Death Curse of Tartu

An archaeologist and his students go looking for Indian artifacts at a burial mound in the Florida Everglades. Unfortunately for them, this mound belongs to Tartu, a long-dead medicine man who has the power to shape-shift into various animals from beyond the grave.

Inventive and quite entertaining film with convincing animal attacks and an appealingly unique setting in the weedy depths of the Everglades. There's also some unintentional humor to be had, such as one of the idiotic students dancing with a wooden branch as if it were a cane. Naturally, he looks like a total moron in the process. The film sports a solid ending involving quicksand, and a scene of Tartu rising out of his tomb makes for a particularly striking image.

Worth a look, though it's far from great.

This is a semi-professional low-budget horror film that works surprisingly well. There's some really nice color photography (shot in the Florida Everglades), and although most of the action occurs outdoors in bright sunshine the director still manages to create a powerful atmosphere of lurking menace. This is partly accomplished by the simple (but effective) device of having Native American chanting audible on the soundtrack during almost the entire film; this really begins to work on the nerves after a while. (The film's characters claim the chanting is coming out of the ground.) And the mummified title character is a sight to behold.

In the Florida swamps there is an Indian burial ground that is protected by Tartu,a 100 year old dead"witch doctor".He will leave his tomb in the form of an animal of nature to kill defilers of the grounds.(Okay, being part Indian I can tell you that the term "witch doctor"didn't apply to us. Medicine Man thank you).

You just know that some white men are going to defile the grounds with an archeological dig.The point man and a professor, his wife and 4 cannon fodders, I mean students, dismiss an Indian's warning about the curse of Tartu.So they go deep into the swamp to the grounds.There the obnoxious students make out, dance to bad rock and swim in the swamp. Yeah, that is always a smart move.

Ol' Tartu gets mighty upset with the gang and starts to bump them off one by one.The creepiest kills are via snake(yuck). Who will survive the creepy ordeal?

Well besides the aforementioned witch doctor screw up there are other pitfalls with this movie. First, there are really not many sympathetic people in this movie.You actually hope a few of them die violently because they are stupid/whiny etc.Being a goober is a requirement in these movies but this is pushing it.While the snake kills were scary, a freshwater attack by shark is kind of goofy (although gory for its time).The music is irritating and distracting.

On the flip side there are great location shots. The swamp and its denizens are creepy. The wind out of nowhere is pretty creepy too.Tartu as a corpse is great as well.Not a bad movie, just average. Give it a look and give it a 5.

The "Something Weird" DVD edition of "Death Curse Of Tartu" is almost impossible to over recommend. Along with the second feature(Sting of Death) you get some truly hilarious commentary between director William Grefe and Frank Hendenlotter. Plus some great extras. The best "Something Weird" has to offer.

A real B-movie, with its intentions being that much bigger than its miniscule budget, DEATH CURSE OF TARTU is a fun flick to watch. It's not inept enough to be considered a PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE kind of movie but there are so many moments when it almost reaches the point of PLAN 9 that those who love really bad movies will like watching this one. For instance, the crocodile (or is it an alligator?) running after the screaming bimbo, who runs for several miles, only to have the croc right behind her. I didn't know crocs could run that fast. The living Tartu walking around with skin colored tights has to be seen to be believed. And the acting is uniformly bad. Hearing the drums every time Tartu started his killings reminded me of Gilligan's Island, which, in an odd way, sorta befits this unintentional comedy.

DEATH CURSE OF TARTU is available on Something Weird DVD and makes a great double feature with STING OF DEATH.