Very disappointed :(

Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Based on Wood's novel, this very laid back and cool nudie horror comedy is a classic. Criswell (in a Dracula cape) introduces and narrates ("some of you may faint"). A badly acting couple (Pat Barrington is the girl) drive their car at night (although in longshot it's day) looking for a graveyard. He's a novelist who explains how he needs inspiration for his horror stories (in great Ed Wood dialogue that continues at intervals throughout the film). The car crashes and they find themselves outside a graveyard where various strippers dance for Criswell, his Vampira-like assistant (The Black Ghoul) and a mummy and a wolfman (who are great fun as comic-relief). The Indian girl is first, then the streetwalker (who has a skeleton in her act and pretty much just walks around). On to the gold woman ("throw gold at her" yells Criswell) who's finally dipped in gold (she's also played by Barrington). Criswell laughs hysterically at this point (he usually just nods his head at nothing in particular). The mummy and the wolfman discover the couple watching and tie them up ("Fiends! Fiends!"). A woman dressed in leopard skin with cut outs for her tits and buttocks dances next. She's also whipped by a man. "Torture! Torture! It pleasures me" announces Criswell, and the slave girl dances. A Hawaiian girl who worshipped snakes (stock footage of a rattlesnake). A woman who killed her husband and dances with his skeleton watching (she really seems to enjoy doing the twist). The zombie woman, another one and then finally the sun comes up to turn Criswell and the ghoul into skeletons before the couple are sacrificed. An ambulance crew tends to them and it turns out maybe the whole thing was a crash-induced hallucination. But Criswell's narration suggests maybe not. Ted V. Mikels was a cameraman for this thoroughly enjoyable experience. Don't miss it! In Sexicolor! Photographer Caramico made SEX RITUALS OF THE OCCULT. Robert Derteno was the Art Director. Many more Wood/Apostoloff movies followed through the 70's.Movie reviews at: spinegrinderweb.com

Terrible movie that was "written" (you mean there was actually a script to this??) by Edward D. Wood Jr. though he didn't direct it. You could have fooled me, as the incompetence of Stephen C. Apostolof is just as bad - or maybe worse! There's nothing that happens in this film after a man and woman driving in a car have an opening scene crash. They subsequently become captives of an "emperor" (the nutty Criswell, wearing the actual Dracula cape that Bela Lugosi donned for ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN) and his female vamp assistant (who looks a lot like TV hostess Elvira). They tie their two victims to stakes and they're forced (as we are) to watch a bevy of topless women individually introduced to do all sorts of long and ultimately boring solo dances. Some of them are less sleep-inducing than others (the cat woman was okay), but they all drone on too much amidst an atmosphere of gloomy fog which often obstructs our view of the best parts anyway. What's unintentionally funny are the occasional inserts of Criswell watching from the sidelines and making lame expressions when he's not obviously reading from cue cards. He's also got at least one funny politically incorrect line which he says to his male captor: "Nobody wants to see a man's ass!" (Heh Heh Heh). Things get even more ridiculous when The Wolf Man and The Mummy (two guys in cheap Halloween costumes) drop by to watch the festivities. * out of ****

The only true Woodsian touches in this film (he didn't direct it), are the thoroughly ludicrous 'mummy' and 'werewolf' characters. Much like his 'aliens' from 'Plan 9', they seem to be pretty regular joes. For a 'mummy' and a 'werewolf'.And of course, there is the ridiculous Criswell. He's always a hoot.But this movie is short on hoots and overly long on 'hooters'. Basically, the whole movie is a strip show, featuring a variety of resurrected 'ghoul' women doing the bump and the grind.Although I am a flaming heterosexual, I must admit that halfway through this film, I was thoroughly tired of looking at women's mammary glands. Of course, it is presumptuous to expect any sort of plot in a movie of this type. So get ready for.... you know what? More bazongas!Some of the girls are o.k., even spirited, for dead ghouls. But none are memorable, and I lost track of the pairs of bazoomies I was presented with here.This could have been a fun movie. I'll stick to my old Lily St. Cyr short films. Now that gal was smoking!

If you are an admirer of Edward D. Wood, Jr. prepare or better yet, brace yourself, yet again.While Ed did not direct this spook-fest, he did write the screenplay (so to speak) based on a novel which he also penned for general release, primarily at fine bookstores which also carried magazines like 'Dude', 'Rogue', 'Nugget' and 'Gent.' For 'ORGY OF THE DEAD' is not so much a horror movie but a beyond the grave burlesque show featuring a bevy of beauties summoned by that master seer himself, Criswell. Look deep into Criz's eyes as he reads from his cue cards and glances up at the camera lens every so often. For this role, Criswell's cape was originally worn by Bela Lugosi as 'Dracula' in 'ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN'. The only humor available in this cemetery plot, though, are between the Wolfman(Rod Lindeman)and the Mummy(Louis Ojena), reminiscent of 'PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE's wise-cracking cops, Paul Marco and Conrad Brooks.A.C. Stephen(Stephen C. Apostolof) directs this flick, with an affectionate nod to the screenwriter. The opening scene takes place in broad daylight with a 1965 Corvair convertible taking in some mountainous curves until the next turn when, in true Ed Wood time management fashion, it suddenly becomes night and then day again along the same mountain pass. The driver(William Bates)delivers his lines to his girlfriend passenger(Pat Barrington)as if he's narrating a documentary on how "Unsafe At Any Speed" the Chevrolet Corvair is. Kudos to Ralph Nader because, wouldn't you know it, this Corvair crashes, too. Pat Barrington (sometimes billed as Barringer) plays a double role here as 'Shirley' and 'The Gold Girl'. (Criswell goes over the top here as he memorably intones "More Gold, More Gold!"). Miss Barringer would soon play lead in 'THE AGONY OF LOVE'. When Criswell starts drooling in 'Shirley's direction, she lets go with a "blood-curdling" scream(not once mind you, but twice)sounding as anemic as the budget for an Edward D. Wood, Jr. production. Actually, Pat Barringer's 'talents' were displayed to best advantage in Russ Meyer's classic 'MONDO TOPLESS.' Go, Pat, Go!This brings us to the real reason to view 'ORGY OF THE DEAD.' In spite of Criswell's rants from his coffin about "Monsters to be pitied, Monsters to be despised," the real show is provided by the likes of 'Texas Starr', 'Bunny Glaser','Rene de Beau' and more grind house marquee starlets. Professional exotic dancers with their own bizarre themes set to music perform for Criswell's pleasure in Astra Vision and Sexicolor, no less.The music sounds like a cocktail lounge blend between Martin Denny and Les Baxter. Actually, the score is provided by Jaime Mendoza Nava, conducting The Chilean Symphony Orchestra(really!). These cryptic chicks dance and bounce topless(no pasties,thankfully) with panties or a G-string. "The Bride" who frugs and jerks to her husband's skeleton and the "Cat Woman" are highlights, but hey, these haunted honeys are all Screaming Mimis even if they don't make a sound and don't always dance in sync to the music, as if that really matters. So don't be surprised afterward if you find yourself baying at the moon at full port. You Have Been Warned!