Halloween Horror Watch #35: Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things -- Bob Clark*



This was an interesting viewing experience. I was never really sure where Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things was taking me until it took me there. That's a good thing, but it made the journey sort of confusing. The main character, Alan (who would fit in quite nicely in today's society, 40 years after the movie was made), is overly obnoxious and the only thing that keeps the viewer from checking out instantly is that we all know or know of someone much like him. The fact that everyone else hates him helps, too. Alan is leading a group of actors to an island for some Satanic ritual. Apparently, he pays them to do this. It's not clear what the acting part of the job is unless they all thought they were going out to a remote area to rehearse. The whole acting troupe/getting paid part is really confusing and exists only to give Alan some power over the rest of the crew.

Eventually, they collect a corpse from a graveyard and bring it back to the old resort building they're staying in. There's all sorts of strangeness that happens with this corpse including a fake wedding and Alan going to be with it (not in the biblical sense). Crazy stuff starts to happen with thirty minutes left in the run time, which if you watched the trailer, you already have a sense of. It's an unusual film but worth checking out. Bob Clark (Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, Porky's) directs and one wishes he'd had a more impressive career. His career peaked in 1983 and amongst his final movies before his death were two Baby Geniuses and The Karate Dog. He deserved better.

*I'm fascinated by the fact that his name is really "Benjamin" but he went by "Bob."

The Undead Are Packing Needles: Deathdream (aka Dead of Night)

Bob Clark had a strange career. He's got three legitimate classics that show a mastery of different styles and tones : Black Christmas, A Christmas Story, and Porky's. Yet he ended his career on the likes of Baby Geniuses 1 and 2 and Karate Dog (sadly, he was killed along with his son by a drunk driver in 2007). Some would even throw 1990's Loose Cannons into that pile of stinkers, but I have a soft spot for that film.

Clark is known primarily for comedies (as much as I want to believe otherwise, Black Christmas still falls well below the cult/mainstream divide, especially after the flashy big-budget remake). I'm not sure why he transitioned away from horror after his Sherlock Holmes/Jack the Ripper mystery Murder by Decree, but it's a little disappointing as not only did he have a knack for the genre, he helped to create the slasher sub-genre with Black Christmas.



Deathdream was released mere months before Black Christmas and one can really see the influence of his experience making the former on the latter. There's heavy use of POV camerawork early in Deathdream which Black Christmas would use to great effect and many sound and music cues are nearly identical in the films. Both films also continue action over the end credits. Deathdream isn't as good as Black Christmas, but there's definitely a direct line between the two.

The basic plot entails a son, Andy, returning home from Vietnam after his parents receive notice that he has been killed in action (the film implies that he returns as result of a sort of prayer and follows the "be careful what you wish for" model). He's nothing like he was before the war which his mother attributes to needing time to settle in and recover but his dad isn't so sure, claiming he never acted like that when he got back from Korea (or maybe WWII, I forget which). There's a daughter/sister who is generally treated like shit even though they keep her in the dark about everything yet she still retains a mostly positive attitude. Coinciding with his return, a truck driver who gave Andy a ride into town has been found dead. Suspicions rise. A family falls apart.

Deathdream is unlike most horror movies I've seen. It's deliberate and focused more on the dissolution of the family than on shock, scares, and gore. It's suspenseful, but it's not the stuff of nightmares (though my fiance jumped several times and seemed legitimately creeped out the whole time). The film seems more concerned with making a comment on what the Vietnam War is doing to families and the soldiers fighting. Andy comes home and simply sits around, rocking ceaselessly in his creaky rocking chair staring into space. Clearly, his zombie-like state is representative of PTSD. In order to remain youthful and not start decaying, Andy takes blood from others and injects it into himself, much like many Vietnam vets turned to drugs upon their return home. Amidst all of this, his mother is unwilling to seek outside help and his dad gets drunk. Deathdream works very well on this allegorical level and doesn't feel too heavy-handed in its approach.

But Deathdream isn't just about Vietnam. It's about an undead soldier! And truth-be-told, once it turned out that Andy didn't look like a zombie, I had no idea where the movie was going. The action moves very slowly. To the point where I questioned if there would even be a market for a movie like this today (I'm not even sure there was in 1974). However, the pace does a great job of building tension and allows all of the characters time to draw their own conclusions about Andy. The closest comparison to Deathdream I though about is George Romero's Martin (1977). Both are sort of unconventional vampire stories in a way that take their time to tell the story. Also, both feature early work from Tom Savini (Deathdream was his first job).

Deathdream slow-burns to a pretty exciting climax where Savini gets to show off that he was always pretty good with make-up effects. The payoff isn't unexpected, but it's appropriate. It's not the greatest horror movie I've ever seen, but it attempts a lot more than most. I highly recommend it if you're looking for something other than disposable thrills.