The Undertaker and His Pals

"The Undertaker and His Pals" is bizarre, but good for a giggle. It's a dark comedy -- I'm almost ashamed of myself for liking it, but do indeed like it despite myself because it's so off the wall. Yes, folks, cannibalism can be funny. "Mort" the Mortician goes to great lengths to preserve his business. The puns made me snicker despite myself.

My best friend and I stumbled across this while still in high school. It was at Blockbuster in the comedy section, and the title was so striking we felt obligated to rent it. After we got over the initial shock, we laughed out loud and ignored the gratuitous violence.

You gotta love this flick about funeral homes and greasy spoon dinners.I'm sure there's a message here but who cares? Canabalism was never so funny.Maybe I'm sick,but I loved it.What's not to like when a fresh killed victims body part is offered as a daily special at the dinner as the rest is displayed at the funeral home.Sick,yes,but done with flair.

Wow! Miracles like this film never cease to amaze me that they were ever produced. A trio of motorcyclist killers break into various apartments of beautiful, scantily clad females for the express purpose of butchering them with their knives, amputating legs, beating them to death with chains, and so forth. The film has its tongue firmly planted in cheek and never for one moment takes itself the least bit seriously. This film is more of a comedy(or what is suppose to pass for one) than a horror picture, however, due to the grisly deaths and gory glory splattered about the screen definitely has horror elements in the Herschell Gordon Lewis tradition. The film is an oddity and I can say I have never seen anything quite like it. Despite all the bad acting, complete lack of plot, incredibly bad puns and gags, the violence for the sake of violence attitude, and the general cheesiness of the film, the picture is somewhat entertaining. I admit this with guilt as the entire premise of the film is, using understatement, vulgar. Some of the jokes work while most fail. The use of people's last names for the entrees served in the diner were inventive such as leg of lamb and breast of chicken. The changing picture of the boyfriend sailor in the introductory segment made me laugh as did the pacing of the silent movie music when the undertaker chases Thursday(yes a character named after a day who replaces her missing twin sister Friday). Don't look for any kind of sense, however, for it will be a search in vain. The best part of this whole film for me is the movie's tagline, which has to be one of the best ever!

Nicely daft horror comedy with a nice dose of gore, straight from the middle of the sixties! Three motorcyclists seemingly select a victim at random, go to her house and stab her with knives before removing her legs. The victim's parents are then fleeced for cash by the local undertaker, but what connection does he have to the killings? And who are the two sinister guys at the local diner who have taken an interest in PI Harry Glass's assistant? It's up to Harry to get to the bottom of things, although in the end he doesn't do too much.

Full of gore (Hatchets through heads, a Fulci style chain whipping way before Don't Torture a Duckling, an acid bath)and bad humour (the 'meals' served at the diner, the Benny Hill style slapstick), plus buxom sixties babes, the Undertaker and His Pals is a prime slice of cheese served up with sly wink and is a treat for bad movie fans. The end credits say it all man.

"Did you ever think when a hearse drives by, that some day you are going to die?" This is the first sentence in the lyrics of the theme song for this film. Subtle, isn't it? Hell no, it's not, and subtlety is probably the very last thing you should expect to see in this grotesquely absurd and downright demented gore-comedy. He isn't mentioned anywhere in the credits, but the crazed sense of humor, the excessive display of (poor & cheesy) gore, the music and the overall amateurish low-budget production values make this feel like a genuine Herschell Gordon-Lewis movie! Undoubtedly he, The Godfather of Gore, influenced many young filmmakers at that time and "The Undertaker and his Pals" is a fine example to prove this statement. It's a tasteless and simultaneously delicious story about the pact between the undertaker and two restaurant owners residing in the same town. They ride out together at night to barbarically slaughter young girls, and while the undertaker makes big money arranging the funeral service, the victims (or at least parts of them) end up on the special menus board of his pals the restaurant owners. The film is as simplistic as it is ingenious, and it's the ideal excuse for an hour of brainless and blood-soaked entertainment. The character of the greedy undertaker is the funniest of them all and, as usual, the investigating cop is too ignorant to figure out the situation. The gags themselves aren't hilarious, but the poor execution is. If H.G. Lewis didn't make this film himself, I'm sure he will have enjoyed watching it. And so did I.