Zombie Lake Wizard Video VHS

I'm thinking of buying this Zombie Lake Wizard Video VHS tape on Ebay.

My only issue is I already collect too many things. The last thing I need right now is to feel the need to collect a bunch of expensive VHS tapes of movies I've already see a hundred times. Still, I'd like to have maybe just this one VHS. Or at least the videos featured in Zombiethon. Maybe I'll sleep on it a few times. I just recently found a vinyl LP of The Monster Club Soundtrack and outbid everyone else on the planet. Outbidding everyone else on the planet for all of these goofy collectibles only me and four other people in the world find interesting is starting to get expensive. 

Still, I think maybe just this one time I'll go ahead and order my very own copy of 

Zombie Lake.

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?

Ken Dixon's Zombiethon: A Wizard Video Classic

Wizard Video released the zombie compilation home video Zombiethon in 1986. It was one of their last successes, and contained clips from Zombie, Fear, Zombie Lake, The Astro Zombies, A Virgin Among the Living Dead, and Oasis of the Zombies. 

Let's start with Fear. The reason you won't be able to find this movie, despite the fact that it stars Laura Gemser,  is that it's actually titled Murder Syndrome.

Fear (Murder Syndrome) will be the most difficult movies from Zombiethon for you to find. But keep looking, it's out there. My favorite part of Zombiethon has nothing to do with the zombie movie scenes, but the various interstitial zombie shorts Ken Dixon shot to wrap around them.

Zombie Matinee.

Many of the scenes involve women being chased into The El Rey theatre while zombies are watching a variety of movies. It's one of the great things of all time.