Orgy Of The Dead

1965
Directed By Stephen C. Apostolof

SYNOPSIS

A couple (William Bates + Pat Barrington) drive to a cemetery late at night. They crash their car. When they regain consciousness, weird music attracts them to the cemetery. The couple spies a series of undead women stripping for The Emperor of the Night (Criswell) Soon, a mummy and a wolf-man capture the two,  tie them up, and force them to... watch more undead strippers do their thing.

MY THOUGHTS

The film marked a new low in Ed Wood's flagging career.

Though he did not direct the film, many of his hallmarks are all over the Orgy Of The Dead.

Ed Wood wrote the screenplay. It features many deathless lines ( "Torture, torture! It pleasures me!"
"A pussycat is born to be whipped," etc.) but doesn't feature any badly circular dialogue (like "future events such as these will affect you in the future" from Plan Nine From Outer Space) Maybe he had time to do a second draft. The screenplay was based off a book he wrote of the same title. I hope much of the plot of the novel was cut from the script because I don't know how he would have been able to even fill 20 pages of a book.


Wood regular (and bogus psychic) Criswell stars as The Emperor, as well as narrates the film much like he did in Plan Nine. He delivers dialogue like no other...

Another Wood trademark... we get two noticeably bad out of focus stock footage shots of a rattlesnake inserted into the film. A plastic snake filmed on-set would be less jarring.

Lastly, the overwhelming ineptness surrounding the production. The acting is atrocious from everyone involved. The first few strippers dance like they were just released after being chained to the wall of a dungeon for 10 years... and learning to use their leg and arm muscles again. Very un-sexy. Thankfully, it seems they were arranged from worst to best in dancing ability. So each one seems to get better.... though it doesn't look like any of them bothered to choreograph a routine. The cameraman tries to follow them the best he can.



The film does differ from Ed's 'classic' 1950's output.

First, it's in color. The film's only set is lit like, and resembles, a second-rate alien planet set from the original  Star Trek series. It lacks any moody atmosphere that would add to the 'horror' like his older films.

Second, tits. The 1960s helped to destroy the old standards of 'decency" in place since Victorian England. Fringe films such as this helped...but there are so many boobs on display for minutes on end that the audience (even in 1965) would be desensitized to them by the end of the film. There is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Orgy Of The Dead is truly a terrible film... but it would be highly enjoyable and a hilarious time mixed with good friends and copious amounts of alcohol.