 Neglected cult classic made in
Lawrence, Kansas, by a commercial director named Herk Harvey and
starring Candace Hilligoss--the only film either of them ever
made--but so influential it affected George Romero, Brian de
Palma, and so many others that it was resurrected in the early
nineties and finally given its just due. Candace Hilligoss may be
the most beautiful zombie ever to star in a movie, but the fun is
that you're never really sure when she's being a zombie and when
she's just being a ditzy stuffed-shirt church organist. Candace
is the only survivor out of a car that gets run off a bridge
during a game of "chicken." But once she gets out of the river
she loses her desire for men, for beer, and for her own family.
All she wants to do is play the church organ at all hours of the
day and night, and poke around this creepy abandoned amusement
park where the zombies come every night to waltz. A doctor tries
to tell her she's just having "a guilt feeling." The man who
lives across the hall tells her she's "off her rocker." The
preacher says she's "profane." Her landlady says "You just let
your imagination run away with you." The guy at the gas station
says she has "a transmission problem." And the zombies tell her
"Come with us. Come and dance." What's a poor single girl in a
strange town to do? I'll just put it this way. She wears out
quite a few pairs of high heels running to where she's got to go.
No breasts (1962). Nineteen dead bodies. Approximately 15
zombies. One motor vehicle chase, with watery crash. Zombie bus
tour. Church organ Fu. Zombie Fu. with Frances Feist as the
creepy old rooming house lady ("You can take all the baths you
want"), Art Ellison as the minister ("You cannot live in
isolation from the human race, you know"), Sidney Berger as the
lech next door ("You're gonna need me in the evening, you just
don't know it yet"). Written by John Clifford. Candace's best
line: "In the dark, your fantasies get so far out of hand."
|