Having been informed of the death of their son Andy (Richard Backus) during the Vietnam War, Charles and Christine Brooks (John Marley and Lynn Carlin) are surprised when the young soldier returns home, apparently still alive and kicking. Unfortunately, he is actually a zombie who needs to drink blood to stay looking fresh
I'm not really a big fan of Bob Clark's movies, but I'll give the director his dues: with the exception of Porkys and Porkys II, no two of his films are alike. Even though his first two horror movies, Deathdream and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, both featured zombies, they were as different as chalk and cheese (or day and night, since we're talking about zombie films).
Clark was also an innovator, pioneering the slasher genre with Black Christmas and, with Deathdream, making one of the earliest films to deal with the horrors of the Vietnam War: following so soon in the wake of Night of The Living Dead, it would have been easy for Clark to have cashed in on George Romero's success with a similar storyline, but instead he offers up a totally different approach to the zombie movie. While it might not be anywhere near as gripping as Romero's '68 classic, being a little too slow and drawn out to be wholly effective (unless rocking chairs happen to be your thing), it is an undeniably creepy and atmospheric tale that cleverly uses the medium of horror to illustrate the tragedy of war.
I'm not really a big fan of Bob Clark's movies, but I'll give the director his dues: with the exception of Porkys and Porkys II, no two of his films are alike. Even though his first two horror movies, Deathdream and Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things, both featured zombies, they were as different as chalk and cheese (or day and night, since we're talking about zombie films).
Clark was also an innovator, pioneering the slasher genre with Black Christmas and, with Deathdream, making one of the earliest films to deal with the horrors of the Vietnam War: following so soon in the wake of Night of The Living Dead, it would have been easy for Clark to have cashed in on George Romero's success with a similar storyline, but instead he offers up a totally different approach to the zombie movie. While it might not be anywhere near as gripping as Romero's '68 classic, being a little too slow and drawn out to be wholly effective (unless rocking chairs happen to be your thing), it is an undeniably creepy and atmospheric tale that cleverly uses the medium of horror to illustrate the tragedy of war.