The Curse of the Living Corpse

Plot synopsis:
In 1892 New England, Rufus Sinclair suffers from catalepsy and lives in fear of being pronounced dead and buried alive. To prevent this, he leaves detailed instructions to the family and his staff, but when he is found, his greedy family—eager to claim their inheritance—have him quickly interred. Rufus leaves specific instructions on how to be buried, which are violated and the family lawyer, while reading the will, lets them know they will die from what they fear most:
Bruce will have his face disfigured; the widow Abigail will die by fire; asthmatic and alcoholic son Philip will suffocate; Philip's frustrated wife Vivian will drown; faithful manservant Seth will "join me in my tomb"; and all-around-nice-guy nephew James will lose that which is most dear to him, his pretty wife Deborah.
Abigail reveals she left a diamond brooch on Rufus's coffin, Bruce, needing the money, and family maid and lover Lettie recover it, though Bruce is perturbed to find it on the floor. He leaves Lettie at the crypt against her wishes, saying they need to return separately—and she is beheaded by a masked killer—seemingly Rufus returned from the grave. He leaves the head to be discovered by Bruce and others on a dinner tray. Bruce vows to stop Rufus while forcing Vivian to help him.
Bruce is maimed in the face by the masked killer—who then drags him to his death behind a horse. Vivian reveals that Lettie was murdered; Seth tells the remaining family members that Bruce's corpse is at the stable. Phillip finds Abigail's diamond pin on Bruce's body, and Abigail runs away in tears. The family lawyer sends Robert into town for the police. Phillip is named the new family patriarch and vows to do his best. Abigail says she's glad Rufus is alive so he can pay for the two murders. Seth feels he's in the clear, until Phillip reminds Seth that he violated the terms of the will and is "one of them now."
The police arrive, and Phillip informs him that the family believes Rufus was buried alive. The lawyer agrees and says that Rufus will now be totally insane. Phillip and the rest of the family give the police Rufus's description, and the police vow to find him. After Abigail has a panic attack, Phillip stays with her on her request, but then ducks out to get a drink, which he shares with one of the policemen. They get drunk, and Phillip tells him that Abigail has a morbid fear of fire. The masked figure later enters Abigail's room, chloroforms her, binds her to the bed—and sets her aflame. The family is unable to save her. The men then search with dogs, leaving Vivian and Deborah at the house.
Seth enters the crypt, apologizing for failing in his task of lighting the torches. He attempts to do so, and is murdered when the figure pulls a sword from the cane, fulfilling the will's threat he would die in the crypt. Deborah convinces Vivian that they should dress up for Phillip and Robert. Phillip and Robert wander from the search party and Robert finds Seth's corpse.
The masked killer knocks out the policeman on guard and then strangles Vivian while she's bathing. Deborah walks in, and the masked killer drags her away to the bog. Robert chases after them. The killer is revealed to be Phillip, upset with his treatment by his father and the rest of the family, the forgotten child. Phillip says he did not wish to kill her, but must now. Robert arrives and the two fight. Robert gains the upper hand, and Phillip sinks into the bog—dying as the will foretold.
Robert and Deborah leave happily. The two policemen decide to share Phillip's remaining booze, while lamenting over his ability to commit all the murders. They discover that the alcohol was merely tea, and that Phillip was not an alcoholic at all, just playing one so he could get away with the crimes.

Tags: revenge

Review:
But despite the general cheesiness of the film and the very, very familiar plot (sort of like an "old dark house" style film), the overall effort is still fun and entertaining.
Once upon a time, The Curse of the Living Corpse was a staple of local free broadcast television horror and all-night movie slots.
I say spare the unneeded "comedy relief".The story is an old-school "Ten Little Indians" drawing-room who-dun-it, with mayhem stalking about the mansion and the nearby forest, while the style of the movie is updated (for 1964) Gothic.Roy Scheider is very good in his first outing and, though the film is not so much scary, it is gruesome to similar effect and may disturb sensitive viewers.A reasonable diversion for fans of indie horror..
While this film is by no means a thriller on par with anything Mario Bava directed or anything Edmond O'Brien starred in, it still is a pretty decent watch.
The acting is overdone, the comic relief (if one can call it that) is so pitiful that I was seriously hoping the Constable (the "funny" character) was the next beheaded.THe story surrounds a New England family of status and money.
That isn't to say that it looks completely realistic, but nonetheless at the time it must've caused quite a stir.The murderer is allegedly the dead father returned from the grave to revenge his disobedient family.
