The Undead

source: The Undead

It's easy to disdain "The Undead" because of its utterly poor production values, muddled script and complete lack of coherence. You could do that, ... or you could also acknowledge that it's one of the most imaginative and original horror-hodgepodges of all time! This is probably the best film to demonstrate how director/producer Roger Corman was a master in finding workarounds to cover for the budgetary restraints. "The Unknown" is a sheer horror feast full of twisted characters (including a singing grave digger and Satan himself), macabre padding footage (three ghostly women in black appearing out of nowhere to perform an eerie cemetery dance), genuinely creepy stuff (hiding underneath a corpse in a coffin), inexplicable bizarre gimmicks (like the sinister sneering imp shape-shifting into owls, cats and spiders) and strategically angled footage luscious Allison Hayes' luscious mammary glands! The synopsis is grotesque and cheesy, but at the same time vastly intriguing. An unorthodox scientist lures a beautiful prostitute to his cabinet for different services than what she usually offers. Via hypnosis, he sends her to back to medieval times, to one of her previous lives as an innocent but condemned witch awaiting her execution. She escapes from the prison dungeon and then desperately attempts to prove she isn't a witch and avoid a bloody death via the executioner's axe. During her journey she meets many strange people, friendly ones and foes, and she also learns that her adventure threatens to alter the course of history forever. I have literally seen thousands of horror movies, but I'm genuinely astounded by the ingenuity of this one! The script is chock-full of neat, often only semi-processed ideas, and several of the themes were quite progressive for their time, like experimental hypnosis and reincarnation (inspired by the Bridey Murphy story). Roger Corman finds an apt balance between morbidity and comedy, and many of the performances are memorable. Pamela Duncan and Allison are beautiful and talented, Richard Devon is an archetypic Satan and Mel Welles is so terrific as Smolkin, the grave digger, that he honestly deserved his own spin-off series! I was impressed by "The Undead" throughout its entire running time, but I still I was hesitating between a rating 6 or 7 because there are nevertheless a lot of defaults. Upon witnessing the final and truly genius (yes, genius!!) end-twist, however, I knew for certain: this movie deserves at least an 8/10. Trust me, it's really good!

I am so glad that Mystery Science Theater is no longer on the air! Judging from some of the previous reviews by MST nerds it obviously brainwashed them to the point where they can't think on their own without the help of that silly, thank goodness it's gone show! Poor people! Anyway, "The Undead" is probably one of most underrated movies of all time! It's atmospheric, spooky at times especially for the youngsters and just a whole heck of a lot of fun! Striking old world images, imaginative if low budgeted scenery and a pretty unique concept and story. There are quite a few images you will surely remember! Do yourself a favor, view this one on your own and under "normal" conditions. You can't watch a competent film like this on that idiotic MST show because of the lame jokes and silly interplay. Trust me, you'll come away surprised by this one! One of my all time "Witch" movie favorites behind "Horror Hotel" and "Witchcraft", the Lon Chaney 1964 version that is! Buy "The Undead", you won't regret it!

Curses on you, Corman! Any fan of MST3K has had to watch far too many of your dreadful snooze-fests. Boring, gray, horrible messes of films, with you trying to get intellectual(and generally failing). The only thing that stands out in most of your schlock is that the women tend to be intelligent and/or kick-ass. Gotta give ya that, if nothing else. In the Undead, an idiot paranormal researcher hypnotizes a a hooker and sends her back into her own past life, as a young woman accused of being a witch in the Middle Ages. Actually, it looked like the hooker just attended a Ren Fest instead, and one with only about seven other people attending it. The scenes in the 'past' play out like Shakespeare on acid, and the cut scenes back to the 'present' are like trying to read Dostoyevski all in one sitting. The hooker manages to help her 'past self' escape from the cardboard..err.stone tower that she's being held prisoner in. Outside on the one set, she encounters a gravedigger who makes Hamlet's look like a sane guy in comparison. She also encounters all six of the other Ren folk, including an old hag who's REALLY a witch; a beautiful young witch in service of the devil who can change her form and is out to steal the accused witch's boyfriend; an imp played with great joie de vivre by Billy Barty; said boyfriend, the dreary and uninteresting knight(what these two saw in him I don't know); and, of course, Satan. Satan in this one looks like he just escaped from a Broadway musical, so camp is he. It turns out that the idiot researcher has managed to screw up the hooker's life even more than it was, since if the might-be witch lives instead of being executed, she'll not re-incarnate and none of her future lives will take place. Good job, dummy. Anyhoo, he finds a way to go into his own past, or her's, I wasn't really sure on that point. If it was his, it's pretty convenient that they both lived in the same time and place, no? he has to convince the girl to go tamely to her execution, which after spending some time with her boyfriend she decides would be a good thing. She goes under the headsman's axe, the boyfriend killed the shape changing witch(he's gotta be gay), and there's another puzzling cut scene of the pansyish Satan mouthing off about Hell(or something). End of another great Corman film, and the end of yet another few of my brain cells.

