Michael_Elliott The Curse of the Screaming Dead (1982)* (out of 4)A group of six Southern friends head into the woods for some good deer hunting when they stumble upon a cemetery. Soon a Conferate solider returns from the grave and brings along some others as the zombies attack our deer hunters.Director Tony Malanowski made NIGHT OF HORROR in 1981. That film was about a group of friends who were attacked by Confederate soldiers. That movie was downright awful on pretty much all levels and THE CURSE OF THE SCREAMING DEAD is a remake of that. Malanowski said he saw the various errors in the original film so when he got a higher budget he wanted to set out and make something better. THE CURSE OF THE SCREAMING DEAD, released by Troma as CURSE OF THE CANNIBAL CONFEDERATES, is a pretty bad movie in its own right but at the same time there's no question that it's a major improvement on the original. If the director's main goal was to make a better movie this second time around then he succeeded as this one looks a lot better and I'd argue that it also felt like an actual horror film since we are given some gore and zombies. The film still suffers from its low-budget nature and there's no question that the film is a bit too slow for its own good. I'd also argue that the characters themselves aren't all that interesting. As I said, the one bonus here over the original is that we are given some added gore scenes and for the most part they are actually very good. The gore is realistic and looks effective enough, although I must admit that the munching sound effects made me giggle at times.

Sandcooler I'm not really the type to start nitpicking about technical problems in no-budget, Z-grade horror flicks, but dear Lord is this thing inept. This might just be the most poorly edited feature film I have ever seen. Is it daytime, is it nighttime? Are they in the woods, in a graveyard, in an open field, at Wal-Mart? Why is he looking over there, isn't the character he's talking to in the opposite direction? Why do they leave five seconds between every line? The main characters might be alcoholic rednecks but nobody thinks that slow. This movie plays ping-pong with your mind, you're constantly thinking it's you who's seen the previous shot wrong but the movie just turns out to be that badly made. Is it entertaining though? Well, I've got to say it kinda is. The first half hour is pointless filler, but it's funny pointless filler. I've never seen a group of horror movie "friends" hate each other so damn much. Why the hell do these six people who clearly can't stand one another (every pre-zombie second of this movie is bitching and gossiping about whoever's not there at the time) go on a camping weekend together, did they lose a bet with their real friends? When the zombies come things get pretty exciting, there are a lot of special effects to laugh at and some of the zombies (the few ones you can see, ever heard of lighting you guys?)are pretty decent-looking, I've seen worse zombie movies. With a bit more money, time and basic knowledge on cutting this could have been fully watchable, now it's something that at least manages to cater to the all important "this looks horrible, let's watch it"-crowd. And hell, I'll always be grateful to star Steve Sandkuhler (of "Night Of Horror" fame!) for giving me my nickname, so there's that.Fun yet incredibly scary fact: director Tony Malanowski stopped directing after this movie, he became...an editor. Lord have mercy.

n-hungness OK, if you've watched this film in its entirety, you probably really really hate it, or you liked it. I fall into the latter group of viewers, for I not only watched the entire movie, but I love it for being sooo bad. Let's be honest, it's a really corny zombie movie with terrible special effects and even more terrible acting. And it's the only zombie movie I've ever seen in which a zombie weeps tears. This review isn't meant to convince you to love it, but rather it is meant to persuade you to keep an open mind if you're thinking about renting this one and to remind you to take the movie as is - a low budget zombie movie. If you set your standards too high on this one, you loose all the fun out of it.Plot - A group of campers find a mysterious graveyard out in the middle of the woods and inadvertently awaken the dead, who happen to be buried Confederate soldiers. The usual zombie attack ensues and the campers struggle to keep away from the undead menace. One overall problem with this plot is that it is very slow-moving. There are several minutes in the movie when you see nothing but someone walking around the woods without saying a word. Several long such episodes could've been shortened to quick key shots.Movie mechanics - The film is terrible in technique. The acting is almost hilarious and the lighting inconsistency is a bit annoying. But these flaws in the film production make this little flick a gem. I was so horrified at the way the movie was filmed, I couldn't keep my eyes off of it. I was fascinated by it. It was raw. It was like someone picked up a camcorder and decided to make a movie one morning. It is simply fascinating.Special effects - The special effects are very simple and ridiculous to the point of being comedic. In several shots in which zombies were supposed to be getting blown up by fireworks, the filmmakers decided to superimpose actual fireworks footage over the zombies. The effect was not only initially confusing, it was humorous. I will say the gore effects were satisfying. Every zombie movie has to meet a certain level of gore, and there is one scene in this movie in which someone gets eaten by a group of zombies, and the scene is literally 3-5 minutes long of nothing but watching the zombies eat the body and hearing the munching and crunching of the zombies. Again, the effect of this scene ended up being humorous. The makeup is equivalent to what you can find when you go to your friend's Halloween party. Nothing but white make up for the zombies.Why should I watch this movie? - This movie is low, and I mean LOW, budget. It resembles a family home video that was recorded back in the late 70's. It is simply a fascinating piece of work, and leaves you asking yourself why the crap anyone would have made a movie like it. But it was done all in good effort, and even included a gratuitous scene of a zombie feast.What might keep me away from renting this one? - The gore level is not hardcore for zombie fans. While it satisfies the minimum requirement, there simply wasn't enough of it scattered throughout the movie to make the other parts of the movie somewhat interesting. Instead, there are really only 1-2 scenes of real gore. Anyone who needs a lot of gore throughout a movie, this one's not for you. Also, there is zero skinappeal. You only get a few shots in the beginning of the chicks in skimpy swimwear, but that's all folks. The movie is also ridiculously long. It could've been condensed a bit.The proper way to watch this movie - When you're all alone, sit down with a six-pack (or whiskey, if you prefer) and pop some popcorn and watch this little gem under slight to moderate intoxication. This movie will not only be amusing, you might really really like it. I naturally love low budget crappy movies, so I am very glad I own a copy of this one. It has the proud honor of being perhaps one of the worst movies I had ever seen. And this makes it all the more lovable!

MrUFOman Its funny reading negative comments posted by some of the previous viewers of curse of the cannibal confederates, I never knew so many people were film critics and production experts.sure the movie is very poorly executed and production values are minimal at best,yes the lighting is abysmal and the acting is wooden and forced but its amazing how some people watch a b movie in order to judge or complain,what did you think it was? Titanic 2? I guess its fun to pick apart these things but some of the comments seem as lame as the production, do you really think the film would be more believable with weathered headstones or uniforms? sure it was annoying when the close up insert shots of an outdoor daytime scene were shot indoors with an unlit background that didn't match the daytime master shot,but thats show biz folks.sometimes these people make a comedy without knowing it...thats how you have to watch these things...just appreciate that those people worked days or weeks on this thing for little or no money and you get to enjoy their "cinema".so I say watch COTCC...for the heck of it