I won't spill the beans but you can probably guess the twist about a half and hour into the film.Roy Scheider makes his screen debut and chews the scenery with vigor.
This is done by killing each person in the manner that they fear most: mutilation of ones' face, drowning, fire, etc."The Curse of the Living Corpse" was written, produced and directed by Del Tenney, something of a cult figure even if he only made a handful of movies.
His tribute to the classic "old dark house" genre of black & white horror films is actually reasonably competent, although it must be said that it's mostly pretty lighthearted and fun stuff.
Tenney's screenplay won't bear much scrutiny, but in a fairly lightweight lark like this, that might not matter too much to the prospective viewer.The movie is very much noteworthy for being the screen debut for future star Roy Scheider, who gets the top billed role and who is obviously having fun.
This can also boast the only other film appearance for Candace Hilligoss, known to horror buffs as the star of "Carnival of Souls".The story comes complete with comedy relief cops played by Paul Haney and George Cotton, who supply us with the blatantly goofy ending.Nothing great but it is entertaining.Seven out of 10..
Has the patriarch of a turn-of-the-century New England family actually returned from the dead to start murdering his relatives, one by one?
Believe me, by the time you get to the end of this low-voltage horror film, you won't really care anymore.
Of interest only as the film debut of Roy Scheider, as well as the second movie appearance by "Carnival of Souls" star Candace Hilligoss..
This takes place in an indeterminate time period, with a glaring lack of modern technology, which adds to the gothic feel of the film.Candace Hilligoss from "Carnival Of Souls" is our heroine, which is another intriguing aspect of the movie.
Roy Scheider (billed with the middle initial R.) and Candace Hilligoss (post-"Carnival of Souls") are the only drawing cards of this cheap, somewhat atmospheric, but slow and sloggy thriller.
Initially, it appears to--complete with hat, cape, and cane in hand!--but what follows is pretty tired, even for the bargain-basement horror genre.
Curse of the Living Corpse, The (1964) * 1/2 (out of 4) Del Tenney directed "old dark house" film has a father dying and then someone coming back from the grave to kill off his children.
Best known today for featuring Roy Scheider in his film debut..
Del Tenney brought us that abysmal dreck Horror Of Party Beach.Curse Of The Living Corpse is the other part of the double feature.Surprisingly it is an above average thriller worth checking out.
Rufus Sinclair suffered from catalepsy.He also suffered from impacted rhoids cause he was a mean old cuss.He abused his entire family.Everyone lived in fear or hatred of the old man.
Anyway old Rufus has seemingly kicked the bucket(died that is).However in his will he had certain stipulations that had to be carried out just in case he was suffering from a catatonic fit.If these conditions weren't met he would return from the grave and kill his family in the ways they feared the most.
Of course the conditions weren't met.A member of the household staff winds up being beheaded and her head is served on a breakfast tray.The eldest Sinclair is dragged to death behind a horse,one is roasted alive in her bed, one is stabbed and another is drowned.Has old Rufus come back from the grave or is it somebody else?You'll be guessing until the end.
There is a lot to like about this film.It is never boring and is well directed (surprise) and the acting for the most part is top notch.I would have liked to seen the comedy relief dragged behind a horse to their deaths.The outdoor scenes are magnificent and the moody black and white photography is top notch.As a bonus there is also an amazing amount of skin in one scene(for 1963).
I found this B&W '63 drive-in genre movie rather difficult to assign a star rating because, today, it's clearly a CULT FILM and peoples' opinions are going to vary widely.Scheider, the only real star in this one, was subsequently type-cast, (especially by "Jaws"), and here, in what was surely a very early career entry, he plays a divergent role as the family drunk and weakling.The story, which takes place in 1898, is about a rotten and rich old patriarch who suffers from catalepsy and, following the pronouncement of his death by the oldest son who is a very cheesy and unethical doctor, the family hurriedly secures his casket in a mausoleum.
Since the old bugger was always terrified of being buried alive, in his will he had assigned each and every family member, as well as a trusted servant, a little task which would allow him to escape his tomb in case he might not really have died.
So, you pretty much KNOW, right off the bat, what's going to happen to these folks.About halfway through the film, a buffoon of a police inspector is called in to investigate the deaths that have transpired so far, and he's assisted by his equally inept constable.
These two also hang around the old mansion to make sure that there are no more murders, albeit they are not very successful in this endeavor.About the only bright figures among the family spore are a nephew and his pretty wife, both of whom the old man apparently liked somewhat -- but even these two are still under the testamentary threat just like the rest of the clan.
