The Dead One

The Dead One

Now, this is one boring film! For such a short film, they sure find a lot of time for nothing to happen, which is a shame because I was looking forward to this one. You've got your playboy jazz guy who's settling down in a plantation he's inherited, but not after taking his new bride to see some jazz, some other jazz, and a belly dancer (that must every new bride's dream honeymoon!). Boringly, his cousin, who's mental, is doing voodoo at the plantation and resurrecting her dead brother so he can kill the new bride for some reason (seems awfully complicated when a simple gunshot would do). This involves a lot, and I mean a LOT, of bongo abuse. Seriously, the guy in this film hammers those bongos so much I'd expect his fingers were the size of Arnie's biceps by the time they'd finished the film. So, near enough the first three quarters of this film are uneventful, so by the time they have the dead guy shuffling about looking to throttle someone, you'll be sound asleep. It did dawn on me that the zombie resembled Diamond Dogs era, coke-addled Bowie, so that gave me a chuckle, as did the ending, where the hero was all like "Well, cops…that's what happened. See ya!". You might derive fun from this. The print you can get in the UK is one of the best I've seen for such an old film.

In The Dead One, we find a white voodoo priestess using a ritual to awaken and summon a zombie-vampire named Jonas, whom she can control using a voodoo doll. Which she uses to send him to kill off her enemies. A young newly wed couple, meanwhile, makes their way around New Orleans, taking in the sights and the sounds of the city, as the new bride gets to know her new stomping grounds. This gives the whole film a bit of a timely travelogue vibe...as we get to take in Joe Burton at his local joint; bellydancers at The Dream Room;, and a jazz band at The Jazz Room. One evening, the groom helps a young woman whose been stranded when her car breaks down. Taking her in for the night. They stay at the old Kennilworth plantation, which is known to harbour malevolent voodoo spirits. But, being a modern man, the groom fails to heed the warnings, because he doesn't believe in voodoo himself. Unfortunately for him, it's not a matter of belief. For it's his cousin who is the voodoo priestess...and she has brought her dead brother back to life via necromancy. It seems that she is at risk of losing the plantation, and will do anything it takes to protect it. Even if it means utilizing her will, to send Jonas to kill his wife, so as to prevent their inheritance claim. But when their guest goes missing- shortly after voodoo drumming is heard- they become suspicious and start to investigate. Apparently, Jonas mistook the young woman for the man's wife, and killed her by mistake. Leaving the couple to survive long enough to escape...or get help from the outside world. Can love defeat the dark forces of voodoo?! Or are they doomed to suffer it's deadly curse... There's nothing particularly amazing about this low budget gem, except that it's a pretty interesting look back at some of the New Orleans haunts of the era. Makes you realize how, even a fiction film made by friends can act as an important audio-visual document, once things have been lost to time. 6 out of 10.

This film (also known as "Blood of the Zombie" ) is one of those movies that could have been much better if the acting had been at least average. But it wasn't and the results speak for itself. Essentially, "John Carlton" (John McKay) is a young man who by getting married inherits a plantation as stipulated in a will. So he and his bride, "Linda Carlton" (Linda Ormand) drive into the Louisiana countryside to legally claim it. The problem is that his cousin, "Monica" (Monica Davis) has no intention of giving it up even though John Carlton offers her half of it. Realizing that the plantation will be all hers if something happens to the bride, Monica resorts to voodoo and raises a zombie to kill Linda. Anyway, rather than giving the entire story away I'll just say that this movie had a good location and decent storyline. John McKay turned in an adequate performance as did Linda Ormand and the nightclub dancer "Bella Bella" (Darlene Myrick) to a lesser degree. But what really killed this film was the acting of Monica Davis who sounded as if she was reading her lines for the very first time. In short, this film is worth a look only if you're an extreme fan of zombie films. Otherwise, just skip it.

The Dead One is a significant movie because it's one of the first two zombie films made in color - the other is Dr. Blood's Coffin - and it was made outside of the Hollywood system in New Orleans. It mostly played in Southern drive-ins, in Mexico and the UK before it disappeared for 41 years. Shot in Eastmancolor and Ultrascope, a form of Cinemascope from Germany, The Dead One has a cool looking zombie and otherwise would be an unremarkable film other than the fact that it's a Barry Mahon film and stands out from the rest of his output, which is either falls into the disparate genres of nudist films, roughies, propaganda movies or childen's films. Actually, the poster for this would like you to know just how remarkable this movie is, saying that The Dead One is "The Greatest VOODOO Film Ever Made - Filmed on Location in New Orleans Where VOODOO was introduced to the New World." A zombie is haunting the plantation of Kenilwort and commanded by Monica Carlton (Monica Davis, who is also in Mahon's 1,000 Shapes of a Female, Rocket Attack U. S. A. And She Should Have Stayed In Bed), the mistress of the decaying plantation. This is probably the most restrained Mahon film I've seen. It played double bills for a long time, a filler for drive-ins that would run late into the night while what happened in the steamed up cars looked a lot like the other movies Barry was known for making.

