Watch Curse of the Undead For Free

The Worst Film Ever

How sad is this?

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This western is one of the strangest in movie history and its weirdness is only surpassed by the infamous "Terror of Tiny Town"-- the first (and only) all-midget western! After all, this is a western about...VAMPIRES!!!When the film begins, there is the usual sort of plot--a local baddie is trying to take control of surrounding ranches. However, what you come to realize is that that potential range war is actually being orchestrated by a third party. Drake Robey is in actuality a vampire and is using his vampirey skills to create chaos. However, along the way he finds himself falling for a local hottie. The only thing standing between her is the local preacher...the only one who has learned Robey's dark secret.This is just one strange mash-up--vampires AND cowboys! Strange...but also reasonably interesting and worth seeing despite a few actors who aren't exactly talented. See this one...just to see one of the most unique films to come out of Hollywood.

Trying to resolve matters in a land-border dispute, a family's hiring of a strange gunslinger eventually causes them to realize he's the culprit behind a series of ghastly murders around town by draining women of blood and race to stop him before he completes his task.This is an overall curious and quite enjoyable effort. Basically this here turns out to be a cunning combination of Western and vampire horror, but for once the mixture is not a detriment to the other as they usually result in forsaking one part of the story for the other if the two chosen topics really have little in common with each other. Here, we get a typical Western about a ranch family involved in a border dispute with their neighbors who resorts to underhanded tactics to keep his side of the property without repercussions, involved in numerous shady deals with the authorities to keep himself in line and offers up plenty of shoot-outs, beatings and scenes of everyone wandering around on horse- back to fulfill that part of the storyline, and basically turns the script around by having the loner coming in to deal with the situation being a vampire. By still incorporating those tactics, where he resides in coffins, can't stay out in the sunlight for long periods of time and resorts to blood-drinking to carry out his orders all fall in line with known vampire lore, as well as the defense tactics used to stop his rampage that carries out on the outskirts of the story before being brought in by the land dispute where everything finally makes sense. The only real problems here is the last half, where the vampire far more often than necessary taunts the hero with long-winded speeches about humanity and faith of God, which really hurts his effectiveness as a villain since it all comes off so lame and stupid. Overall, though, it more than makes up for that one little flaw.Today's Rating/PG: Violence.

"Curse Of The Undead" was released in a very interesting period in horror history. Hammer was on the verge of creating new horror and Universal was trying to stay in the game. Since westerns were popular at this time, the powers-that-be decided to give the western a twist: make the bad guy a REAL bad guy. Meet Drake Robey (Michael Pate), a gunslinger in black. Since his arrival, there has been some mysterious deaths involving young girls. Dr. Carter(John Hoyt)tells the local minister, Dan Young (Eric Fleming) about his suspicions, including the marks on the neck. Soon, the good doctor winds up dead. Thinking that the local bully/Land Baron Buffer (Bruce Gordon)was responsible, the doctor's hot headed son Tim (Jim Murphy)tries to kill Buffer, but ends up dead. Soon, Dolores (Kathleen Crowley)is putting up signs for a gun-for-hire to finish off Buffer. Robey comes into the picture and has more than a friendly interest in Dolores, and Dan begins to suspect Robey's involvement in the deaths in town.What's interesting about this film, other than one of the first blends of westerns and vampires (It would be years before "Billy The Kid Vs. Dracula.").,is the use of a little known vampire myth. According to myth, a person can become a vampire if they've committed suicide. When Dan finds the diary of Robey's father, he finds out that Robey killed his own brother and himself out of grief, thereby cursing him into an undead existence.The ending is just as interesting: Robey challenges the preacher to a gunfight. Since vampires are impervious to bullets, you have a feeling who is going to win. In a typical twist, good triumphs over evil.Great Saturday Afternoon fare. Safe for the kids and nostalgic for adults.

A black-clad, gaunt stranger (Michael Pate) arrives in town, becomes a farmhand for a pretty rancher (Kathleen Crowley), eventually turns out to be the vampire terrorizing the countryside. This really is a clever, moody piece, another well-done 1950s Universal-International terror film, featuring good performances, creepy music, and an astonishing climax.