Still, the viewing audience at least has a couple of characters who are sympathetic to root for, which generates some additional subtle level of suspense.The murder-fare includes a chopped off head, some very nasty quicksand, and various other vehicles of horrific death.
sort of a Bela Lugosi 'Plan 9' look.The biggest actual problem with this film is that the director chose to make the horror/mystery facet serious, and the police activities as a tongue-in-cheek operation -- in this movie, the two concepts fail to mesh.
Also, Scheider is pretty convincing in his role which also aids in carrying the film.Finally, this flick really doesn't drag at any point which is an unexpected, but pleasant, surprise.
(Some Spoilers) Having a morbid fear of being buried alive due to his catalepsy old man Rufus Sinclair stipulated in his will that everything should be done by both his relatives and servants after his death to make sure that he's in fact really dead.
For some strange reason the movie "Curse of the Living Corpse" which should have ended right there and then just keeps going on until it's final and not so surprising ending.
Rufus, or whoever the masked and crazed killer is, goes not only after his family members but also his maid Litty Crews, Linda Donovan, who was not only excluded from his will but didn't do anything wrong, in his premature burial, to give him just cause to murder her.Dressed up like Zorro Rufus does in everyone in a way that they fear most by playing on their phobias; like fear of drowning suffocating and and fire.
In fact Rufus' intended last victim is, like the brutally murdered Litty, totally innocent of his wrath, in not following his instructions, his nephews Robert, Dino Narizzano, girlfriend Deborah, Candace Hilligoss.By then he truth is finally revealed to who's behind all these killings and it only a matter of time for the killer to get his just deserts, in what he fears the most,at the bottom of of a nearby bog on the Sinclair Estate.Some really grizzly murder scenes, that includes a decapitation, that matched anything released back in those days, 1964, like the shower scene in "Psycho" and the string of vicious and blood splattering dismemberment's in "Blood Feast" makes the film "Curse of the living Corpes" truly terrifying to watch.
Still the acting and direction is far above average for a low budget horror movie like "Curse of the Living Corpse" and it's that what makes the film more then worth while to sit through..
"The Curse of the Living Curse" is a decent enough but rather unspectacular affair.**SPOILERS**After a funeral procession, Bruce Sinclair, (Robert Mili) Abigail Sinclair, (Helen Warren) Phillip Sinclair, (Roy Scheider) Vivian Sinclair, (Margot Hartman) Seth Lucas, (J.
There's a brutal severed head, being dragged around over the ground tied to stampeding horses, thrown and sunk into a pit of quicksand, another is set on fire while trapped in a burning bed in the film's best scene, a sword in the neck and being drowned in a bathtub, which has a pretty sleazy air to it.
In general, whenever the film has a death or is setting it up, it's the best moment, and all combine to make the film really entertaining.The Bad News: This one here is overall decent and contains a couple flaws.
The goofy-looking killer's wardrobe is something, but it's not as bad as the other ones.The Final Verdict: While it isn't that bad as a cheap Gothic film, as anything else it isn't that spectacular and comes off as rather decent.
The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964) is a mediocre horror featuring a young Roy Scheider eleven years before, "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Roy's performance was the one strong point and sole reason I sat through this otherwise unremarkable film.
But they soon start getting creatively picked off one by one.You can see the twist ending coming from a mile away.With the plot holes, overacting and bad dialogue it misses the mark and falls some where between horror and dark comedy.
"The Curse of the Living Corpse" (1963) is probably director Del Tenney's best movie (faint praise indeed, with such competition as "The Horror of Party Beach" and "I Eat Your Skin", both 1964).
For those already familiar with the film, let's examine some of the details: since Roy Scheider is climactically revealed as the disguised killer, he could not be the corpse that awakens in the tomb while the lawyer is still reading the will; the gloved hand that locks the pretty blonde maid in the crypt would seem to be Scheider's, since the corpse is also locked in, and commits the film's first murder; after this, however, there is no evidence that the cowled killer is anyone but Scheider, yet there are no explanations as to the disappearance of the corpse, who is not found in the crypt when the maid's headless body is recovered and later dumped in the bog; if the secret passages included an unknown entrance to the crypt, then Scheider could have locked in the maid, returning via the hidden passage to kill her; after his brother is dragged to a violent death back to the stable, Scheider appears in the living room looking rested and relaxed; a drinking session with the idiot constable gives him the time to murder his fearful mother, but he sneaks in through the second floor window; lastly, Seth is murdered in the crypt despite the fact that all of the men are off on the manhunt; after Seth's murder, Scheider is clearly seen leaving the posse behind to return to the house for a final reckoning with the two remaining women.
