early part made it fun to watch.Pretty racy for 1964.I also like the old airplane on the beach.What was an old horror movie with out an airplane.?The girls are pretty and they place a lot of importance on finding a blond virgin.The cheesiness of it is what makes it worth the time.I would recommend this one.Especially if you are a Baby Boomer who was raised on these stinkers.It helps if you like Elvira too.

On all the scenes with the very hairy arms and hands feeding and handling the venonous snakes were filmed at the Miami Serpentarium, those hands belonged to the late William Haast, I'm surprised that wasn't mentioned in the Trivia section. I believe that Mr Haast passed away at over 100 years old in spite of dozens of venomous bites that would have killed an Elephant.

What can I say about this one? It's odd - it uses snake venom modified to create the zombies. The natives believe in human sacrifice but it has to be a blonde virgin female. The movie really is nothing new as far as your average classic zombie movies go but adds its own twist like most all of them do - and it's kind of an odd one.

If you like the older style of zombie films then this one is just "ok" to watch - it's nothing special but not a complete snooze to watch either. Another slightly less than a middle of the road production.

I like the dancers in the film, in fact the scenes of the voodoo priest and his group are the best parts of this film to me. The rest of the film is meh! The acting is lacking but tolerable to watch. And the story, again, is just so-so. Watchable zombie film.

4/10