A vengeful voodoo priestess revives a hideous rotting zombie back from the dead so it can do her evil bidding. Sound good? Well, it just ain't. Boy, does this clunker strike out something stinky in every possible way: The flat (non)direction by Barry Mahon (who also wrote the excruciatingly talky and uneventful script), the sluggish pacing, the insipid acting from a lame no-name cast (only Monica Davis brings any true vigor to her role as the bitter and bitchy Monica), an alarming dearth of tension and spooky atmosphere, a minimal body count (only two folks get killed in this flick!), the meandering narrative, the static cinematography which makes numbing overuse of cruddy master shots, and the blah limply-staged conclusion all make this one a gruelingly tedious chore to endure. On the plus side, Darlene Myrick looks mighty sexy as ditsy exotic dancer Bella Bella, there's some flavorsome footage of the French Quarter in New Orleans, and the snazzy swinging jazz group The Joe Burton Trio make a neat appearance performing in a club. A real snorefest.

Since having read a few small bits about a Jazz band called the Joe Jones band over the last few months,I was surprised to find out that the group made an appearance in a horror film that I had recently picked up on an ultra low budget DVD.Which led to me deciding to take a look at this Horror Jam. The plot: After celebrating their wedding by partying in a jazz bar,a young couple head for their new home.On the way,they kindly pick up a hitch-hiking musician who they had watched performed earlier in the day.Arriving at the new house,everyone settles in for the night.Suddenly,as everyone is starting to go asleep the sound of Voodoo drums begins deep in the belly of the house. View on the film: Although the pictures on the cover originally caused me to suspect that the film would have a real mouldy look,writer/director Barry Mahon (whose life looks like something tailor made for a screenplay) instead gives the film a nice pastel look,which helps to make even the most boring moments in the film watchable.Whilst the cast do OK with Mahon's simple screenplay,the clear stars of the show have to be the three or four Jazz groups featured in the first half of the film,who each give terrific mini performances that help the first half of the film to really fly by.

The most amazing thing about THE DEAD ONE (aka, "Blood of a Zombie") is that this is not the worst film writer/producer/director Barry Mahon made in his less than spectacular career. No, I am not talking about the many low-budget porno films he made (by the way, for laughs, read the titles in his IMDb filmography) but such horrible dreck as SANTA AND THE ICE CREAM BUNNY--a film that makes PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE and SANTA CLAUS VERSUS THE MARTIANS look like Oscar winners! Had more of Mahon's films been mainstream (and not cheap pornos) he'd be in the running for worst film maker ever. While that title has often been given to Ed Wood, I think Al Adamson should probably get that award...and Mahon at least getting an honorable mention. This film clearly shows Mahon had absolutely no idea what he was doing in the industry. The film begins with a man getting married. Now I don't know about you, but I would NOT take my blushing bride to see strippers and then pick up a stranded * to take on my honeymoon!! To make things worse, the strippers keep almost all their clothes on (they wear more than women do at the beach) and the stranded * was NOT on hand for a three-some. This made absolutely no sense at all, nor did including several irrelevant and poor musical numbers by understandably forgotten musicians from New Orleans---except to pad out the film so it would be long enough to be considered a full-length film In fact, without these meaningless numbers at the beginning of the "movie", the entire production would have only lasted about 50 minutes. Once the three arrive at the ancestral home that the man has just inherited, the crazy fun begins. It seems that the husband's cousin is a voodoo priestess and she is determined not to let him take possession of the "mansion" (it really looked like just a crappy old house). Then, with the powers of evil, she sends a man in a cheesy mask and yellow makeup to kill. Will the *, bride and/or stupid husband survive? Tune in and see. So what's good about the film. Hmmm....let me think....NOTHING!! What is bad consists of only minor things such as acting, direction, the production, the script, horrible sound and editing as well as grade-z special effects (they weren't particularly special--most high school kids could do a lot better with little effort). Some things I particularly liked to laugh at were the first victim of the zombie who just stood there and waited and waited and waited for the monster to kill her--as he moved slower than any zombie in film history. Finally, to make it a bit easier for this "menace", the victim conveniently fainted--otherwise he never would have gotten her. Another wonderful scene involved the cops coming to save the day...sort of. They shoot the wrong person and when the zombie disintegrates in front of them, their reaction (or lack thereof) was hilarious. Other memorable scenes were the Black extras (who mostly just stood around and did nothing whatsoever--even when their priestess is being attacked), the acting of the * (which managed to be even worse than the overacting priestess) and the, well,...everything else! Overall, this is a pile of crap...but still better than the other Mahon films I have seen. But, because it's so bad and so inept in every way, it makes for fun viewing. I found myself laughing time and again at just how rotten it could be.

