Orgy of the Dead (1965)

Orgy of the Dead (1965)

“Torture! Torture! It pleasures me!”

Synopsis:
A writer (William Bates) and his girlfriend (Pat Barrington), seeking inspiration for Bates’ horror stories, visit a cemetery where they are quickly abducted by the “Emperor of the Dead” (Criswell) and his princess (Fawn Silver) and forced to watch a series of once-dead women dance topless.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

  • Dancers
  • Death and Dying
  • Ed Wood Films
  • Horror

Review:
Ed Wood, Jr. wrote the screenplay for this deathly boring (sorry) stripper flick masquerading as some kind of horror revue. The acting is terrible, the dances laughable, and the screenplay practically non-existent (the only “tension” is whether Barrington and Bates will be killed and forced to join the troupe of dancing dead before the sun rises). As DVD Savant succinctly describes it, “This is basically 90 minutes of repetitious and numbing strip acts, with poor cutaways to the presiding ghouls who bicker about how much time they have before dawn or who gets to stab who.” The inclusion of a mummy (Louis Ojena) and wolfman (John Andrews) as sidekicks does absolutely nothing to alleviate the tedium. At least the cinematography is colorful, and decent use is made of a smoke machine.

Redeeming Qualities and Moments:

  • Atmospheric cinematography

Must See?
Nope; skip this one. Listed as a Camp Classic in the back of Peary’s book.

Links:

  • IMDb entry
  • DVD Savant Review
  • Spinning Image Review
  • One thought on “Orgy of the Dead (1965)

    1. Skip it.

      True, Wood did only write the, um… ‘screenplay’ for this soporific – but, even though he gave us a ‘healthy’ share of genuine bad film fun in his ‘heyday’, there comes a time when ya gotta say ‘No!’ … This is that time, kids.

    Leave a Reply