trimbolicelia Not bad mid-40's black-and-white thriller. A mental patient, thought to be dead comes back from wherever, after having some weird procedure performed on him that keeps him alive as long as he consumes continuous amounts of blood. When he can't make a withdrawal at a blood bank, no problem, he just kills someone, drains them, and embalms them. Why the embalming I don't know. Ian Keith as the blood consumer is certainly creepy. Near the beginning of the film a local tower clock bongs incessantly and gives a gloomy air. A young doctor and his nurse girlfriend give some light-hearted moments. The film is under one hour so the story moves right along. I obtained a DVD-R and though the quality is not the greatest it is watchable. I wish a re-mastered version would be released very soon. I recommend this film, a nice time passer on a Saturday afternoon.

MartinHafer Ormond Murks (Ian Keith) is an ex-mental patient and mortician thought to be dead. However, he actually pretended to be dead and used some sort of voodoo mumbo-jumbo to keep himself alive forever. The only problem is, to stay alive, he needs blood....lots and lots of blood. And, he's not at all afraid to take it--draining his victims and then embalming them.A doctor (cowboy star Robert Livingston) and his annoying nurse (Lorna Gray) are implicated in the crime--mostly because the cops are the stereotypically stupid variety. When they discover a clue, they do what anyone would do--they keep it to themselves and investigate the crime on their own!! All in all, not a great B-movie but also not bad either (aside from Gray's VERY annoying character). Kind of fun, though there really aren't any zombies in the film despite the title. Also, while the madman is able to use hypnotism to control his folks and make them do his evil bidding, this is not possible. I have training in hypnosis and would certainly use it for evil if it was possible!

tl12 OK, I admit it. I love 30's and 40's B horror films. They generally have great atmosphere and wonderful characters. Are both the atmosphere and the characters over-the-top? Yeah, most of the time, but that is part of the charm. You don't watch these movies looking for great cinema. You watch them for the perpetually foggy streets. What city or what country makes no difference, 9 times out of 10 there will be fog. You watch them for the crazed characters. You watch them for the dripping-with-venom dialog. You also have the wonderful look that black and white creates. Things are stark and heavily shadowed.You watch these films simply because you love the time and the genre. Not for great writing and most times not for great performances. You either love these period B films or not. Had I lived during the era you would have never gotten me out of the theater.

gavin6942 Dr. Maynard (Charles Trowbridge) tells Dr. Terry Evans (Robert Livingston) and his nurse, Susan Drake (Lorna Gray), about the theft of ten pints of blood from his lab. Later, he is visited by Ormand Murks (Ian Keith), a man Maynard had once had committed to an insane asylum.What attracted me to this film is quite simple: it is old and it is short. I am all about short films to watch while eating breakfast, and I am all about watching older movies (as a reviewer, my job simply cannot be done properly without knowing the history of film, particularly horror).Ian Keith plays a very cool, creepy man, wrongly judged insane, who wears a grave robber outfit. He is the highlight of the film, and what makes this one more horror fans should see. There is also a fun homicide detective scene where they question Lorna Gray and try to get her to falsely confess to murder. The back and forth is pretty fun, and it makes me wish that Gray was in more films like this (or like her Three Stooges work).