P.S. Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things

My favorite zombie movie is Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things.

I first saw it I think in 1984 on Elvira Mistress of the Dark. The terrible thing about it was we only had the one TV in our house so even though I was motivated by Elvira and her legendary "assets" I had to wait until after the movie to "review it properly."

But it wasn't just Elvira that made the first time I saw this movie stay with me forever. It was everything. The colors, the costumes... I grew up with Hippies and this is what the world looked like to me in 1973.

And, the movie was actually scary the first time I saw it. The scene where they look out the window and the one chick is being devoured by a zombie is actually scary. I had a Cross Country meet the next morning and since there were only three channels then everyone on the bus had seen it and only talked about that scene. 

And since I wasn't a very good runner and we were running through a forest at a local "castle" that morning I spent about ten minutes deep in the forest with no one around scared out of my wits.

And it's just funny and clever in a way that's not smarmy or hipper than thou (a failing of almost all modern culture in my estimation).

The movie is about a theatre troupe that accidentally summons the Living Dead. And you can feel that these people understood theatre and lighting and color and costume and makeup and liked each other and were having a blast making the movie.

I have been fortunate enough to collect two very fine specimens of the original movie poster for Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, and a pristine copy of of the Europix poster of the 1974 re-issue, both designed by star Alan Ormsby. 

So, what's your favorite zombie movie?