The Undead is a very silly piece of melodrama from Roger Corman. The plot is concerned with a time travelling doctor who regresses his street walking patient back to a time of witches, imps, dumb knights, fey fights, and singing gravediggers. Listening to Smolkin belt out his rhymes is funny. Watching this strange film on MST is even better. They point out things like how come Pendergon trusts everyone right off the bat? They also point out that Quintis has become rather smug toward the end of the movie. If you think that you can't survive this movie, I've just got one word for you, STAY!!!!! At least if you're watching this on MST.

Very entertaining concoction: in spite of its shaky sets, dresses with zippers and carriages definitely not from the 6th century (if the script is alluding to King Mark of Cornwall), verbose dialogs and a few corny performances, this Roger Corman production has the tone and feeling of a fairy tale, as performed by kids from elementary school with naiveté and spontaneity. The time-travelling premise in the script by Charles Griffith and Mark Hanna is clever and it could have benefited from a bigger budget for revisions, re-writes and higher production values. As it is, I find it funny, charming and even daring, as it somehow aspires to have values similar to literary works written in old times, about death, transcendence and the role of science in the evolution of mankind. It is also another proof of Corman's ability to turn almost anything into a pleasant time for the viewers. Recommended.

This movie was awful, although I have seen some worse movies before. The Imp is the most annoying character even though he is supposed to be the most lovable. The witch is fairly attractive and the rest of the characters are really annoying. For example, the madman whom continuously points out that he's mad. And the knight in shining armor whom fights like a sissy and trusts everyone right away. But like I said, there have been worse movies.

This film isn't THAT bad...sure it's a b-movie, but it stars Alison (va-va-voom!) Hayes (Attack of the 50-Foot Woman), has great music by Ronald Stein, and is dripping with atmosphere. The story is thoughtful, clever, and better than most grade-b stuff from the 50s. The ending could go any which way and the surprise twist is the stuff Twilight Zone episodes were made of. The Undead is a great film to trot out at Halloween time to scare young kids and for adults to giggle at. Hey, when I saw this one as a kid on TV I was totally SPOOKED! Today, it's "badness" is it's strong suit. Then, it showed promise for a young Corman, who would reach his cinematic pinnacle with his superb mature work, Masque of the Red Death.

Yeah, that's right, I like the grave digger AND his incessant singing. Everyone calls him mad, MAD, I say!--but his little ballads are always right on point. He is very reminiscent of the Fool in King Lear--the observer whose supposed simple-mindedness allows him alone to comment insightfully on the madness of the others. Also, I like movies that teach me things. Like that women in the fifties somehow had both 14" waists and, well, GIGANTIC BREASTS! Weird science, man. It's a wonder that woman didn't snap in two when she stood up.

This is my style of 1950s horror. It's has the elements for a fun horror: time travel, hypnotism, witches, a devil, medieval setting, and magic. The film also has great direction, cinematography, casting and story with an awesome atmosphere. It's hard to believe this film has such a low rating; its' severely underrated - in my opinion. This is a B film... a low budget film. The critics should never watch a low budget film if they are going to complain about it being on a low budget - that seems to be a big complaint about this film - not enough money. Sure if they had more money to make this film then it would have been even better that it already is. Another complaint about this film is it's mistakes. Every single film out there has mistakes in it - including multi-million dollar films. Read the "goofs" section - every film will have them. This is a fun fantasy-horror that is easy to kick back and enjoy. Ignore the critics and judge the film for yourself. This film is entertaining in it's own way. 8.5/10