Over thirty years ago in his eternally cherishable 'Keep Watching the Skies!' the late Bill Warren raised the fascinating and still unresolved question of the possible existence south of the Mason-Dixon line of a cottage industry producing sci-fi and horror films made and distributed only in the American South on a states' rights basis, "rarely if ever surfacing in other parts of the country, even on television". On page 867 of the revised edition of his book, 'The Dead One' - made by a company called 'Mardi Gras Productions'- is one of four titles Warren mentions by name that achieved this leap. Remarkably glossily photographed by Mark Dennes on location in and around New Orleans in Eastmancolor and 'Ultrascope', it looks good but the tinny sound betrays its low budget; and it moves as slowly as the late cousin Jonas. After an interminable tour of nightlife in New Orleans as it was in 1960, the action then takes until well after the halfway mark for mad cousin Monica to use voodoo drums to raise her late brother Jonas from the dead. Cousin Jonas - as an earlier reviewer observed - resembles Alice Cooper in black tie. The film's title lays its cards on the table about having just the one zombie (unlike Herschel Gordon Lewis's boastfully titled 'Two Thousand Maniacs!') who anticipates the zombies - whose sheer numbers were what made them such a formidable threat - in 'Night of the Living Dead' (not to mention Cooper's own appearance in John Carpenter's 'Prince of Darkness'). Monica Davis as the malevolent Monica gives both the worst and the most compelling performance in the film - well complemented by Margaret Johnston's vengeful old harpy in 'The Night of the Eagle' (screened under its US release title, 'Burn, Witch, Burn'), with which this was paired in a double bill in Seattle in May 1962 The cops as usual are useless - arriving late and then shooting the wrong person - but as one of them laconically observes, "How would you have explained this if we hadn't gotten here in time to see it?".

The Dead One stars John McKay and Linda Carlton as newlyweds John and Linda (what inspired names!) who, after a tour of New Orleans jazz joints and girlie bars (what new wife doesn't enjoy a visit to a strip joint on her wedding night?), drive to John's ancestral plantation Kenilworth, which he is due to inherit as a result of getting married. En route, the couple stop to help exotic belly dancer Bella Bella (Darlene Myrick), whose car has broken down, and invite her to spend the night at the plantation. On arrival, John, Linda and Bella are greeted by John's cousin Monica (Monica Davis), current owner of Kenilworth, who isn't at all happy that the property will soon be taken from her. In order to prevent the deeds from being transferred, Monica conducts a voodoo ceremony with the help of her loyal staff, resurrecting her dead brother Jonas (Clyde Kelly) and sending him on a mission to kill John's new wife. Proving that you can't trust a shuffling corpse with even the simplest of tasks, Jonas kills Bella by mistake. On discovering Bella's body, John investigates (leaving his wife alone in the house with a gun) and catches Monica in mid-ritual—but can he save Linda before Jonas carries out his mission? Directed by Barry Mahon, who would later go on to carve himself quite a career in the 'nudie' film industry, this obscure voodoo zombie film is, like the 'dead one' of the title, a bit of a shambling mess, with unbelievably bad performances, dreadful dialogue, lacklustre direction, and obvious padding in the form of the excessive New Orleans nightlife footage (viewers are treated to two jazz performances and a couple of exotic dances) and overlong voodoo sequences. What is rather remarkable, however, is quality of the crisp, colour-rich photography, which is far better than one might imagine for such a cheap production, and the look of zombie Jonas, who is supremely creepy with his gaunt face, talon-like fingernails and long hair of death (shame that he moves so bloody slow; it detracts slightly from his scariness). Not great, but worth a look for zombie movie completists and any time-travelling jazz fans planning a trip to 1960s New Orleans.