The Curse of the Screaming Dead

I absoulety loved this film. THIS FILM ROCKS. I bought and loved it. It was worth my money. The acting was great and the confederate soliders were hot. I loved the effects. I love civil war horror movies. If you like this movie i also recommend The Supernaturals. Another great civil war horror zombie flick. I love the cannibalistic scenes. I would have love them to have eaten me. Wink wink. The south will and shall rise again. The costumes are realistic looking. The best film ever done by Troma Videos. I would love to hear from other fans of this movie.

The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982)

* (out of 4)

A group of six Southern friends head into the woods for some good deer hunting when they stumble upon a cemetery. Soon a Conferate solider returns from the grave and brings along some others as the zombies attack our deer hunters.

Director Tony Malanowski made NIGHT OF HORROR in 1981. That film was about a group of friends who were attacked by Confederate soldiers. That movie was downright awful on pretty much all levels and THE CURSE OF THE SCREAMING DEAD is a remake of that. Malanowski said he saw the various errors in the original film so when he got a higher budget he wanted to set out and make something better.

THE CURSE OF THE SCREAMING DEAD, released by Troma as CURSE OF THE CANNIBAL CONFEDERATES, is a pretty bad movie in its own right but at the same time there's no question that it's a major improvement on the original. If the director's main goal was to make a better movie this second time around then he succeeded as this one looks a lot better and I'd argue that it also felt like an actual horror film since we are given some gore and zombies.

The film still suffers from its low-budget nature and there's no question that the film is a bit too slow for its own good. I'd also argue that the characters themselves aren't all that interesting. As I said, the one bonus here over the original is that we are given some added gore scenes and for the most part they are actually very good. The gore is realistic and looks effective enough, although I must admit that the munching sound effects made me giggle at times.

In "The Curse of the Screaming Dead" three irritating friends and their equally annoying girlfriends venture into the woods on a hunting expedition. They eventually find the ruins of a church and an abandoned cemetery filled with the graves of tortured Confederate soldiers. After the most annoying member of hunting party steals the diary of the Confederate commander, the Confederates rise from the grave and take their revenge.

I hate to kick a little film when its down, but the audience would have definitely been better served if real zombies had eaten the film makers before they completed this little monstrosity. Like "The Blair Witch Project," this movie was filmed in the woods of Maryland. However, any similarity ends there. Blair Witch exhibited wit and imagination, both of which are absent from this movie. That isn't to say that the story itself wasn't workable. It was. We've all seen many variations on this tale. (Think "Night of the Living Dead" with a little "2000 Maniacs" thrown in for good measure.) It doesn't take much technical prowess to make a story this simple work, but the film makers fall short. Way short. The ineptness of this film is almost beyond description, but let me try....

The acting is terrible, or, as a previous reviewer properly noted, nonexistent. I say this knowing that even Laurence Olivier would have problems delivering some of these lines. Overall, the zombie fare better than the living. All the zombies have to do is moan painfully -- like the audience. Thematically, the film is a mess too. The dead rise because one of the living has "stolen their pain." As one goofy character helpfully explains, the dead know their physical possessions rightfully belong to the living but they jealously hold onto their pain. Hmmm. Okay. Then why do they rise when the diary is stolen? Wouldn't that count as a physical possession rightfully belonging to the living? And why do the dead want to jealously hold onto their pain? You'd think they seek peace in death. Oh well. I guess I'm asking too much from a film where characters step out of a frame with a dead, leafless winter forest behind them into a frame with a lush, green summer forest behind them.

As one scans the reviews on the internet movie database, one frequently sees the words "Worst Film Ever Made." That title has been unjustly applied to many films. However, I believe this film rivals the famous "Manos: The Hands of Fate" as the worst film ever made. If the film makers were clever, they would have submitted the film to Mystery Science Theater 3000. Had MST3K devoted an episode to this movie, it would now be a true cult classic and they would be making more money.

Then again, maybe the film makers thought they made a good film.

Nah. No one's that crazy - except maybe the characters in this film.

Can't wait to see "Night of Horror."

I don't know whats wrong with you people. "Curse of the Screaming Dead" has got to be one of the best zombie flicks out there. It's got great gore effects and the acting is pretty good. Well I can't say uch for the makeup because it's just white face paint with black eye shadow. But there are a few badly rotted zombies that look really nice. The lighting unfortuanately is really bad, so you can't see much but at least you can see the picture. I own his movie and other great movies. If anyne has an extra copy they can spare though i'll buy it from them for 9.99. I never know when I may need an extra copy. And as for the guy who wrote the review titled "Confederate Zombies" I just want to ask. Would you like to watch a movie with a bunc of naked male zombies walking around? I know I wouldn't. I give this movie a whopping 10!

As a big fan of B-movies, I've felt I've always that I have a cast-iron constitution when it comes to watching cinematic crap. That is until the day a friend happened to find a copy of Curse of the Screaming Dead in the bargain bin (big surprise) at our local video store. Wow! This truly has to be one of the most technically incompetent movies ever released to video. Terrible lighting, bizarre sound mixing, non-existent acting, half-assed editing, plus a plethora of other ineptitudes add up to make this movie as laughable as it is forgettable. A dismal, black-hole of a film.