As one of the previous comments points out, the film does not bear close scrutiny (except by those of us with too much time on our hands), but could have been a classic of the genre rather than just a minor "cult" item notable chiefly as the film debut of Roy Scheider.
That old horror movie cliché, the reading of a will, kicks off this gruesome slice of grand guignol, which is surprisingly nasty at times given its vintage.
The film opens with the interment of abusive tyrant Rufus Sinclair, much to the delight of his living relatives and staff, who are keen to lay their hands on the dead man's fortune.
Suffering from a malady that could give the appearance of death, Rufus's greatest fear was to be buried alive and so his will demands that each beneficiary take steps to ensure that this does not happen; if they violate his trust, they will not only be disinherited, but will be cursed by the supposedly dead man who threatens each with a violent end in a manner according to their worst fears.
A local police inspector and his inept constable investigate...With it's remote country building, hidden passageways and even a portrait with eye holes to spy through, Del Tenney's The Curse of the Living Corpse is chock full of tried and tested 'old dark house' tropes, but keeps things reasonably interesting with its graphic killings.
The best and bloodiest comes early on, with the discovery of a sexy blonde maid's severed head on a breakfast platter, but other mean-spirited moments include the face slashing of vain lothario Bruce (Robert Milli) who is dragged to death behind a horse, the burning of Rufus's widow Abigail (Helen Waren), and the drowning of Vivian Sinclair (Margot Hartman, the director's wife) as she takes a bath (the actress providing the film with some brief nudity).By no means great, but still worth a fair-to-middling 5.5/10 for the murders, which definitely help to make this otherwise routine gothic chiller more memorableN.B. The big screen debut of Roy Scheider, who plays drunken Philip Sinclair..
Yes, this is the typical "Old Dark House" premise where the deceased head of the family vows to come back to get them if his post-mortum requests are not honored.If you were a fan of the early years of "All My Children", you will be shocked to see the elegant Hugh Franklin (Dr. Charles Tyler) as the family lawyer, joined here by Robert Milli (who played Lars Bogard in the early 80's) as the elegant but self-centered elder son who only has his own interests at heart.
Indelible images, all.Of course, over time, slasher and gore films have desensitized movie-goers to the point that scares are much harder to come by today.
I'd love to watch "Curse of the Living Corpse" again and relive the birth of my love of horror flicks!.
Soon after it is discovered that the old man's body is no longer in its resting place and the forewarned deaths begin happening.
The cast features the debut of a young Roy Schieder; other players include: Candace Hilligoss, Helen Warren, Hugh Franklin, Paul Haney and Robert Milli..
Even Roy Scheider (in his first movie) and Candace Hilligoss (from "Carnival of Souls") are lousy.
One dies because he feared of a scarred face(the killer, if it is the dead father, uses a hidden sword within the cane he always carried around to let everyone know he was drawing near), is slashed in said face, & dragged by the murderer on a horse until dead, another feared death by drowning and is submersed underwater by the killer until dead, another has a great fear of fire and the killer sets her aflame, etc, etc..
I really don't know if there's anything to recommend regarding "The Curse of the Living Corpse" for it's essentially a killer doing in relatives one by one, but the murders aren't that well staged and the characters are portrayed by the cast so badly you might be looking at your watches far before it's over.
It might be of interest for fans of Roy Scheider since this is his film debut, though if he comes off rather unlikable..he portrays the second son whose a worthless, aggressive, confrontational, alcoholic jerk often causing verbal jousts with his relatives.
And, of course, a mystery killer starts bumping folks off in assorted horrible ways.Writer/director Del Tenney offers a flavorsome gloom-doom period atmosphere, presents a colorful array of despicable characters, generates a reasonable amount of suspense, and delivers several moments of brutal violence that are quite harsh and sadistic for a film made and released in the mid-1960's.
Moreover, it's acted with scenery-gnashing theatrical aplomb by a game cast: Roy Scheider really hams it up in his film debut as pathetic drunk Philip, Robert Malli contributes a deliciously hateful turn as arrogant jerk Bruce, Margot Hartman likewise registers well as the snarky Vivian, and Candace Hilligoss makes a favorable impression as the sweet Deborah.
Atmospheric, but fairly moronic horror chiller; only notable for Roy Schieder's film debut.
(Relatives of a family gather around a creepy old house for the revealing of a will, but they end up disappointed with the outcome.
It's black and white, so it certainly has some atmospheric scenes, along with decent suspense, but idiotic characters, and a disappointing ending which is out of left field did it in.